Court Cuts Jail Terms of 3 Vietnamese Activists

A Vietnamese appeals court reduced the sentences to three men convicted and jailed in May for spreading "propaganda against the state". (Reuters)

A Vietnamese appeals court on Friday reduced the sentences handed to three men who were convicted and jailed in May for spreading "propaganda against the state" and forming a political party.

A lawyer for one of the defendants said the court in Ho Chi Minh City ruled that Le Nguyen Sang, 48, a doctor, should serve four years instead of five years.

The trial in May was one of four this year in one-party ruled Vietnam of political activists who called for a multi-party system and greater freedom of speech, mostly over the Internet.

The sentence of businessman Nguyen Bac Truyen, 39, was reduced to three years from four years and another businessman, Huynh Nguyen Dao, 39, to two years from three years, said Truyen's lawyer Trinh Vinh Phuc.

The court concluded that the actions of the three men did not lead to any tangible consequences, the lawyer said.

At their Ho Chi Minh City People's Court trial in May, the three men were accused of using the Internet "to sow discontent among the public" and creating the People's Democratic Party to organise protests, including during last November's visit of U.S. President George W. Bush.

The outlawed People's Democratic Party is one of a few that emerged last year and carried information, mostly on the Internet, calling for alternatives to one-party rule in Vietnam.

Prosecutors linked the defendants to a Vietnamese-born U.S. citizen, Cong Thanh Do of San Jose, California, who was expelled from communist-run Vietnam last September. Do was accused of advocating the government's overthrow.

The People's Democratic Party, in an email received on Friday, called for the release of the three men and others under detention.
The Vietnam government says it does not charge people for their political views, only those who break the law. It is a criminal offence in Vietnam to disseminate views the government considers anti-state or opposed to the ruling Communist Party.

Hanoi rejects accusations by Western human rights groups of cracking down on dissidents after it successfully hosted an Asia-Pacific summit, won World Trade Organisation membership and was removed from a U.S. religious rights blacklist in 2006.

Vietnam newsletter says 'under attack'

HANOI, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - The Australian publisher of an email newsletter in communist Vietnam said Friday the media company was "under official attack" after carrying news articles with political content.

Police in Hanoi have investigated www.intellasia.com for allegedly operating without a proper license while a state-controlled newspaper Friday accused it of spreading "illegal" and "reactionary" content.

"Intellasia has been a very active promoter of investing in Vietnam for many years now," Australian proprietor Jonathan Leech said in an online statement. "But unfortunately today, August 17, Intellasia is under official attack."

The publication -- which has a Hanoi office and emails digests of mainly financial but also general news -- said they had been subject to "six weeks of harassment and interrogation."

State media reports said Intellasia "illegally operates a website without a license," and they showed images of the site carrying news agency reports, some about court trials of Vietnamese political dissidents.

The police-run newspaper An Ninh Thu Do said: "For years, the website has operated illegally and posted many distorted and reactionary articles about Vietnam's politics, human rights and democracy."

It said the business license granted by the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment only allowed it to operate "in the fields of advertising, commerce, market news provision, consultancy for information and informatics sector."

Leech, the proprietor and editor, said the website is run from a US-based server, its content is managed by a US company, and it is "owned and operated by two Australians, one in Vietnam and the other in Australia."

"Intellasia has always endeavoured to present a fair picture of what is happening in Vietnam during the good and lean times over the years," Leech wrote. "But now that the country has joined the WTO (World Trade Organisation), things have suddenly reverted ominously."

"This is a very dark day for what should be a civilised country to operate in," wrote Leech. "And it should be noted that any foreigner or foreign organisation here in Vietnam that also operates a website abroad could at any time suddenly find themselves in a similar position of persecution."

US envoy leaving Vietnam calls rights issue disappointing

The outgoing US ambassador to Vietnam, Michael Marine, on Thursday said a lack of progress on human rights in the communist country was the biggest disappointment of his three-year tenure.

"I wish I could say it's improving, but I can't," he told his final media briefing in Hanoi. "Perhaps my biggest disappointment here is that we've not been able to expand the space for political dialogue in Vietnam."

Vietnam, a one-party-state, this year jailed a number of political activists who had called for non-violent political change toward a multi-party democracy, drawing protests from the United States and other countries.

Rallies dogged a June US visit by President Nguyen Minh Triet, the first to the United States by a Vietnamese state leader since the war ended in 1975.

Marine said religious freedoms had recently been expanded in Vietnam but he added: "If we are talking about the ability of people to engage in political activism, I can't be as positive, and in fact I'm a bit discouraged."

He pledged that the United States would keep up the human rights dialogue with Vietnam under his successor Michael Michalak, due to arrive this month.

"We have a long-term commitment to this, it is in Vietnam's interest for this to happen, and I believe it will happen," he said. "The question is when."

Vietnam's government says it does not punish dissidents, only people who break its laws, including the charge of spreading propaganda against the state, under which several dissidents were imprisoned this year.

Marine said: "To the extent that we are able to understand the Vietnamese legal system, there are laws on the books that allow the authorities to move against people for expressing their opinions, for organising in any way and for calling for political change.

"Those are fundamental human rights that I strongly believe are universal and should be enjoyed by the people of Vietnam."

The ambassador praised growing bilateral trade relations that were fully normalised last year, weeks before Vietnam -- an economy now growing at over 8 percent a year -- joined the World Trade Organisation in January.

"Economically, Vietnam is making major strides forward," said Marine. "The value of US-Vietnam two-way trade will exceed 10 billion dollars this year.

"The United States is Vietnam's top export market and its fourth largest foreign investor, and Vietnam expects to attract at least 15 billion dollars in foreign direct investment commitments this year."