Four to be tried for spreading propaganda against State
The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on May 3 said that it would conduct public trials of two cases involving spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The first case, which is scheduled to go to trial on May 10, involves three defendants: Le Nguyen Sang, 48; Huynh Nguyen Dao, 39; and Nguyen Bac Truyen, 39. The three are charged with spreading propaganda against the State of Vietnam under Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
According to court documents, in 2003, Vietnamese-American Do Thanh Cong (alias Do Cong Thanh) established a club on the internet whose sole purpose was to sow seeds of discontent amongst the Vietnamese public.
In early 2004, Do Thanh Cong became acquainted with Le Nguyen Sang, Huynh Nguyen Dao, Nguyen Bac Truyen and other Internet users and later formed with them the “People’s Democratic Party” organisation.
Before being arrested in August 2006, Do Cong Thanh lived abroad and instructed Le Nguyen Sang to print and distribute leaflets that contained highly distorted information against Vietnam’s State and Party.
Huynh Nguyen Dao was found to have distributed these leaflets in precincts 3, Tan Binh, Phu Nhuan and Binh Thanh in HCM City from October 2005 to June 2006.
The four admitted to investigative police that they had spread libellous information to the public and in September 2006, Do Cong Thanh was expelled from the country.
In the second case to be tried on May 15, defendant Tran Quoc Hien, 42, will be prosecuted on charges of spreading propaganda against the State of Vietnam and disrupting security under the Penal Code of 1999, Articles 88 and 89.
According to the verdict of the HCM City People’s Procuracy, Hien joined reactionary organisations in 2006 through the Internet including the so-called 8406 bloc and acted under their instructions to call for pluralism and sabotage the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Vietnam News Agency - May 4, 2007.
Dissidents face trials in Vietnam
HANOI - Six Vietnamese political dissidents will face court in three trials in coming weeks, officials and state media said yesterday as the communist government rejected US criticism over its human-rights record.
The activists will all be tried and sentenced in one-day hearings on charges of spreading propaganda against the one-party state, a crime under Vietnamese law that carries up to 20 years' jail, court officials said.
Three members of an illegal party and a spokesman for an outlawed workers and farmers rights group will go on trial in Ho Chi Minh City, while two human-rights lawyers will face a previously scheduled trial in Hanoi.
The hearings come ahead of May 20 National Assembly elections, which the underground Bloc 8406 pro-democracy coalition has urged citizens to boycott because the poll allows only candidates approved by the Communist Party.
Next Thursday, three key members of the banned People's Democratic Party -- medical doctor Le Nguyen Sang, 48, journalist Huynh Nguyen Dao, 39, and lawyer Nguyen Bac Truyen, 39 -- will face Ho Chi Minh City People's Court.
They are accused of communicating online with Vietnamese-American dissident Cong Thanh Do with the aim of "sowing the seeds of discontent among the Vietnamese public," said the state-run Vietnam News Agency (VNA).
California-based Do, who was jailed but released after US pressure last September, had instructed Sang "to print and distribute leaflets that contained highly distorted information against Vietnam's state and party," VNA said.
Dao allegedly distributed the leaflets from October 2005 to June last year.
In the second trial next Friday, Hanoi lawyers and pro-democracy activists Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, who were arrested in March, face trial in the capital Hanoi, also accused of defaming the state.
And on May 15, lawyer Tran Quoc Hien, 42, a spokesman for the United Workers and Farmers' Association and a Bloc 8406 member, will be prosecuted in Ho Chi Minh City, again on charges of disrupting security.
The trials in the southern commercial hub formerly called Saigon will last one day each and be open to local and foreign media, said Ho Chi Minh City's People's Court official Vu Phi Long.
The Hanoi trial is also expected to be open, according to sources.
In late March, foreign media were allowed to attend a trial in the central city of Hue in which dissident Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, 60, was sentenced to eight years' jail, also for spreading anti-state propaganda.
The open trials and a flurry of unusually detailed state media reports attacking dissidents have signalled a more assertive line from Hanoi against activists who challenge the political monopoly of the Communist Party.
The arrests and trials have raised tensions between Washington and Hanoi over political and religious freedoms ahead of a visit by Vietnam's President Nguyen Minh Triet to the US scheduled for June.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom said on Wednesday Vietnam should be blacklisted as a country violating religious freedoms after being taken off the list shortly before a November visit by US President George W. Bush.
The commission said that since Hanoi was taken off the list and then joined the WTO in January, "positive religious freedom trends have, for the most part, stalled."
On the same day the US House of Representatives passed a resolution calling for the release of Father Ly and all other political prisoners.
In Hanoi, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said Vietnam "opposes the interference of foreign countries in its internal affairs" and said "no-one in Vietnam is arrested due to their political views or religion."
"Recently there have been individuals who have used the cloak of democracy and freedom to violate Vietnam's laws, undermining security, social order and stability," he said in a statement.
Agence France Press - May 4, 2007.
Vietnam to put four democracy activists on trial
HANOI - The government of Vietnam will put four more so-called internet democracy activists on trial this month, state media reported Friday. The defendants, all members of a "democratic club" that met online, will be charged with spreading propaganda against the state, according to Vietnam News (VNN), a government agency. The first trial will begin in Ho Chi Minh City on May 10.
Le Nguyen Sang, Huynh Nguyen Dao and Nguyen Bac Truyen are accused of helping a Vietnamese-American pro-democracy activist distribute leaflets that slandered the Vietnamese state and the Communist Party. The men admitted their guilt after they were arrested last year, according to the police.
In a separate trial scheduled to start May 15, Tran Quoc Hien is charged with spreading propaganda, as well as disrupting security, which is a far more serious charge.
Hien, a member of the dissident group known as Bloc 8406, is accused of joining "hostile elements in issuing a manifesto on freedom and democracy in Vietnam," said VNN. Articles posted by Hien were said to sow divisions among the people and the party and were intended to incite the Vietnamese people to demonstrate against their government.
Several members of Bloc 8406 have recently been convicted on charges of attempts to overthrow the government, a violation of Article 88 of Vietnam's criminal code. Activists say they are only calling for greater human rights and more democracy.
In March, a Vietnamese court sentenced dissident priest Nguyen Van Ly to eight years in prison for disseminating false information against the government.
On Thursday, Vietnam rejected a recent US House of Representatives' resolution that calls for the release of Ly and two other pro-democracy activists.
"No one in Vietnam is arrested due to their political views or religion," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung. "Only those who violate our country's laws are arrested, and these people are dealt with according to Vietnamese laws."
Vietnam has long maintained that the pro-democracy movement is being used by criminals to undermine Vietnam's social order and security.
But Pham Que Duong, a former Communist Party member, who is now one of its greatest critics, says that these trials are part of the government's efforts to muffle dissent prior to the National Assembly elections to be held on May 20.
"Those who are outside of jail will continue to fight for real democracy for Vietnam," said Pham. "We want to fight for justice because we love our motherland: Vietnam."
If convicted, the activists face a maximum of 15 years in prison. The trials are expected to last one day.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - May 4, 2007.
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