Act now to stop the executions!

On 8 April 2009 two Tibetans were sentenced to death for their alleged role in starting fatal fires in Lhasa in March last year during mass protests.

Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak could be executed within weeks. Chinese authorities have released no further information about the cases since the convictions so we are unable to report on the legal processes since April or on the wellbeing of the two men.

See below for actions to help prevent these executions.

Free Tibet condemns these death sentences and believes that the evidence used in the trials is questionable, that proper legal proceedures were not observed and that the convictions are therefore unsafe. Free Tibet opposes the death penalty in all circumstances.

These first death sentences to be passed on Tibetans for their alleged roles in the 2008 spring protests were announced in an article in Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency. The death penalties relate to three separate fatal arson cases in which five Tibetans were found guilty. Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak have been sentenced to death, and Tenzin Phuntsog and Gangtsu were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve. A fifth Tibetan, Dawa Sangpo was sentenced to life imprisonment.

The five Tibetans had ten days from 8 April to appeal against their sentences. After ten days the Lhasa Court should have decided whether to uphold the sentences. If the sentences were upheld they would be referred to the Supreme People’s Court in Beijing which should have made a final ruling within five to seven weeks. The Chinese authorities have released no information as to whether these legal processes were followed, nor any other subsequent details of the cases.

On 21 April 2009, news emerged that Penkyi, of Sakya county, has also received a suspended death sentence for allegedly starting fires that resulted in a fatality in Lhasa in 2008. Another Tibetan woman, also named Penkyi, was sentenced to life imprisonment while Chime Lhamo, a 22-year-old woman, was sentenced to ten years. It is unknown when these sentences were delivered and no other details were given.

Free Tibet believes that these sentences create a disturbing precedent, and that further death sentences may well be handed out soon to Tibetans who took part in protests in Tibet last year.

Unfair trials

Evidence collected by Free Tibet and other human rights groups points to the routine absence of legal due process in cases regarding other Tibetan detainees since March last year. Those detained are often denied access to legal representation and held at undisclosed locations where they are at increased risk of torture;  there is evidence that many have been tortured. Free Tibet is also extremely concerned regarding the evidence used against the five who were convicted in April. At least one of these individuals reportedly confessed his own guilt while in detention, a confession that was later used as evidence in his trial. The use of confessions as evidence to convict is considered unsafe in international norms as it provides an incentive for false confessions to be extracted using torture. In November 2008, the UN Committee against Torture, in its report on China, stated its deep concern “…of routine and widespread use of torture… especially to extract confessions or information to be used in criminal proceedings” and “Continued reliance on confessions as a common form of evidence for prosecution”.
(Paragraph 11. CAT/C/CHN/CO/4 21 November 2008)