Convicted terrorist A’an Zhaxi, also known as Tenzin Delek, died of heart failure in a hospital in southwest China’s Sichuan Province last Sunday, local authorities said yesterday.

The Sichuan native, who was a monk, was born in 1950 and sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 2003 for masterminding five terrorist bombings in the province that killed one person and injured a dozen others from 2000 to 2002.

His sentence was commuted to life in 2005. He had been serving his sentence in Chuandong Prison in the city of Dazhou until his death in the Dazhu County People’s Hospital.

Just after noon on July 12, a guard found him suffering breathing problems. Prison doctors administered emergency treatment and he was later transferred to the hospital’s intensive care unit. He was declared dead at 4:05pm.

The country’s criminal law stipulates that prisoners serving life sentences are not allowed medical parole.

According to the prison, the monk’s right to health care had been guaranteed since his imprisonment. In addition to treatment provided by the prison hospital, he had been taken to the Dazhu County People’s Hospital for checkups and treatment 14 times, and to Dazhou’s Central Hospital once.

It also said that medical experts from various hospitals had met on a number of occasions to discuss the prisoner’s health issues and determine the best possible treatment.

However, on many occasions he had either refused to see doctors or take his medicine.

Last Wednesday, the Dazhou City Procuratorate concluded that A’an Zhaxi died of natural causes and his relatives were informed.

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