Vietnam court jails 37 for terrorism
HANOI - A court in southern Vietnam handed down jail terms of up to 20
years on Tuesday for 37 people convicted of terrorism and
anti-socialist activity,
a senior court official said.
``Nobody got death or life sentences, all were jailed,'' the official
told Reuters, adding that the longest jail term was 20 years.
He gave no further details but sources in the courtroom said the key
defendant, 33-year-old Le Kim Hung, received 20 years imprisonment.
Another defendant, U.S. passport holder Son Nguyen Thanh Dien, was
jailed for 16 years.
Details of all the sentences were not immediately available but at
least one other defendant received a 20-year term, the witness
said by telephone from Ho Chi Minh City. State prosecutors had sought a
life sentence for Hung.
The official Vietnam News Agency last week quoted prosecutors as saying
the offences were ``extremely serious'' and had ``encroached
on national security, caused social disorder and posed threats to
people's lives.''
Some defendants were accused of plotting to blow up statues of late
revolutionary hero Ho Chi Minh and to disrupt religious festivals to
discredit
the communist authorities.
Reuters - May 29, 2001.
|