China jails Tibetan monk over disputed arms case

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Tibetan Buddhist monk has been jailed for eight and a half years by a Chinese court on arms and property charges, his former lawyers said on Thursday, in one of the most high-profile convictions following unrest last year.

Phurbu Tsering is a "living Buddha" from Ganzi, a part of southwest China's Sichuan province dominated by ethnic Tibetans. Protests and rioting against Chinese presence in the region broke out in Ganzi in March last year after deadly unrest swept Lhasa, the regional capital of Tibet, which is next to Sichuan.

A "living Buddha" is a Tibetan monk who is seen by believers as an exemplary holy figure.

Phurbu Tsering, also known as Buramna Rinpoche, was detained in May after police said they found a gun and ammunition at his home. He fought the charges when tried in April.

After months of delay, the court last week sentenced him on weapon possession charges, as well as a separate property charge related to an old-age home that Phurbu Tsering ran, his two former lawyers, Li Fangping and Jiang Tianyong, told Reuters.

They said they were told of the sentence by Phurbu Tsering's family.

"He believes he is fully innocent, but may not appeal against the conviction," said Li, who is based in Beijing. "Given the way the judiciary works here, he doesn't see the point in appealing."

The conviction was a reminder of the continuing tensions over Tibet, which the exiled Dalai Lama and other critics say is being stifled by China's religious and political controls.

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama and other critics of its policies in Tibetan areas of separatism, and says they ignore the huge improvements in living standards it has brought to the mountainous region.

Li and Jiang are outspoken human rights advocates who represented Phurbu Tsering at a hearing in April. They said that the court later told them they could not represent him and assigned a local lawyer to replace them.

China has imposed a heavy troop presence on Tibetan areas, and also bans foreign reporters from freely travelling there.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim and Alex Richardson)