Vietnam court cuts Internet dissident's jail term
HANOI - A Vietnamese appeals court on Tuesday halved a heavy jail sentence passed on a doctor convicted of espionage after he
posted an essay on democracy on the Internet and used the Web to contact people at home and abroad. Pham Hong Son, 35, was
convicted on June 18 and sentenced to 10 years in jail and a further three years of house arrest. The case drew condemnation from
Western governments and human rights groups who saw it as a fresh sign of the communist country's intolerance of political
dissent.
An official of the Supreme Court of Appeal in Hanoi said the jail term had been cut to five years. A source close to Son said that he
would still have to serve the additional three years of house arrest. The appeal hearing, like the original trial, was off-limits to foreign
observers and security was tight at the courthouse.
Son's wife Vu Thuy Ha told Reuters that her husband walked out of the morning session of the hearing in protest "that the trial is not
open." He was back in court for the 45-minute afternoon session, she said. Ha said she had mixed feelings about the reduced
sentence. "Really, I feel a little happy because people (in the court) responsible in the case really listened to the opinions (of the
defense lawyer) but I'm not happy because my husband must be declared innocent."
The U.S. embassy in Hanoi said through a spokesman: "We welcome the reduction but he should never have been jailed in the first
place for his actions." The embassy called again for Son's immediate release. Amnesty International issued a statement in which it
termed the sentence reduction "unprecedented" but added "...we are dismayed that Dr Pham Hong Son remains in prison for the
peaceful expression of his political beliefs."
International pressure
A Western diplomat in Hanoi who has been tracking the case said the reduced sentence "was basically due to international
pressure. It was to show us they (the government) are doing something." Brad Adams, Bangkok-based executive director of the
Asia division of Human Rights Watch, told Reuters: "I think Son didn't violate the international standards of free expression." He
described the original jail sentence as "absurd."
Earlier Tuesday, representatives from nine embassies and a handful of foreign journalists huddled in the rain outside the French
colonial-style courthouse but were told repeatedly by police to move away from the entrance.
A policeman placed a "restricted area" sign at the far end of the sidewalk running outside the courthouse and ordered the foreign
observers to stand behind it. A security officer filmed the group from across the street.
Son, who worked for a foreign pharmaceutical company in the capital Hanoi, was accused of translating into Vietnamese and
posting on the Internet an article entitled "What is Democracy?" from the State Department's Web site. He was also accused of
contacting "political opportunists" in Vietnam and abroad.
Human Rights Watch said that, in January 2002, Son had sent an open letter to the general secretary of the Communist Party in
Vietnam arguing that the country was ready for democracy.
Son's wife said her husband had been urging multiparty rule "to make the country better" but not to overthrow the ruling Communist
Party. The couple have two sons, aged six and four. Ha said she had managed to speak briefly to her husband as he was being
taken to a car at the end of the hearing. "He told me 'Please be calm, don't be worried'," the slight, pony-tailed 32-year-old woman
said. In turn, she said she told him: "'We are not alone, many people are helping us'."
Rights groups say five Vietnamese have been punished for expressing dissent on the Internet. About a million of Vietnam's 80
million people surf the Internet, many using Internet cafes because the cost of personal computers and telecommunications are too
high for them.
By Christina Toh-Pantin - Reuters - August 26, 2003
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