BEIJING – A high-profile Tibetan monk on death row in China, whose case has sparked a raft of international appeals, is still alive and may have his sentence reduced, prison system officials told AFP.
“This monk has not been executed. I heard they’re considering changing his penalty to life imprisonment or a fixed-term penalty,” an official surnamed Zheng at the southwest Sichuan province prison administrative bureau said.
“It’s because he behaved himself well in prison.”
Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, 52, was sentenced to death in 2002 after being convicted of carrying out a 2002 bomb attack in Sichuan province’s Chengdu capital — charges which he denied.
His sentence was suspended for two years and the suspension expired on December 2, but China, which referred to him as a “terrorist”, had refused to say what it planned to do with him.
The US Senate, the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama and international human rights groups stepped up pressure for his release in recent weeks.
Protest rallies were held in London, New Delhi and other cities.
The prison official said he did not know when a decision would be made on a possible sentence reduction.
Officials at the prison where Tenzin Deleg is being held, Chuanzhong Prison in Nanchong city in Sichuan, refused to comment.
Another man Lobsang Dhondup, a 28-year-old activist, was also convicted for the bomb attack that killed one person and injured another and other blasts in the Ganzi region of west Sichuan.
Lobsang Dhondup denied the charges but he was executed in January 2003, stirring international uproar.
Last week China rejected a resolution by the US Senate that called for the monk’s release, saying the case fell within “China’s internal affairs” and related to stamping out terrorism.
“Deleg undermined the security of society and conducted terrorist bombing activities, he would be punished in any country,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said.
In the latest appeal, hundreds of Tibetans took to the streets of New Delhi Friday in a silent protest march to demand his freedom, saying Tenzin Deleg was innocent and was denied a fair trial.
Suspended death sentences in China are often cut to life imprisonment but cases involving Tibetans are treated differently because of the political sensitivity of Tibet.
China has ruled Tibet since 1951 following an invasion of the Himalayan region, considering it an “inalienable” part of its territory.
Since then it has routinely tried to stamp out dissent, jailing and executing those suspected of separatism.
China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined.
