Vietnam deports US 'terrorist'

2006-11-13 09:10

Hanoi - Vietnam on Monday deported a US woman convicted last week of terrorism, her brother and a court official said.

Nguyen Thuong "Cuc" Foshee, 58, of Orlando, Florida, left the Ho Chi Minh City airport early on Monday, according to her brother, Nguyen Phu Tri, who dropped her off at the immigration department.

Foshee was among seven defendants convicted on Friday on terrorism charges for plotting to seize radio airwaves to call for an uprising against the communist government.

Foshee and the other defendants, including four Vietnamese citizens, had been held since September 2005 without charges.

She departed just days before US President George W Bush and other world leaders arrive in Hanoi for the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit later this week.

Foshee's early release will allow Vietnam to focus on the APEC summit and prevent further distractions from its moment in the international spotlight.

Washington had pressured Vietnam to hold a speedy and fair trial to avoid having the issue spill into APEC.

Prosecutors said the plan to take over the airwaves was devised by the Government of Free Vietnam, a California-based organisation that the Vietnamese government considers a terrorist group.

Many of its leaders are soldiers of the former South Vietnamese Army who fled Vietnam after the war ended in 1975.

- AP