Tibetan Monk Spared Life by Chinese Court

January 26, 2005

Source: The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4756633,00.html

On January 26, 2005 The Guardian reported, "A Chinese court on Wednesday spared the life of a Tibetan monk convicted in a series of fatal bombings, commuting his death sentence to life in prison, the government said, in a case that prompted an international outcry. Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, 54, was convicted in December 2002 and given a death sentence with a two-year reprieve, which expired Wednesday. The official Xinhua News Agency said a court in the southwestern province of Sichuan commuted the sentence because he obeyed unspecified legal conditions during the reprieve. The monk and his 28-year-old aide, Lobsang Dhondup, were convicted in 2003 of seeking independence for Tibet. They were charged in connection with a series of bombings in 2001-02 that killed one person in Sichuan, which abuts Tibet and has a large ethnic Tibetan population. The monk's conviction prompted protests by activists who said he was targeted because of his status as a community leader. A group of United Nations human rights experts said he received an unfair trial and was mistreated in detention."