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

[Year 1997]
[Year 1998]
[Year 1999]
[Year 2000]
[Year 2001]

Vietnam Suspends Treason Probe

HANOI - Authorities have suspended an inquiry into treason charges against a leading dissident but restricted his movements to a city in central Vietnam, the official police newspaper reported Monday. Biologist Ha Si Phu and a colleague, former Communist Party official Mai Thai Linh, have been under investigation since May on suspicion of collaborating with overseas groups calling for democracy and human rights in Vietnam.

The government dropped its probe, saying the two men confessed their crimes, Cong An Nhan Dan, or the People's Police newspaper reported. ``Due to their old age, their sincerity in reporting, their admission of guilt and their pleading for lesser punishment, the security investigation bureau of the Ministry of Public Security has suspended their investigation into the case,'' the paper said. Phu, 60, and Linh, whom police say is in his 50s, are barred from leaving the central city of Dalat under an order issued Friday. The order formalizes the restricted conditions the men have been living under since the probe was launched, a move that triggered protests from human rights groups. International rights organizations say Vietnam routinely clamps down on political and religious dissidents.

Phu and Linh are part of a group of dissident intellectuals who are closely watched by the government. Phu, former vice director of the Vietnamese Institute of Science in Dalat, has written numerous critiques of the government. The newspaper World Security, run by the Ministry of Public Security, reprinted excerpts Monday from a January interview in which it said Phu admitted he ``made mistakes due to lack of understanding of politics'' and said he did not want to be the ``instrument'' of extremist groups. ``I'm willing to exchange ideas with others on ideology, but I am not a fighter and never want to be used as another's symbol,'' he was quoted as saying. A treason conviction carries a penalty ranging from seven years' imprisonment to the death penalty.

The Associated Press - February 12, 2001.