Dissident Catholic priest sentenced

 

Please click here to get a glimpse of the trial

 

By BEN STOCKING

Associated Press Writer Fri Mar 30, 8:02 AM ET

HUE, Vietnam - A Vietnamese court sentenced a dissident Catholic priest to eight years in prison for anti-government activities after a dramatic trial Friday in which the defendant shouted denunciations of the ruling Communist Party.

A judge at Thua Thien Hue Provincial People's Court in central Vietnam sentenced Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly on charges of disseminating anti-government documents and communicating with pro-democracy activists overseas. It was the first time the government has opened a high-profile dissident's trial to reporters.

Authorities said Ly, 60 — who has been jailed twice before for his pro-democracy activities — was plotting to merge his Vietnam Progression Party with overseas democracy activists.

Ly was brought handcuffed into the courtroom along with four co-defendants at the start of the trial. Ly began to shout about Vietnam's Communist Party, but a police officer quickly covered his mouth and removed him to a nearby room where the proceedings were broadcast on a loudspeaker.

Ly was later brought back, but he refused to answer prosecutors' charges against him, declaring, "The Communists use the law of the jungle!" before being removed again.

In sentencing, Judge Bui Quoc Hiep said Ly deserved "severe punishment" for masterminding efforts to boycott Vietnam's upcoming legislative elections, establish unsanctioned political parties, and overthrow the government.

Hiep said Ly and his co-defendants had committed "very serious crimes that harmed national security."

Prosecutors had said Ly told police that he "worked day and night" to produce anti-government materials.

"Ly turned his bedroom into the headquarters of political parties opposing the government," one of the prosecutors said.

Authorities allowed limited press coverage of the trial, a highly unusual move in a country where judicial proceedings against political defendants are typically conducted behind closed doors. About a dozen reporters and foreign diplomats watched the proceedings on a closed-circuit television in a separate room of the courthouse.

The sound was cut briefly when Ly shouted.

Last month, authorities moved Ly from his home in the central city of Hue, where he was under virtual house arrest, and took him to a smaller parish outside the city.

They seized hundreds of documents, six computers and 136 mobile phone cards, and much of that evidence was on display at the front of the courtroom on Friday.

The court sentenced four co-defendants who were accused of being Ly's accomplices.

Nguyen Phong, 32, of Hue, was sentenced to six years in prison; Nguyen Binh Thanh, 51, of Hue, was sentenced to five years; Le Thi Le Hang, 44, of Hue, got a two-year, suspended sentence, and Hoang Thi Anh Dao, 21, of Gialai Province, got a 18-month suspended sentence.

Prosecutors said Ly was the mastermind of Bloc 8406, an organization that circulated pro-democracy petitions last year.

Phong acknowledged in court that he had written the political platforms for Bloc 8406 and the Vietnam Progression Party, but said his actions did not constitute a crime.

"For the motherland of Vietnam, I will continue to fight for democratic values," he said.

At that point, police swiftly removed the defendants from the courtroom and the judge left to decide their sentence.

The defendants were not represented by a lawyer.

Ly was not present in the courtroom when the sentences were read.

Ly, has spent more than a decade in prison for his political activism and is one of the best-known members of Vietnam's small dissident community. In 2001, after he openly called for linking U.S. trade with Vietnam to Hanoi's human rights record, he was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Western governments and international human rights groups protested, and Ly was released early in a 2005 prison amnesty.

Ly's arrest comes as Vietnamese authorities have been cracking down on dissidents. On March 6, they arrested Hanoi human rights lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, accusing them of violating a prohibition on distributing information deemed harmful to the state.

After the sentencing, Kenneth Chern of the U.S. Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City, read a statement expressing U.S. concern over Vietnam's recent actions against dissidents.

"We call upon the Vietnamese government to allow individuals to peacefully exercise their legitimate rights to freedom of speech without fear of recrimination," he said.

 

 

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