Tibetan monk dies in Chinese prison

Beijing

A Tibetan monk has died in a Chinese prison, a rights group and Tibet's exiled government said today, 13 years into a sentence for terrorism and separatism observers said was deeply flawed.

Relatives of Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, 65, were informed of his death by police in the southwestern city of Chengdu on Sunday, Students for a Free Tibet (SFT) said in a statement.

In a separate statement, Tibet's government-in-exile in India cited his cousin, Geshe Nyima, saying the cause of death remained unclear, and added that relatives were outside the prison Monday morning "urging the authorities to return Rinpoche's body but to no avail".

Meanwhile, Tibetans were gathering outside government offices in Delek's home county of Yajiang in Sichuan province, according to London-based group Free Tibet. A large amount of security forces have been deployed in response, the organisation said, with government offices working through the night on Sunday.

He was convicted in 2002 of separatism and being involved in a bombing in a public square and was initially condemned to death. The sentence was later commuted to life in prison and then to 20 years.

Delek's assistant, Lobsang Dhondup, was convicted around the same time and was executed in 2003. The two men's cases drew condemnation from the European Union and rights groups at the time.