LHASA: A court yesterday sentenced two people to death after finding them guilty of starting fatal fires during the Lhasa riots in March last year.

Two others were given death sentences with a two-year reprieve - typically commuted to life - and another sentenced to life, also on arson charges, the spokesman for the Lhasa intermediate people's court said.

The five were tried in three separate cases, in which seven civilians were killed and five shops torched, according to the court verdicts.