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Appendix V: Annoucement of Appeal Court Decision

Editor’s note: The following document appears to be an official statement circulated locally after the Sichuan Higher People’s Court upheld the lower court’s ruling in the cases of Tenzin Delek and Lobsang Dondrup. Although Human Rights Watch is unable to authenticate it as an official document, it reads as if it were an announcement made within Party cadre circles in Kangding, the capital of the Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture.


On January 26, 2003, the Sichuan Province Higher People’s Court made a collective decision regarding the criminals A’an Zhaxi and Lorang Dengzhu who committed a series of explosions and endangered the security of the country. After the meeting, the Ganzi Prefecture Intermediate People’s Court in conformity with the Sichuan Province Higher People’s Court executed the order of death — immediately escorting criminal Lorang Dengzhu through the execution ground and carrying out the death penalty.

Criminal A’an Zhaxi, male, born 9/22/52,200 Tibetan, From Sichuan Province, Litang County;

Criminal Lorang Dengzhu, male, born 6/14/74, Tibetan, from Sichuan Province, Yajiang County.

The conspiracy of the two criminals involved Lorang Dengzhu traveling successively on August 1, 2001, October 5, 2001, February 8, 2001, and April 2, 2002 to Kangding, Litang, and Chengdu’s Tianfu Square, to carry out explosions and distribute flyers that had content inciting separation of the state, creating a social atmosphere and impression of terror, causing one person to be seriously injured, one person to be lightly injured, and thirteen people to have very slight injuries, and causing total direct economic losses of over 830,000 renminbi (RMB) [approximately U.S.$137,500]. On October 3, 2001, Lorang Dengzhu also set off an explosion at the traffic police office of the Ganzi Prefecture Police Detachment Office building causing such serious consequences that one person died and direct economic losses totaled over 290,000 RMB [approximately U.S.$36,250]. The combined behaviors constitute the crime of explosion and the crime of inciting separation of the state.

Lorang Dengzhu also disobeyed regulations on gun administration by illegally carrying a gun and ammunition. This constitutes the crime of illegally carrying a gun and ammunition. These two criminals combined broke many laws, and each received a cumulative punishment for his many crimes. As to the crimes collectively committed, A’an Zhaxi came up with the idea, provided the explosives, decided upon the locations, drafted or ordered others to draft the leaflets, contents [of which] incited the division of the state. He instigated and inspired Lorang Dengzhu to transcribe them, distributed leaflets, and moreover supplied the capital to commit the crimes. As to planning, organizing, and commanding, Lorang Dengzhu positively participated in the conspiracy, collectively committed the crimes, and moreover individually carried out the attack against the traffic police office of the Ganzi Prefecture Police Detachment Office building, directly causing one person to die, an extraordinarily serious situation.

The two, in the process of collectively carrying out the crimes, shared the work and cooperated and coordinated with each other, causing important consequences. The Ganzi Prefecture Intermediate People’s Court on December 2, 2002 ordered in the first instance a public declaration of sentence. For the multiple crimes of causing explosions, inciting the separation of the state, illegally carrying weapons and ammunition, these multiple crimes, Lorang Dengzhu was sentenced to death and stripped of his political rights for life; for the multiple crimes of causing explosions and inciting the division of the state, A’an Zhaxi was sentenced to death with a two-year suspension of sentence, and stripped of his political rights for life. A’an Zhaxi was not satisfied with this result and appealed. Sichuan Province Higher People’s Court in the second instance heard the case and decided that the original sentence held to the facts and followed the law correctly, that the measurement of the penalty was appropriate, and the process of the verdict was legal. They legally ruled to reject his appeal, and preserve the original ruling.



200 Other sources give 1950 as Tenzin Delek’s year of birth.


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February 2004