A CHINESE court has sentenced two Tibetan Buddhist monks to prison for assisting in the death of a 16-year-old colleague who set himself on fire.
The official Xinhua News Agency says Tsering Tenzin was sentenced to 13 years and Tenchum to 10 years. Tenchum goes by just one name.
Their sentencing yesterday in Sichuan province’s Aba prefecture follows an 11-year sentence handed down to another monk accused of hiding Rigzin Phuntsog after he lit himself on fire and depriving him of medical attention for 11 hours. Phuntsog later died in a hospital.
The March 16 death of Phuntsog was seen as a protest against China’s heavy-handed controls on Tibetan Buddhism and provoked a stand-off between security forces and monks.
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