Rights Groups condemn arbitrary trials for Tibetan detainees
Wednesday, 30 April 2008, 5:50 p.m.
Dharamshala: Human Rights
groups have condemned Lhasa’s Intermediate People’s Court’s arbitrary
decision for sentencing 30 Tibetans for their alleged involvement in
the series of peaceful protests in Tibet last month.
Thirty Tibetans were sentenced to imprisonment ranging from three
years to life imprisonment, Chinese state media Xinhua reported on 29
April.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan
Administration have repeated appeals for an impartial investigation by
independent international body to ascertain the causes of protests in
Tibet.
The Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that the trials of 30
Tibetans’ involvement in the recent protests inside Tibet were not open
and public, as claimed by the Chinese government, and did not meet
minimum international standards of due process.
The HRW condemned the trials, saying they were held behind
closed doors and the defendants were denied lawyers. “The hearings are
no more than a rubber stamp,” Sophie Richardson, the group’s advocacy
director in Asia, said in a statement today. “This isn’t fair and
transparent justice. It is political punishment masquerading as a legal
process.”
It further said the political character of these first
convictions raised serious concerns about future trials. A large number
of trials of Tibetans accused of involvement in protests across Tibetan
areas are expected to be held in the coming months.
The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) said
in the absence of any independent media and monitoring agencies in
Tibet, the use of judicial proceedings are an official reprisal instead
of protection of fundamental human rights of the Tibetans.
TCHRD expressed its concern at the sub-standard legal
proceedings in Tibet and fears the worst scenarios for the Tibetan
protesters last month who exercised their fundamental human rights of
freedom of opinion and expression.