A Vietnamese court on Tuesday sentenced a dissident to five years' prison for spreading propaganda against the communist state and for disrupting security, the sixth activist to be jailed in a week.
Lawyer Tran Quoc Hien, 42, received three years' prison for anti-state propaganda and two years for disrupting security, to be followed by two years' probation, said Ho Chi Minh City People's court official Phan Ba.
The half-day trial of Hien, which was open to the media, was the most recent in a series of arrests and trials of political activists in Vietnam that have drawn protests from Western governments and human rights groups.
Vietnam's foreign ministry on Monday reiterated its position that it does not jail people for their political views, only for breaking the law.
"As we have said time and time again, the Vietnamese government has always respected the rights to freedom and democracy, including the freedom of speech," the government said in a statement.
"In Vietnam, no one is arrested for their political or religious beliefs. Only those who have breached the law are punished."
Hien, the former director of the Saigon Legal Consultancy, was a member of the underground pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406 launched over a year ago and a spokesman for a banned workers' and farmers' organization.
The state-controlled Phap Luat (Vietnam Law) daily said Hien "visited reactionary Web sites to exchange anti-state views with some reactionaries under the cover of fighting for freedom, democracy and human rights in Vietnam.
It reported: "He wrote articles and disseminated them on the Internet to slander and distort the policy of the party and state of Vietnam."
"More seriously, he organized and gathered people with complaints for a demonstration," it said.
The Tien Phong newspaper said Hien had encouraged people "to demonstrate, causing political instability during the US delegation's trip to Vietnam for the APEC [Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation] summit in November 2006."
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
A prominent Christian leader has allegedly been stabbed at the altar during a Mass yesterday in southwest Sydney. Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was saying Mass at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley just after 7pm when a man approached him at the altar and allegedly stabbed toward his head multiple times. A live stream of the Mass shows the congregation swarm forward toward Emmanuel before it was cut off. The church leader gained prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic, amassing a large online following, Officers attached to Fairfield City police area command attended a location on Welcome Street, Wakeley following reports a number