Chinese courts jailed 12 more rioters for their roles in unrest in Tibet, state media said, weeks before the Beijing Olympics and after China deported a Tibetan British woman it accused of anti-government activism.
China's official Xinhua news agency said that that to date, China has convicted 42 people for their role in the riots while another 116 await trial.
Some 953 people were detained by police, Xinhua said, quoting Palma Trily, the vice-chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region government.
He did not give details on the length of the latest 12 sentences handed down on June 19 and 20, but said neither these rioters nor 30 people convicted earlier had received death sentences.
China has made security a top priority for the Beijing Olympics, which begin on 8 August, and has deployed a 100,000-strong anti-terrorism force and surface-to-air-missiles in major Olympics venues.
Human Rights groups say China is using Olympic security as an excuse to crack down on internal dissent, particularly in Xinjiang and in Tibet, where riots on 14 March sparked anti-Chinese protests around the world.
On Thursday, China defended its decision this week to deport an ethnic Tibetan woman who is a British citizen, saying she was a key member of the pro-independence Tibetan Youth Congress and had engaged in unspecified illegal activities in the country.
Dechen Pemba, 30, was escorted onto a plane to London after being interrogated by Chinese security officials in Beijing on Tuesday. She told Reuters by telephone from London that she was innocent and the deportation was made by a paranoid government.
China blames Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his supporters of instigating the March riots in Lhasa, which later spilled over into the rest of Tibet and neighbouring Chinese provinces with Tibetan populations.
The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, has denied the allegations.
Exiled Tibetans and others dogged the international leg of the Olympic torch relay in ensuing weeks, while some Chinese living or studying abroad staged nationalistic counter-protests.
