Vietnamese
student arrested for 'propaganda'
AFP -
October 25, 2012
Vietnam: A 20-year-old Vietnamese student, missing for two weeks since a police
raid on her home, is being held for allegedly spreading propaganda against the
one-party communist state, reports said Thursday.
University student Nguyen Phuong Uyen, who was detained on October 14, is
accused of distributing anti-state leaflets and is being questioned as part of a
case involving "security matters", according to a brief report in the state-run
Ho Chi Minh City Law newspaper.
Uyen, a student at Ho Chi Minh City's Food Technology University, is being held
at a jail in Long An province in southern Vietnam, the report said, quoting
sources involved in the investigation.
Charges of disseminating anti-state propaganda, which carry a maximum sentence
of 20 years in jail, are routinely laid against dissidents in a country where
the ruling Communist Party forbids all political debate.
Uyen was arrested "after 10 policemen stormed into her room" and was held at an
undisclosed location, according to an open letter by Uyen's classmates to
Vietnam's President Truong Tan Sang on Saturday.
The letter, widely reproduced on Vietnamese-language websites, said Uyen was
"always the first in line to help school charity events and activities," the
students wrote, calling for her immediate release.
Rights groups accuse Vietnam of stepping up its fight to stamp down on dissident
in recent years, amid scrutiny from increasingly bold online critics.
A copy of Uyen's arrest warrant was posted on Vietnamese-language blogs and
social forums, while online reports said she had participated in anti-China
activities and joined campaigns against rampant corruption in the communist
state.
Vietnam routinely arrests and imprisons anti-China demonstrators and
anti-corruption activists, with dozens of bloggers, lawyers and activists
currently serving lengthy jail terms for involvement in peaceful protest.
Charges of propaganda fall under article 88 of the criminal code, which rights
groups say is one of many "vaguely defined articles" regularly used to prosecute
dissidents.
Last month, a court in southern Vietnam jailed three bloggers for up to 12 years
for "anti-state propaganda" at a brief but dramatic hearing, prompting objection
from the United States, EU and international rights groups.