Elderly cyber-dissident jailed

2004-07-29 11:41

Hanoi - An elderly Vietnamese pro-democracy activist, who has spent a total of 18 years in prison since the late 1970s, was jailed for 30 months on Thursday for undermining the communist regime, a court official said.

Dr Nguyen Dan Que, 62, a distinguished doctor and long-standing human rights activist, was the third cyber-dissident to be convicted this month for using the internet to swap information and criticise the government.

Que was found guilty by the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court of "abusing democratic rights to jeopardise the interests of the State, and the legitimate rights and interests of social organisations and citizens".

However, he is due to be released in September 2005 as the time he has already served was taken into account, the court official said.

Diplomats and foreign reporters were barred from attending his one-day trial, which came amid growing international condemnation that Hanoi is using the courts to silence all dissent.

It also followed last week's passage in the US House of Representatives of a bill restricting American aid to Vietnam unless it frees political and religious prisoners, and improves its overall "extremely poor" rights record. The legislation still needs Senate approval.

Sentence longer than expected

"His sentence is longer than we expected but shorter than his previous terms in prison. But the point is that he should never have been brought to trial in the first place for simply expressing his opinions," a Western diplomat said.

Que, who is in poor health, was detained on March 17 last year outside his home in the southern business capital.

Amnesty International said his arrest was prompted by a statement he issued a few days earlier that was circulated on the internet in which he said there was no freedom of information in the communist nation.

The rights group has lambasted the criminal proceedings against Que, who was awarded the 2004 Heinz R Pagels Human Rights of Scientists Award by the New York Academy of Sciences, and called for his immediate release.

"His repeated imprisonment is both a personal and national tragedy," the London-headquartered organisation said earlier this month.

On July 14, Pham Que Duong, a 73-year-old military historian who spent nearly 19 months in pre-trial detention, was found guilty of the same charges as Que and sentenced to 19 months in prison.

His conviction followed the sentencing of fellow cyber-dissident Tran Khue, a 68-year-old former professor of Vietnamese and Chinese literature, to 19 months behind bars on similar charges on July 9.

Although both men are due to be released at the end of this month as a result of time already served, international human rights groups condemned their convictions.

Several other elderly dissidents still languish behind bars for criticising the regime, including Nguyen Dinh Huy, a 72-year-old former English and history professor, who has spent about 28 years in jail.

- AFP