Vietnam postpones trial of Internet dissident
HANOI - Vietnam has postponed the trial of a dissident accused of circulating anti-government documents on the Internet, saying judges need more time to study the case, a court official said Monday.
No new date has been set for the trial, said Nguyen Xuan Ty, administrative head of the Hanoi People's Court.
Le Chi Quang, a 32-year-old lawyer, was arrested February 21 and accused of writing and posting on the Internet an essay criticizing the government for conceding too much land to China in a 1999 border agreement. The charge carries a possible 3 to 12 year jail term.
Quang also wrote several other essays praising other dissidents. Vietnam's communist government insists that it does not hold any political or religious prisoners. However, human rights groups and the US State Department accuse it of violating human rights and political and religious freedoms.
The government maintains very tight control over information. It recently toughened restrictions on Internet use that require all Vietnam-based Web sites to obtain government licenses and prohibited most citizens from watching foreign satellite television broadcasts.
In March, police arrested Pham Hong Son, a 34-year-old doctor, after he translated an article from a US State Department Web site titled "What Is Democracy?" and sent it to friends and government officials.
On September 25, Nguyen Vu Binh, a former reporter for a Communist Party theoretical journal who has written articles calling for political reform, was arrested at his home in Hanoi. Binh is believed to have been arrested because of a recent essay circulated on the Internet also critical of the border agreement with China.
The Associated Press - October 28, 2002
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