Vietnamese dissident held on propaganda charge
Australia
Network News
22 Feb 2012
Vietnam
is holding a school teacher in detention for creating 'propoganda'. [Reuters]
Vietnam
has confirmed that a high school teacher has been held in detention by the
authorities for four months on suspicion of producing anti-state propaganda.
Officials quoted on the Da Nang police newspaper website say Dinh Dang Dinh, 49,
who worked as a teacher in Dak Nong province in the central highlands, was
arrested on October 21 and has been in police custody ever since.
He is under investigation "for conducting propaganda against the socialist
republic of Vietnam, abusing freedom and democratic rights and infringing on the
state's interests," the report said.
Dinh's arrest and detention were raised with the European Union by Human Rights
Watch in a January report prepared for the EU-Vietnam annual rights dialogue.
The New York-based watchdog says the charge of conducting anti-state propaganda
is one of many "vaguely worded and loosely interpreted national security crimes
in Vietnam penal code used to imprison peaceful political and religious
dissidents.
The website report says Dinh called for pluralism, multi-party democracy and
constitutional amendments online, and worked with "reactionary activists," to
"distort the policies and laws of the party and state."
It says police found hundreds of pages of "anti-state content" on a computer
seized during the arrest, including comments "rejecting the communist party of
Vietnam and Ho Chi Minh's ethics."
The newspaper website says Dinh will have to pay for his acts and wrongdoings.