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News
November 9, 2002
Rights group
condemns jailing of Vietnam critic
HANOI (Reuters) - A Paris-based media
rights group has condemned a four-year jail sentence imposed on a Vietnamese man
who published criticisms of Vietnam's border pact with China on the Internet.
On Friday, a Hanoi People's Court official told Reuters Le Chi Quang, 32, was
found guilty of "propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" after a
one-day trial and would be jailed for four years.
Quang was given another three years probation in addition to the jail term.
Foreign media representatives were not allowed to attend the trial.
A statement received by Reuters on Saturday from the Reporters Without Borders
group appealed for Quang to be freed, saying he is sick.
"Even if your government persists in abusing the basic rights of its citizens,
we appeal to you to free Le Chi Quang because he is seriously ill," the group's
general-secretary Robert Menard urged in a letter to Vietnam Justice Minister
Uong Chu Luu.
The statement from the rights group said Quang "appeared to be in a very weak
state" with a swollen face during the trial, and that his family said he had
kidney problems "that prison officials had refused to treat".
Quang, whom rights groups say is a computer teacher with a law degree, upset
authorities this year when he put a letter to China's President Jiang Zemin,
titled "Beware of the Northern Empire", on the Internet.
The letter covered border pacts with China, Reporters Sans Frontiers has said.
Last month, Hanoi called Quang's articles anti-government propaganda. A Foreign
Ministry spokeswoman said Quang was "caught red-handed" on February 21 while
"illegally uploading the information".
Vietnam and China have been bickering over their 1,350-km border for decades and
dissidents have accused Vietnam of giving up too much land to China. The
neighbours signed agreements on their border in 1999 and 2000.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, which is based in New York, said Quang was
arrested after officials at a popular domestic Internet service provider told
authorities he used an Internet cafe in Hanoi to talk to "reactionaries"
overseas.
Vietnam has been cracking down on Internet cafes, saying it wants to root out
pornography and anti-government material, and has ordered cafe operators to keep
tabs on customers.
Hanoi accuses Quang of writing Internet articles "to distort the situation in
Vietnam, slandering the Vietnam Communist Party, the state of the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam and undermining the national and religious unity".
Human rights groups say at least four Vietnamese have been detained for
publishing criticism of the government on the Internet.
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