Monk's death sentence cummuted to life in prison

A Chinese court today spared the life of a Tibetan monk convicted of 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 today.

The official Xinhua News Agency said a court in the south-western 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.

Chinese authorities say the monk and Lobsang Dhondup confessed to the bombings. Lobsang Dhondup was executed in January 2003.

The Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader, and foreign activists called on China to spare his life.

In a report issued last April, UN experts cited ”serious procedural flaws” in the proceedings against him, including the violation of rights to a public trial, to choose his own lawyer and to examine evidence presented against him in court.

He also was held in incommunicado detention and mistreated during the pre-trial period, they said.

Communist troops marched into Tibet in 1950. Beijing says it has been part of China for centuries and has spent decades trying to suppress pro-independence sentiment.

The Dalai Lama has urged Tibetans to avoid violence, but militants opposed to Chinese rule have carried out several bomb attacks in the Himalayan region since the mid-1990s.