Popular Tibetan Lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche Dies in Chinese Prison

Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, popular Tibetan monk serving a life term in prison in China, died after 13 years in captivity.

File image of a member of the Tibetan Youth Congress demanding the release of Tibetan Buddhist monk Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, jailed in China over a spate of bombings. (Photo: Reuters)

Tibetan lama Tenzin Delek Rinpoche has died in prison 13 years into serving a sentence for what human rights groups say were false charges that he was involved in a bombing in a public park. He was 65.

Relatives were informed of the death Sunday, New York-based Students for a Free Tibet said Monday. Police in Sichuan province in southwestern China confirmed the death but declined to give further details.

Tenzin Delek was arrested in 2002 in relation to an April 3, 2002, blast in Chengdu city that injured three people. He was sentenced to death on charges of terror and incitement of separatism a few months later. His death sentence was commuted to life in prison in 2005, and later to 20 years’ imprisonment. He continued to maintain his innocence.