the European Union welcomed a Chinese court's decision to commute a death sentence

the European Union welcomed a Chinese court's decision to commute a death sentence against Tibetan monk Tenzin Deleg after an international outcry over his treatment in a fatal bombing case. The high court of China's southwestern Sichuan province announced at a hearing last on January 26 that Tenzin's sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment. 
The EU said it "welcomes" the decision but also "remains very concerned about the persistent doubts surrounding the impartiality of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche's trial, and about the heavy sentence handed down to him".
"The European Union would be grateful to the Chinese authorities if they could continue to brief it on developments in the case of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche," the 25-nation bloc said in a statement.
The 52-year-old monk was sentenced to death in 2002, suspended for two years, after being convicted of involvement in an April 2002 bombing incident in the Sichuan provincial capital Chengdu that killed one person and injured others.
He was also convicted of supporting Tibetan separatists.
Lobsang Dhondup, a 28-year-old activist, was executed in January 2003 for his role in the bombing.