TWO men have been sentenced to death in China for the 2013 killing of the co-founder of the first Buddhist monastery in the UK, despite an appeal from the leading Tibetan lama's brother for clemency.
Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche, who lived in Scotland and founded the Kagyu Samye Ling monastery in Eskdalemuir, Dumfries and Galloway was among the first spiritual leaders to teach Tibetan Buddhism to followers in the West.
He was stabbed to death, along with his nephew and a driver, in the Chinese city of Chengdu over what police had said at the time was a financial dispute.
Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche
State-run Chinese News Service said a third man was sentenced to three years in jail for his part in the killing.
Two years ago, Carlo Luyckx deputy mayor of Brussels and president of Belgium's Buddhist Union, who had known the lama for 42 years had said that Akong Rinpoche's brother, who is the abbot of Kagyu Samye Ling, and the Karmapa – the head of the Kagyu school of Buddhism to which the victims belonged – had both expressed their wish that the death penalty would not be imposed on the defendants if they are convicted.
One of those sentenced was Thubten Kunsal, who had been an artist at the Scottish monastery between 2002 and 2011, the Chengdu intermediate court said in a statement carried by the official Xinhua news agency on Sunday.
He and another man, Tsering Paljor, were given the death sentence for stabbing the three men to death in a confrontation at the monk's Chengdu home over 2.7 million yuan ($410,000) in wages that Thubten Kunsal said he was owed.
The third man was given prison for hiding the knives used in the killings.
It is understood Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche had faced demands for payment owed for sculpting work which had been done at the Scottish monestary immediately before the murder.
Kagyu Samye Ling monastery
The verdict, posted by the court on social media, said the murders were 'brutal' and that the suspects would be 'treated severely in accordance with the law'.
Questions surrounding the murders had underscored the distrust that many Tibetans have of the Chinese government, which has ruled Tibet with an iron first since "peacefully liberating" it in 1950.
Analysts have said that among exiled Tibetans, there was a widespread assumption that there must have been a political plot behind the crime, though there was no evidence for that.
Thubten Kunsal and Tsering Paljor had admitted to involvement in the crime, according to earlier statements by their lawyer, but had argued the deaths were not intentional.
"The defendants' methods were ruthless, the details extremely malicious, and the result extremely serious," the court said in the statement.
Lawyers for the three men could not be reached after the sentencing, but the court said Thubten Kunsal and Tsering Paljor would appeal. The third man had not decided whether to appeal, it said.
The British Embassy in China said it was aware of the sentencing.
"The British government maintains its longstanding opposition to the death penalty, and has formally communicated this to the Chinese government during the course of the trial," the embassy said in an email.
Akong Rinpoche was one of the few Tibetan religious leaders who succeeded at balancing the interests of the Chinese government and Tibetans, and he was revered by Tibetans in China for his work with charities and in promoting education.
The Kagyu Samye Ling monastery, founded by Choje Akong Tulku Rinpoche did not mention the case on its website and could not be contacted.
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