Even after sentence reduction, cyber-dissident still has to serve five years in prison
Reporters Without
Borders Pro-democracy activist Vi Duc Hoi’s eight-year jail sentence has been reduced to five years on appeal but is still extremely harsh, Reporters Without Borders said today, reiterating its call for the release of Hoi and all the other 17 netizens currently detained in Vietnam. In a decision issued yesterday, the appeal court also reduced the length of the house arrest that Hoi will have to serve after release from prison from five years to three. The original sentence of eight years in prison and five years house arrest on a charge of anti-government propaganda was imposed last January. “Vi Du Hoi’s only ‘crime’ was to post comments online on such subjects as land expropriations, corruption and the advantages of a multiparty system,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The reduction of his sentence on appeal is just symbolic and indicative of a government desire to camouflage the severity of the repression.” The organization added: “Another cyber-dissident, Cu Huy Ha Vu, was sentenced last month to seven years in prison and three years of house arrest on the same charge. The authorities can no longer hide the scale of these arbitrary arrests and severe sentences. Fearing Jasmine Revolution-style destabilization, they are criminalizing free speech and, in so doing, have confirmed Vietnam’s position as the world’s second biggest prison for cyber-dissidents.” Hoi was awarded a Human Rights Watch prize in 2009.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |