Supporters of the banned spiritual movement Falun Gong have reacted angrily to the sentencing in China of four people linked to a mass suicide bid earlier this year.
Tom O'Byrne reports authorities have used the rare self-immolation incident in Beijing earlier this year to justify its harsh crackdown against the group.
The official Xinhua news agency announced the four people had aided and abetted the group of five Falun Gong practitioners who tried to commit suicide in Tiananmen Square in January. Two succeeded; the others survived but remain badly injured. The court handed down sentences ranging from seven years to life in jail for the four accomplices. The government then allowed the suicides to be broadcast unedited on Chinese television as a way of justifying its on-going crackdown against the group. Supporters outside China, though, maintain that thousands of practitioners are being mal-treated in labour camps, and over 2-hundred have died in custody. They continue to press for international support in their battle to overturn a ban on their activities in China. Tom O'Byrne Beijing.