The execution on January 26 of Lobsang Dondrub, a Tibetan convicted of crimes relating to several bombing incidents in China in 2001 and 2002, and the parallel conviction of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a Tibetan religious leader who was also sentenced to death for the same crimes attributed to Lobsang Dondrub, has been met in the United States and elsewhere outside of China with outrage and strong public condemnation.
Earlier this week, the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) released a staff paper examining the two cases and analyzing the faulty legal process that resulted in Lobsang Dondrub’s quick execution. The paper concludes that Lobsang Dondrub’s sentence was carried out in a manner which may have violated Chinese laws. Moreover, PRC authorities failed to fulfill a commitment made to high-level U.S. government officials that the Supreme People’s Court would review the death sentences in a “lengthy” process.
The CECC staff paper, entitled “The Execution of Lobsang Dondrub and the Case Against Tenzin Deleg: The Law, The Courts, and The Debate on Legality,” is available on the CECC website in both PDF and HTML formats, at the following http://www.cecc.gov/pages/news/lobsang.php.
John Foarde
Staff Director
Congressional-Executive Commission on China
