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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.
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