Vietnam frees 1,000 more prisoners in second amnesty
HANOI - Vietnam has ordered the release of more than 1,000 prisoners in the communist country’s second amnesty within two months, a government official said Tuesday.
President Nguyen Minh Triet signed a decision Friday to free 1,022 prisoners for good behaviour and pardon 14 convicted criminals who had not yet started their sentences, an official from the president’s office told AFP.
On September 2, Vietnam freed more than 5,300 prisoners to mark the country’s 61st national day, which commemorates revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh’s 1945 declaration of independence from France.
Among those freed last month was prominent pro-democracy activist Pham Hong Son, who was released months before the end of a five-year sentence for espionage.
The official did not say whether any foreigners or dissidents were freed in the latest amnesty.
Agence France Presse - October 31, 2006.
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