The Intermediate People’s Court in Lhasa on Tuesday handed down terms of three years to life, the first sentences since the March 14 violence and a Chinese crackdown that led to protests and disruption of the global Olympic torch relay.

“We are concerned,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters when asked about the sentences. “We don’t think that anyone should break the law. But we also believe in freedom of expression and assembly.”

China has blamed Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his government-in-exile for plotting the riots, in which at least 18 “innocent civilians,” according to Beijing, were killed by Tibetan mobs in the regional capital, Lhasa.

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