(Please contact Free Tibet Campaign if acting after 15 March 2004)

Lobsang Tenphen (38), who had previously been identified as Tabo, was sentenced to five years in prison in September 2003 after he was charged with disseminating information about Rinpoche and the late Lobsang Dhondup to the outside world (sources: Human Rights Watch and the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD)). The Chinese authorities were so intent on closing down information channels in Sichuan Province that they restricted access to fax machines and long distance telephone calls from February 2003 in order to prevent the world's press from writing further articles on the case and the resulting crackdown. Lobsang Tenphen and a fellow businessman called Didi were detained in February 2003 on suspicion of passing information onto foreign journalists, though Didi was later released in April 2003.

Lobsang Tenphen is currently incarcerated in Ngaba (Ch: Aba) Prison in Sichuan Province. Even if Lobsang in fact had handed on information to foreign journalists he would merely be exercising his right to freedom of expression. China is therefore in direct contravention of the right to self-expression as set out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) which China has signed though not as yet ratified.

Tashi Phuntsok was a monk in Rinpoche's monastery. He was arrested from his hospital bed in the days following Rinpoche's arrest and remains in extremely poor health (see Urgent Campaign 5 & 6 August 2003). He is serving seven years in prison after being sentenced in November 2002 on charges of colluding with Rinpoche to cause explosions. The charge of "causing explosions" was one that Rinpoche denied at his original trial in December 2002. It is feared that given the prison conditions and the prevalence of torture in Tibet's prisons combined with his already poor health, Tashi is at risk of dying in prison. Indeed, it has been alleged that all of the men detained or arrested in connection with this case have been tortured.

Elderly village leader, Tserang Dhondrup who was released last July from a five year sentence, undoubtedly handed down because of his support of Rinpoche, was so unwell that he was unable to walk unaided on his release. Pasang and Choetsom, two young monks who disapppeared since being questioned by the Chinese authorities have not been seen since.

26 January also marks the first anniversary of the execution of Lobsang Dhondup and the confirmation of a two year suspended death sentence against Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche. Please mark this anniversary by writing to the authorities listed overleaf outlining your concerns. Rinpoche has been held at a secret location with no access to lawyers, family, friends or medical personnel. At the UK and EU human rights dialogue sessions with China in October and November 2003 respectively, no new information or progress was provided by China on Rinpoche's case.

In December 2003, China may have set a new damaging precedent when it executed a Chinese citizen who had received a two year suspended death sentence on appeal only to have that reversed by China's Supreme People's Court as a result of internal political pressure. This was the first time that the Chinese Supreme People's Court had retried a criminal case after appeal since 1949. Traditionally, suspended death sentences in China and Tibet have been commuted to life imprisonment, though conditions in Tibet's prisons can be tantamount to a death sentence in themselves. Rinpoche could still be executed by April 2004.
 

Please write to those listed below with the following demands: