Vietnam said to be ready to release prominent dissident
HANOI - Vietnam has decided to free prominent dissident and pro-democracy activist Pham Hong Son after more than four years in jail in a move seen as courting Washington's favor, foreign diplomats said yesterday.
Son, a 37-year-old businessman and trained medical doctor, is to be released in the days to come as part of a wide presidential amnesty, several months before the end of his five-year sentence for alleged espionage.
"We have been informed by the Vietnamese authorities that he would be released," a European diplomat said.
Several ethnic minority Montagnards from the troubled Central Highlands will also be released, as well as Ma Van Bay, a protestant ethnic Hmong from northern Ha Giang Province, considered by the US as detained for religious reasons.
Son was arrested in Hanoi on March 27, 2002, a few weeks after translating and publishing online a feature article entitled "What is democracy?" off the US State Department's Web site.
His release follows sustained diplomatic pressure on Vietnam and comes as the communist country is seeking to join the WTO later this year.
Vietnam is expecting the US Congress to grant it Permanent Normal Trade Relations status this year. The nation is also hosting an APEC forum summit in November, with US President George W. Bush to attend.
"The timing is not a coincidence," the European diplomat said.
"There is a clear will for the Vietnamese authorities to influence the political process in the United States," he said. "Vietnam's main purpose is to get rid of the most prominent cases, those who attract the attention of the international community."
Son was charged with spying after communicating with "political opportunists" in Vietnam and overseas and sending anti-government and anti-Communist Party documents abroad, according to state media at the time.
He was sentenced to 13 years' jail in June 2003 despite protesting his innocence. The term was cut to five years on appeal two months later. He then became an icon of dissent in Vietnam, with the US, the EU, Australia and several human rights organizations calling for his release.
According to state media, Vietnam will release 5,352 prisoners under a presidential amnesty for the Sept. 2 national day.
And with the release of protestant Bay, the list of religious prisoners recently handed over to Vietnam by US ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom John Hanford, is now empty, diplomats said.
"I would not even start to extrapolate about the changing of the regime," another foreign envoy however noted, asking not to be named.
Agence France Presse - August 29, 2006.
Vietnamese political dissident Pham Hong Son released from jail, restrictions remain
Dissident Pham Hong Son was released from a Vietnamese jail on Wednesday after being convicted of espionage, but security remained tight around his house and he was not permitted to visit his grieving mother, his wife said.
Son, 37, was freed as part of a nationwide goodwill amnesty marking Vietnam's Sept. 2 National Day. But he is still under surveillance and faces travel restrictions as part of a three-year probation.
"We asked for the permission to see his mother because his father died last week," Son's wife, Vu Thuy Ha, told The Associated Press. "This was not accepted."
Ha said the family's house has been surrounded by security since Son's return, and that he must seek permission before leaving the neighborhood.
"In front of our house there are many, many policemen," she said, adding a barrier was erected, attracting unwanted attention from the neighbors. "We are not comfortable at all."
Son's case attracted international attention when it surfaced that his arrest came after he translated and circulated over the Internet a document entitled, "What is Democracy?" pulled from the U.S. State Department's Web site.
Son was sentenced to 13 years' jail for spying in 2003. The term was reduced to five years on appeal.
The United States, European Union and international human rights groups had strenuously objected to the conviction.
Daniel Silverberg, a volunteer attorney working on Son's case at the Washington-based organisation Freedom Now, said it was still unclear how many restrictions Son would face. He said the group would keep pressuring the government to let him live with no conditions.
"Obviously, we're pleased that he's been released from prison where he shouldn't have been ... in the first place, but to the extent that we're hearing reports that he's going to be subject to house arrest or to severe restrictions, it's unquestionably troubling," Silverberg said.
Son, trained as a medical doctor, also has been ill. His wife said he would seek medical attention in the coming days.
On Monday, Le The Tiem, vice minister of public security, announced that Son would be released along with more than 5,000 inmates in a general amnesty. He confirmed Son would be on probation for three years, but did not clarify any restrictions.
Son, who worked for a foreign pharmaceutical firm in Hanoi, was arrested in 2002 after police confiscated from his computer content opposing the ruling Communist Party.
Hanoi had defended the sentence, saying Son broke the law by providing intelligence to help exiled foreign "reactionaries" plot against the government.
The Associated Press - August 30, 2006.
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