22. Oct 2009
Four Tibetans executed in Lhasa over spring 2008 protests
(TCHRD) The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) reports that Lobsang Gyaltsen, Loyak, Penkyi and an unnamed Tibetan were executed under the supervision of the Lhasa Municipality Intermediate People's Court for their alleged involvement protests in Lhasa in 2008. No information about their execution was reported anywhere in Chinese state media. There is also no information available on whether the defendants appealed against their sentences to the Supreme People's Court after the Lhasa court sentenced Lobsang Gyaltsen and Loyak to death on 08 April 2009. Also on 08 April, the court sentenced two people to suspended death penalties (Tenzin Phuntsok and Kangtsuk) and another (Dawa Sangpo) to life imprisonment on charges of arson causing death. On 21 April 2009 the same court, sentenced three Tibetans to suspended death, life and ten years' imprisonment respectively for starting fires that allegedly killed six people in Lhasa last year.