VIETNAM: THREE
CONVICTED AND THREE PENDING TRIAL IN BLACK WEEK FOR CYBER-DISSIDENTS
Reporters
Without Borders
10.05.07
Reporters
Without Borders condemned the sentences of three, four and five years in prison
that were imposed by a Ho Chi Minh City court today in a trial lasting just four
hours on cyber-dissidents Huynh Nguyen Dao, Nguyen Bac Truyen and Le Nguyen
Sang, respectively, for propaganda against the communist regime.
After a let-up while Vietnam negotiated its admission to the World Trade
Organisation, the vice is again tightening on dissidents in the run-up to the
next session of the People's National Assembly, the press freedom organisation
said. Now that international pressure has eased, the government is trying to
snuff out Vietnam's fragile pro-democracy movement.
Dao, a journalist, Truyen, a businessman and Sang, a doctor, were arrested in
August 2006 and charged with using the Internet to spread anti-government
propaganda. They acknowledged in court to being members of the People's
Democratic Party and to have campaigned for political pluralism in Vietnam.
The judge described their activities as "dangerous for society"and said they had
"weakened the regime's authority." Prosecutors said they downloaded and
distributed material originating from a US citizen of Vietnamese origin, Cong
Thanh Do, who was arrested in Vietnam and then expelled in August 2006.
Two other dissidents, human rights lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan,
are to be tried on charges of anti-government propaganda before a Hanoi court
tomorrow. They are members of Bloc 8406, a pro-democracy group.
Reporters Without Borders supports the open letter signed by former Czech
dissident Vaclav Havel and a dozen other leading figures calling for their
release and the release of Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest who was arrested in
March and convicted of propaganda against the government.
Another Bloc 8406 member, Tran Quoc Hien, who is the spokesman of the United
Workers-Farmers Organization (UWFO), is to appear in court on 15 May on charges
of "sabotaging" national security, as well as defaming the state and
anti-government propaganda under article 88 of the criminal code.