China condemned for slapping unfair verdict on Tibetan protesters Friday, 2 May 2008, 5:12 p.m.
Dharamshala: The Tibetan Solidarity Committee (TSC) on Thursday strongly condemned the Lhasa Intermediate People’s court’s recent verdict on sentencing 30 Tibetans from three to life-term in jail, fearing it could also include execution of some Tibetans in the days to come.
China’s state media Xinhua reported the slapping of harsh prison terms on Tibetans for disrupting public services, arson, looting, destroying local government offices and attacking police, after conducting a public trial in Lhasa, on 30 April.
“The manner in which the recent trials were held forewarns of a more severe and unfair punishment to befall on many of the Tibetans currently in custody, to the point of even awarding death penalty,” TSC said in a press release.
The committee has urged all the governments of free world, the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and Legal organizations around the world to immediately come forward in rescue of Tibetan people from the unjust and unfair judicial process.
Terming the verdict as unjustified, the committee said Tibetan’s long-standing unbearable repression compelled them to a spontaneous and peaceful protest rather than killing and looting as allegedly pronounced by the court.
Human Rights Watch and the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy have strongly denounced the trials, saying, “they were held behind closed doors and the defendants were denied lawyers and lack minimum international standards.
Last month, a group of Chinese lawyers based in Mainland China have expressed their willingness to offer their legal assistance to Tibetan arbitrarily arrested and imprisoned by Chinese authorities following the peaceful protests in Tibet. The Chinese have paid no heed to these requests.
The lawyers, while expressing their serious concern for the well being of the arrested Tibetans, have called upon the concerned Chinese authorities to “obey the constitution, following the legal procedures in dealing with the arrested Tibetans….. no torture throughout interrogation and respect the independence of legal system”.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration have rejected the Chinese allegations as baseless, and repeatedly appealed to open up Tibet for a thorough investigation by an independent body to ascertain the causes of the protests.
Following is the full text of the Tibetan Solidarity Committee’s press release
We Disprove Chinese Government’s Recent Trial
On 29 April China’s official mouthpiece Xinhua reported two different reports on court’s verdict of some Tibetans by the so-called People’s Intermediate Court in Lhasa. First report entailed 17 Tibetans have been tried. On 30 April, it again reported sentencing of 30 Tibetans by the same court.
The report stated a Tibetan named Pasang and 29 others have been found guilty of disrupting public services, arson, looting, and destroying local government offices and attacking police. They have been sentenced harshly and disproportionately for their crimes ranging from three years to life imprisonment. In fact, the recent Tibetan protest underscores Chinese government’s consistent disregard of Tibetan’s fundamental rights to freedom of expression, religious freedom, and right to self-determination. As a result, Tibetan’s long-standing unbearable repression compelled them to a spontaneous and peaceful protest rather than killing and looting as allegedly pronounced by the court. The peaceful Tibetan demonstrators punishments are completely unjustified.
While announcing the punishment, the relevant court linked it to the 14 March incident of Lhasa, where as in actual terms, there were some Tibetans who have been picked up from Phenpo Lhundup and Toelung Dechen for their involvement in peaceful protests in these places and had no affiliation with the incidents in Lhasa.
The two reports are contradictory where one said there were 200 witnesses to the trail and the other stated 300. It is very obvious from the photograph of the so-called open trail that it is stage-managed. The court gave its verdicts to 30 Tibetans in a day without any standard procedure of defending oneself.
Interestingly, prior to any investigation into the peaceful protest by the authorities, the Chinese government had already blamed “The Dalai Clique for masterminding, plotting, and instigating the riots” and had ordered “all cadres to recognize the nature of the incident and to have a unified thought”.
Particularly, on 15 March, the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Secretary Zhang Qingli, during a closed-door meeting between CCP members and top officials, demanded, “We must eliminate the frenetic activities of the enemy by swiftly arresting and bringing to justice those terrorists and separatist forces involved in plotting and organizing of recent incidents of beating, smashing, looting and burning in Lhasa. We must investigate and strike hard by handing out immediate punishments without any mercy”. Accordingly, the proceeding went so swiftly that punishments were announced within a month and half.
The proceedings of the trials were devoid of transparency and lacked benefit of a meaningful defense, denying even those Chinese lawyers willing to assist the arrested Tibetans to fight their cases. The speeded-up trial had little time for a proper hearing and the punishment meted out is far beyond the normal standards. The very fact that the nature of crime was already decided prior to any investigation into the issue makes it simply clear that no standard procedures have been followed for a just and fair trial. We, the Tibetan people disprove of this unlawful trial process and regard the punishment meted out as unfair and unjust.
The above trial process also contravenes China’s own law on judiciary system. The Article 32 of Chapter IV, Page 16 of Criminal Procedure Law of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) states, “In addition to exercising the right to defend himself, a criminal suspect or a defendant may entrust one or two persons as his defenders”. However, the 30 Tibetan convicted of crimes thereof, were never provided any opportunity to freely choose/entrust a defense lawyer.
Similarly, the same Law stipulates in its Article 12 of Chapter I, page 8 that “No person shall be found guilty without being judged as such by a People’s Court according to law” and in Article 163 of Chapter II, page 75, it further states that, ” In all cases, judgments shall be pronounced publicly”. But those Tibetan participating in peaceful protests had their fate already pronounced even before the trial. Except for the pronouncement of the court amidst some selective audience made up of government officials and cadres, no standard procedures have been followed or if ever followed, have been completely non-transparent.
Therefore, we demand the Chinese government to re-evaluate the cases and to uphold the principles of freedom and justice during retrial of the convicted Tibetans. At the same time, we also earnestly appeal to facilitate similar free and fair legal proceedings to all those Tibetans presently languishing in prison, by providing them the right to defense.
The above verdict comes at the heels of Chinese Government’s recently announced desire to engage in dialogue with the Representatives of His Holiness the Dalai Lama; and therefore, the move (punishment of the Tibetans) has raised questions in minds of international community as to how sincere is PRC in its call for talks.
The manner in which the recent trials were held forewarns of a more severe and unfair punishment to befall on many of the Tibetans currently in custody, to the point of even awarding death penalty. Therefore, we urge the all the Governments of free world, the United Nations Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and Legal organizations around the world to immediately come forward in rescue of Tibetan people from the unjust and unfair judicial process, which we fear may also include “execution” of some Tibetans in the days to come.