Seventeen people have been jailed over the most violent challenge to Chinese rule in Tibet for nearly two decades.

The sentences handed down today, ranging from three years to life, are the first since riots that began on March 10.

The official Xinhua news agency reported that the intermediate people's court of Lhasa – a Chinese court in the Tibetan capital – announced the sentences at an open session. China's state broadcaster reported that 200 people attended court.

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Sentenced to life were Soi'nam Norbu, 20, a driver with a Lhasa real estate company, and a monk, named as Basang, from Doilungdegen county in the Lhasa region, Xinhua reported the court as saying.

The court said Norbu in a mob that burnt vehicles in a square near the Johkang monastery, smashed police stations and fire engines with stones, and assaulted firemen during a riot that broke out in downtown Lhasa on March 14.

"He was convicted of arson and disrupting public services," the court said in a press release.

Xinhua said Basang led 10 people – including five monks – who destroyed a local government office, smashed or burned and then looted 11 shops, and attacked police, Xinhua said. Of the five monks said to have followed Basang, two were sentenced to 20 years and the other three to 15 years.

China has said 22 people died in the riots. Tibetan exile groups say many times that number were killed in the uprising and ensuing crackdown.

Tibet and surrounding provinces where protests broke out have been closed to foreigners since.

Xinhua reported that the sentences came a day after Tibetan authorities announced the reopening of the Sera monastery, which was closed during the unrest.

"Monks have been taught legal knowledge in recent days and the monastery has resumed normal religious activities," said Tenzin Namgyal, deputy director of the Tibet Autonomous Regional Ethnic and Religious Affairs Committee. He said other closed monasteries would reopen soon.

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