~ Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui. ~
The Vietnam News

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Vietnam jails dissident for on-line 'abuse'

HANOI - Communist Vietnam, widening a crackdown on dissent, sentenced a literature professor on Friday to 19 months in prison for using the Internet to criticize its policies. The court ordered Tran Khue's immediate release, however, because of time spent in jail since his arrest in December 2002.

"Khue was found guilty of abusing rights of democratic freedom," a court official in Ho Chi Minh City told Reuters. Khue was sentenced to 12 months in prison on that charge and to an additional seven months for "disobeying" a court ruling, the official said without elaborating. The 68-year-old professor wrote critically on the Internet about Vietnam's 1999 border pact with northern neighbor China.

Another dissident, retired army colonel Pham Que Duong who also used the Internet to criticize Vietnam's policies, is to go on trial in Hanoi this month, three human rights groups said. Trials of controversial defendants such as dissidents are routinely closed to foreign media and diplomats and often last for less than a day.

Eight journalists are currently in prison in Vietnam for dissent, the Committee to Protect Journalists said. Last month, Hanoi granted early release to Le Chi Quang, who had served half of a four-year jail term. Human rights groups say computer teacher Quang, who had also criticized the China border agreement, may have been shown leniency because he was in poor health. Vietnam consistently denies charges of human rights abuses. It says it only punishes those who break its laws.

Reuters - July 09, 2004.