A court in Lhasa has given a Tibetan a suspended death sentence for taking part in riots that erupted in the remote Himalayan region two years ago, an overseas Tibetan rights group said.
The Dharamsala, India-based Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement late on Wednesday that the Lhasa Intermediate People’s Court sentenced Sonam Tsering, 23, to death with a two-year reprieve on Tuesday.
In China, such sentences are usually commuted to life in prison.
It said Sonam Tsering is the seventh Tibetan so far to be sentenced to death for the riots, including two already executed.
UPRISING
Rioting that broke out in Lhasa on March 14, 2008, left 22 people dead and led to the most sustained Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in decades.
Beijing says the demonstrations were part of a violent campaign organized by the Dalai Lama and his supporters to throw off Chinese rule in Tibet and sabotage the Beijing Olympics in August 2008.
The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet 50 years ago amid an uprising against Chinese rule, has denied the charge and says he seeks only significant autonomy for Tibet under continued Chinese rule.
SENTENCES
The Lhasa court on Tuesday also ordered jail terms of between three and seven years for five other Tibetans convicted of harboring Sonam Tsering in their homes following the riots and helping him prepare to flee abroad, it said.
He disappeared after the riots but was arrested 17 months later in October last year, it said.
Sonam Tsering was born in Ganzi, a predominantly Tibetan prefecture in Sichuan Province.
He made a pilgrimage to Lhasa in 2007, then stayed on, the center said.
The center reported that the Lhasa court heard that he rioted and led others to riot by setting cars and shops on fire and overturning police vehicles.
While standing on top of a police vehicle, he wielded a knife in the air and loudly shouted anti-government slogans, it said.
SILENCE
Lhasa government and court officials refused to confirm the ruling and said they had no knowledge of the case.
A female Tibetan staff member who answered the phone at the Communist Party Propaganda Office in Lhasa said she didn’t know about the case.
She gave her name as Sola — many Tibetans use just one name.
Two women reached by phone at the Lhasa court said they had not heard about the case.
Both refused to give their names.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS