Lhasa Court Commutes Life Sentence for Children's Home Director to 19 Years

The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court commuted a life sentence imposed on Bangri Chogtrul Rinpoche, a Tibetan reincarnated lama, to 19 years of fixed-term imprisonment on July 31, 2003, according to a February 28 statement by the Dui Hua Foundation. Bangri Chogtrul subsequently also received a further one-year sentence reduction on November 17, 2005. Bangri Chogtrul, who is also known as Bangri Tsamtrul Rinpoche and as Jigme Tenzin Nyima (Jinmei Danzeng Nima), lived as a householder and directed a Lhasa children's home until security officials detained him in August 1999 after another Tibetan attempted to blow himself up in a Lhasa plaza.

The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court initially sentenced Bangri Chogtrul in a closed court proceeding on September 26, 2000, for "attempting to split the country," a crime under Article 103(1) of the Criminal Law, according to the official sentencing document. (For additional information, see Section VI - Tibet, Tibetan Culture and Human Rights, of the CECC 2005 Annual Report). Article 80 of the Criminal Law stipulates that a sentence to fixed-term imprisonment after commutation begins on the day the court orders the commutation. Bangri Chogtrul's sentence, now 18 years, will expire on July 30, 2021.

Bangri Chogtrul's sentencing document lists evidence against him that includes meeting the Dalai Lama in India, accepting a donation for the home from a foundation in India, and a business relationship with Tashi Tsering, a Tibetan contractor who lowered a Chinese flag in Potala Plaza on August 26, 1999, and unsuccessfully tried to detonate an explosive device. Bangri Chogtrul acknowledged meeting the Dalai Lama, accepting the contribution, and knowing the contractor, but he denied the charges against him and rejected the court's portrayal of events. The Gyatso Home directors had an 80,000 yuan contract with Tashi Tsering to construct additional housing for the children's home, an arrangement which the court portrayed as a plot by the home's directors to help Tashi Tsering carry out his plan, according to a September 12, 2005 report by the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT). The sentencing document does not list any specific evidence that links Bangri Chogtrul's activities or the building contract directly to Tashi Tsering's attempted bombing, but instead treats the prosecution's conjectured links as evidence.

Beginning in the mid-1990s, Bangri Chogtrul co-directed the Gyatso Children's Home with Nyima Choedron, his wife, a former nun who learned English. The Lhasa Intermediate People's Court sentenced her to ten years for attempted splittism during the same proceedings as Bangri Chogtrul. The court reduced her sentence twice—by 18 months in 2002 and one year in 2004—according to a February 2005 report by the Tibet Information Network. Her sentence will expire on February 26, 2007, according to the Dui Hua statement, which adds that Dui Hua believes she is a "good candidate for commutation of her remaining sentence."

Based on reports by NGOs, including ICT (September 2005 and March 8, 2006) and the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (December 2004), Lhasa security officials detained or imprisoned as many as 15 persons in the aftermath of Tashi Tsering's attempted suicide bombing. Reports on this complex case have sometimes proved contradictory or inaccurate, and some details remain uncertain. More information about the Tibetans detained or imprisoned in connection with the Gyatso Home, including Bangri Chogtrul and Nyima Choedron, is available in the CECC Political Prisoner Database (PPD).