EU condemns jailing of activists in Vietnam

15 May 2007

(BERLIN) - The German presidency of the European Union on Tuesday condemned the jailing of eight human rights activists in Vietnam in recent weeks and called for the release of all non-violent dissidents.

"The EU has noted with great concern that several human rights defenders have been arrested and given long prison sentences on charges of 'conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam'," Berlin said.

"The EU reiterates its plea to the government to release all non-violent political activists who have simply exercised their right to freedom of expression."

On Tuesday, lawyer Tran Quoc Hien, 42, was sentenced to five years in jail in Vietnam for spreading anti-state propaganda and disrupting security.

Hien, the former director of the Saigon Legal Consultancy, was a member of the underground pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406 launched over a year ago and a spokesman for a banned workers' and farmers' organisation.

It is the latest in a series of arrests and trials of political activists in Vietnam that have drawn protests from Western governments and human rights groups.

Last week, separate courts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City jailed five other dissidents, including Hanoi lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan.

In March, three activists, including a priest, were sentenced to respectively eight, six and five years in jail.