Viet
Nam urged to release jailed blogger
AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
10 August 2011
The Vietnamese authorities must immediately release a French-Vietnamese blogger
who has been sentenced to three years in prison on national security charges,
Amnesty International said today.
Professor Pham Minh Hoang, a maths lecturer who holds dual nationality, was
accused of writing articles that “blackened the image of the country” by the
judge at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City.
He told the court his writings were not aimed at overthrowing anyone, and that
Vietnam needs to be more democratic, reports
said.
“To imprison a blogger for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of
expression is outrageous. The authorities should immediately release Professor
Hoang, and stop their harsh crackdown on peaceful government critics and
activists” said Donna Guest, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the
Asia-Pacific.
“Tuesday’s sentence, and the continuing arrests of activists and bloggers paint
an increasingly bleak picture of freedom of expression and association in Viet
Nam,” she said.
Professor Pham Minh Hoang, who is a member of the banned US-based opposition
group Viet Tan, joined other activists in criticizing a Chinese-backed bauxite
mine in Viet Nam’s Central Highlands, which they believe risks causing
environmental degradation in the area.
The lecturer, who blogged under the name Phan Kien Quoc, moved to
France in 1973 but returned in 2000 to settle in
Viet Nam, where he taught mathematics at the Polytechnic University of Ho Chi
Minh City.
Dozens of peaceful
political critics and activists have been sentenced to long prison terms since
Viet Nam began a crackdown on freedom of expression in October 2009.
Amnesty International is
calling on the Vietnamese government to allow judicial independence, and to
repeal or reform vaguely worded security legislation used to prosecute peaceful
critics.
Pham Minh Hoang’s family
says he will appeal against the sentence.