Media watchdog demands release of more cyber-dissidents in Vietnam
HANOI - Global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders have condemned the retention under house arrest of released Vietnamese cyber-dissident Nguyen Khac Toan and demanded the freeing of all Internet activists.
Toan was given Tuesday an amnesty to mark the Lunar New Year after he had served a third of his 12-year jail sentence for "spying", but he told AFP he still had to remain confined to his home for three years.
He was convicted of sending information by e-mail to human rights organisations in exile considered "reactionary" by the government.
"Two other cyber-dissidents, Pham Hong Son, a doctor, and Nguyen Vu Binh, a writer and former journalist, are still imprisoned in Vietnam for expressing pro-democracy views on the Internet," RSF said in a statement.
Son was sentenced on appeal to five years in 2003 and Binh is serving a seven-year term since 2004.
"Son's state of health is very worrying," the Paris-based organisation said.
RSF also said there was still no word of two young Internet users, Truong Quoc Tuan and Truong Quoc Huy, and the fiancee of one of them, Lisa Pham, who were arrested at their home in Ho Chi Minh City last October.
They were accused of inciting the population to "overthrow the government," RSF noted, adding "the real reason for their arrest seems to have been their participation in a chat room about democracy" on the paltalk.com website.
Vietnam retains a tight grip on all domestic media activities.
No private outlets are permitted and the regime is consistently accused by human rights organisations of cracking down on dissent and jailing anyone criticizing the Communist Party and the government.
Agence France Presse - January 31, 2006.
Vietnam frees cyber "spy" from jail
HANOI - Vietnam has freed a 51-year-old Vietnamese man, a government official said on Friday, after the detainee spent 4 years in jail for helping an overseas dissident group collect anti-Hanoi complaints via the Internet.
Nguyen Khac Toan was convicted on espionage charges and jailed for 12 years in December 2002 during a government crackdown on cyberspace dissent.
"After four years of executing the jail sentence, convict Nguyen Khac Toan has admitted his offence and shown the attitude of remorse," Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said in a statement on Friday.
The provincial court of Ha Nam dropped the remaining eight years of Toan's sentence on Monday in accordance with Vietnam's "policy on clemency and humanity", the statement said.
Toan, who was released on Tuesday, had been a soldier and a mathematics teacher before going into business.
The government had accused Toan of receiving orders from an exiled Vietnamese organisation based in France to gather letters of complaint and protests from those unhappy with the communist government.
Human rights groups and some Western governments had called for Toan's release.
Vietnam defends its human rights record and accuses foreign-based dissident groups of attempting to blacken the country's image.
Reuters - January 27, 2006.
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