Slammed for jailing dissidents

[Mitsuhide Akechi]

SE Asia
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Jan 21, 2010

Slammed for jailing dissidents

HANOI - VIETNAM'S jailing of four dissidents for trying to overthrow the communist regime makes a mockery of justice, activists said Thursday, urging their release in a call backed by the United States embassy. After a day-long trial in Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday, the four were convicted of 'activities aimed at subverting the people's administration', prompting swift criticism from the US and Britain. American ambassador Michael Michalak expressed concern 'about the apparent lack of due process in the conduct of the trials' and urged their immediate release, along with other 'prisoners of conscience.' The convictions 'also raise serious questions about Vietnam's commitment to rule of law and reform,' he said. 'Nobody should be imprisoned for peacefully expressing their opinions,' British foreign office minister Ivan Lewis said.

'Verdicts like these only serve to harm Vietnam's international standing.' Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, 43, was sentenced to 16-years in prison while blogger Nguyen Tien Trung, 26, received seven-years. Human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, 41, and Le Thang Long, 42, were each given five years. Months before the trial began, state-linked media reported that the accused had all admitted their guilt. Some observers see their case as linked to next year's Communist Party Congress, when high-ranking leadership posts will be determined. It was the most high-profile case in a series of arrests and convictions of dissidents and bloggers over the past year. -- AFP

 

[Mitsuhide Akechi]

'Vietnam flouts rights promise'

SE Asia
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Jan 22, 2010

'Vietnam flouts rights promise'

<!-- by line --> <!-- end by line -->HANOI - VIETNAM is flouting its human rights commitments to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), Human Rights Watch said on Friday after the controversial conviction of four democracy activists. At the beginning of the year Vietnam took over the rotating chairmanship of the regional bloc, whose charter commits its members to 'promote and protect human rights and fundamental freedoms.' The conviction at a day-long trial in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Wednesday of the four activists highlighted a climate of increasingly harsh political repression in the communist nation, the New York-based watchdog said. 'Vietnam's antipathy toward free expression and other fundamental rights does not bode well for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), which Vietnam now chairs,' Human Rights Watch said. 'By locking up peaceful rights defenders, democracy activists, and cyber-dissidents, the Vietnamese government is clearly flouting its promises to Asean and the international community,' the group's Asia director, Brad Adams, said in a statement.

Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, 43, was sentenced to 16 years in prison while blogger Nguyen Tien Trung, 26, received seven years. Human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, 41, and Le Thang Long, 42, were each given five years. All were found guilty of trying to overthrow the regime. The European Union delegation to Vietnam called the trial and verdicts 'a major and regrettable step backwards' while US ambassador Michael Michalak expressed concern 'about the apparent lack of due process' and called for the immediate release of the prisoners. Some observers see the case of the four as linked to next year's Communist Party Congress, when high-ranking leadership posts will be determined. -- AFP