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

Year :      [2003]      [2002]      [2001]      [2000]      [1999]      [1998]      [1997]

Vietnam to put cyber dissident on trial for espionage

A cyber dissident charged with spying is scheduled to go on trial this week after writing articles critical of the communist government, a court official said Monday. Nguyen Vu Binh, 35, a former reporter for a Communist academic journal, is set to appear Wednesday at the People's Court in Hanoi for the one-day trial, said the court official on condition of anonymity.

Binh was arrested Sept. 25, 2002, for writing an article that circulated on the Internet criticizing a border agreement with China. In August last year, he joined 20 others in signing a petition to government leaders demanding legal reforms to protect human rights and to establish an independent anti-corruption body.

Binh was fired in 2001 from the ruling Communist Party's theoretical journal, Tap Chi Cong San (Journal of Communism), after applying to form an independent opposition party. The Communist Party, Vietnam's only political party, strictly forbids any calls for a multiparty system. Binh's trial will be the latest in a series involving dissidents who used the Internet to criticize the government, including the high-profile case of Pham Hong Son, who was sentenced to 13 years jail for spying after translating an article from the U.S. State Department's Web site titled "What is democracy?" His sentence was later reduced to five years on appeal.

International human rights groups have loudly criticized such trials as infringement of basic rights and freedoms. Hanoi maintains that only law-breakers are arrested and that citizens have the right to free speech.

The Associated Press - December 29, 2003.