China jails Tibetan monks convicted in bomb blast

[Coventina]

Source: Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — Eight Buddhist monks convicted of bombing a government building in Tibet during an anti-government uprising in March have been sentenced to prison, two of them for life, a judge said Tuesday.

The monks were sentenced at the People's Court in Chamdo, a Tibetan prefecture, after being convicted of setting off a bomb at the building in Gyanbe township, said Gang Weilai, the judge who presided over the case. Gyanbe is about 855 miles (1,375 kilometers) east of Lhasa, Tibet's capital, where peaceful protests against Chinese rule erupted into violence in March.

Gyurmey Dhondup and Kalsang Tsering were sentenced to life in prison while the others received sentences of between five and 15 years, Gang said in a telephone interview. He said the monks did not appeal their sentences.

"We were first going to charge them with the crime of separating the nation, but eventually the charge was changed to the crime of causing an explosion," Gang said, declining to explain the decision. Gang referred all questions to the Supreme Court, the country's highest court. Telephones were not answered at the court Tuesday afternoon.



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