Chinese authorities have sentenced three Tibetan monks on homicide charges related to the self-immolation protest of another monk. AFP reports:
A court condemned fellow monks Tsering Tenzin and Tenchum to 13 and 10 years in prison, respectively, for “intentional homicide” for having “plotted, instigated and assisted” in the death, the state-run Xinhua news agency said.
The verdicts came one day after a lama identified as Drongdru was sentenced to 11 years for the same offence. Xinhua said he hid the injured monk for 11 hours and ensured emergency treatment did not reach him.
Xinhua’s account contradicts that of rights activists who have asserted that monks at the monastery rescued Phuntsog from the police, who beat the monk after extinguishing the flames.
Xinhua reported the new verdicts just as the United States criticized the first sentence. The State Department questioned whether China had followed either international or its own legal standards in the case.
