An American-Vietnamese political activist was sentenced to six months jail in a one-day trial, but he will be deported at the weekend as he had already served the time, U.S. embassy officials and his party said on Tuesday. Nguyen Quoc Quan, right, 54, an engineer from Sacramento, California, was arrested last November along with several other activists of the Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party) who were preparing to distribute leaflets opposed to one-party rule. (13-MAY-08)
Based on the news agency Reuters release, written by Grant McCool, edited by Sanjeev Miglani and issued today, this article has been further edited and prepared for publication here by HRH F / Niels Jacob Harbitz. To go straight to Reuters´ release, click here.
In Tuesday´s trial in Ho Chi Minh City People´s Court, Quan and a Thai citizen and one Vietnamese national were charged with “terrorism.” The Hanoi government describes Viet Tan as a terrorist group, but the party says it does not support the use of violence and that pamphlets seized by police at the time of last November´s arrests promoted peaceful democratic change.
“We welcome his release and return to the United States,” a U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Hanoi said in a statement. “We remain disappointed by the decision of the Government of Vietnam to charge Dr. Quan with ´terrorism.´ “We are not aware of any information that would support charges of ´terrorism´. We object to the detention and prosecution of any individual for peacefully expressing his or her own views.”
Thai citizen Somsak Khunmi was sentenced to nine months and would be released in three months´ time, said the U.S.-based Viet Tan, which is outlawed in Vietnam. It said Nguyen The Vu was sentenced to time served and was to be released on Tuesday. The ruling Communist Party rejects calls for a multi-party system and last year it arrested more than 30 political activists, diplomats and human rights groups said.
Some were put on trial for “spreading propaganda against the state,” a criminal offence in Vietnam, and handed prison sentences of between three years and eight years.
On the same issue, Earth Times reported this:
Vietnam gives activists light sentences for ´terrorism´
A court in Ho Chi Minh City Tuesday convicted one Vietnamese-American, one Vietnamese-Thai, and one Vietnamese democracy activist of planning to commit terrorist acts, after they were arrested last November with leaflets suggesting they planned to agitate for multiparty democracy. The People´s Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced American citizen Nguyen Quoc Quan to six months in prison, which with time served means he will be deported from Vietnam in four days. Vietnamese citizen Nguyen The Vu was sentenced to time served and released, plus one year of restricted movement in which he must ask police for permission to leave his neighborhood.
Vietnamese-born Thai citizen Somsak Khunmi, whom the court refers to by the Vietnamese name Nguyen Hai, was sentenced to nine months plus three years of restricted movement. He will be released in three months. “Hai played a higher role in the group, and he did it for a longer time,” said Presiding Judge Vu Phi Long. Long said the accused had pled not guilty to the charge of terrorism.
Quan, Vu and Khunmi are members of the Viet Tan Party, an exile organization which agitates for democratic change in Vietnam. They were arrested in November in Ho Chi Minh City along with two other Viet Tan members, Vietnamese-American Leon Trung and French citizen Le Thi Thanh Van.
Trung and Van were released and deported in December. Vietnamese authorities said Quan was held longer because he had entered Vietnam using a false Cambodian passport. The Viet Tan Party said the group was in Vietnam to pursue strategies for peaceful democratic change. Vietnam considers Viet Tan to be a terrorist organization, and says members of the group carried out armed missions inside Vietnam in the early 1980s.
Finally, Malaysia Times reported this:
Vietnam sentences American man to 6 months in jail on terrorism charges
A court in southern Vietnam sentenced an American man of Vietnamese origin on Tuesday to six months in prison on terrorism charges and ordered that he be deported after serving his sentence, the presiding judge said.
Nguyen Quoc Quan, a mathematician from Sacramento, California, was among several people arrested last November in a house in Ho Chi Minh City. Authorities said they were preparing to circulate anti-government pamphlets on behalf of Viet Tan, a California-based group that Vietnam considers a terrorist organization.
Viet Tan says it promotes nonviolent political change in Communist Vietnam, and U.S. Ambassador Michael Michalak has said he has seen no evidence the group is engaged in terrorism.
Quan was convicted in a one-day trial by the People´s Court in Ho Chi Minh City, Presiding Judge Vu Phi Long said. Quan must be expelled from Vietnam within four days after serving his sentence, he said. The court also sentenced Nguyen Hai, a Vietnamese citizen, to nine months in jail and three years of probation on the same charges, Long said.
Another Vietnamese defendant, Nguyen The Vu, was sentenced to five months and 26 days and was freed after Tuesday´s trial for time served, he added. Vu will serve one year of probation. Long would not give other details of the trial. Those arrested last November also included American citizen Truong Van Ba from Hawaii and French journalist Nguyen Thi Thanh Van. Ba, whose American name is Leon Truong, and Van were released in December. Vietnamese authorities have said Quan entered the country on a forged Cambodian passport. Communist Vietnam does not tolerate any form of dissent, which it considers
a threat to its one-party rule.
http://malaysia.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080513/tap-as-gen-vietnam-dissident-trial-9a7ed42.html?printer=1
