Write to the Foreign Secretary |
Condemn suspended death sentences
Write to the British Foreign Secretary, condemning the executions of two Tibetans in
The new UK Foreign Secretary is William Hague. Please write to the Foreign Secretary:
The Rt Hon William Hague MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA
You can also email him: haguew@parliament.uk
You can use the sample letter below:
Dear Foreign Secretary,
I am writing to you to urge you to intervene with your Chinese counterpart in the cases of five Tibetans who are at risk of execution.
The five Tibetans are: Penkyi, a Tibetan woman aged 21 from Sakya
county, Tenzin Phuntsog, Kangtsuk, Pema Yeshi and Sonam Tsering.
Penkyi, Phuntsog and Kangtsuk were given suspended
death sentences after being found guilty by a court in Lhasa in April of
arson attacks on buildings in Lhasa in March 2008 that led to the
confirmed deaths of Chinese citizens. Sonam Tsering was sentenced for allegedly inciting riots during the Lhasa protests. Pema Yeshi was sentenced in November 2009 for allegedly distributing leaflets calling for Tibetan independepence and for setting a government building on fire in Kandze Autonomous Prefecture.
No independent observers or journalists were present at the trials in
April 2009 and very little information on the cases has been made available
by the Chinese authorities. But a report on the sentencing issued by the
official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, quoted a court spokesperson
stating that Tenzin Phuntsog had been convicted on the basis of a
confession. This immediately gives cause for concern that the evidence
used against all the Tibetans sentenced to death was unsound: as
recently as November 2008 the UN Committee Against Torture stated its
deep concern that in China and Tibet there is "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..."
In October sources inside Tibet reported that Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak
had been executed. The executions were not reported in the official
Chinese press and were not conducted in public. They were only confirmed
by the Chinese authorities (through the Chinese Embassy in London and at
a press briefing in Beijing) after Free Tibet and other advocacy groups
focused accountability on the Chinese authorities by reporting the
executions to the international media, ensuring coverage.
Pema Yeshi’s sentence was not announced in official press reports, and according to the sources that reported the sentencing, Pema Yeshi’s family was only informed of the sentence after the trial took place, a violation of Chinese Criminal Procedure Law. The sources also reported that Pema Yeshi was held at an undisclosed location for five months after being detained in March 2009.
In view of the lack of transparency, together with the secrecy with which the two executions in October were carried out, serious concerns remain regarding the
welfare of the five Tibetans who were given suspended death sentences.
I am therefore urging you to:
* Write to your Chinese counterpart, requesting that he clarifies the legal status, welfare and whereabouts of: Penkyi from Sakya
county, Tenzin Phuntsog, Kangtsuk, Pema Yeshi and Sonam Tsering.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours sincerely,
Name:
| Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak were executed in Lhasa on 20 October 2009, after receiving death sentences in April 2009. |  21-year-old Penkyi is one of three Tibetans who received suspended death sentences around the same time as Lobsang and Loyak and who are at severe risk. |
 There are too many Tibetan political prisoners to list them all, but here you will find profiles on some of those currently serving sentences in Tibet today. |  There are currently more than 1,000 Tibetans missing after the March 2008 protests. Their whereabouts unknown, there are serious concerns for their wellbeing. |
