Valenzuela, who presided over the first court martial of Calama, was forced to resign on October 2, 1973, as he was considered too lenient.

University officials declined to comment, but teachers say that the current Party secretary is considered too lenient to the students.

Potter has been criticised in the media for sentences which were considered excessively lenient.

Those sentences were considered fairly lenient, and some in upcoming trials are expected to be much stiffer.

But Julio Strassera, who unsuccessfully appealed the sentences, which he considered too lenient, today defends the court's actions.

Benny Jauvin was convicted of manslaughter and was given a net sentence of six years, a jail term some observers considered too lenient.

By China's standards, colonial Hong Kong's code of punishment was considered laughably loose and lenient.

He was heavily criticised for this in Paris, where the terms were considered far too lenient.

Mr. Wang was considered too lenient on "bourgeois liberalism," an official code word for corrupt Western values.

But Lord Lane said there were factors making the case wholly exceptional, and in all the circumstances the sentence could not be considered unduly lenient.