A Vietnamese appeals court overturned a six-year prison sentence against a dissident and halved the jail term of another in a rare show of leniency by the country’s communist authorities.
The decision on Friday followed meetings last month between US President Barack Obama and Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang. Obama pressed Vietnam to take concrete steps to improve its human rights record — a major sticking point in ties between the two countries.
Nguyen Phuong Uyen, 21, was convicted of violating national security laws in May for distributing leaflets against the Vietnamese Communist Party and sentenced to six years.
The appeals court on Friday changed that sentence to a three-year suspended one and released her. It halved the eight-year sentence against fellow activist, 25-year-old Dinh Nguyen Kha.
Their lawyer Nguyen Thanh Luong said judges cited their young age in the decision.
He said he believed it was the first time that an appeals court had freed someone convicted of a national security crime.
“This is a positive sign, and this should be encouraged,” Luong said yesterday.
Vietnam’s communist leaders have delivered rising living standards and security to the country of 90 million people since embracing economic reforms in the 1980s.
However, they do not allow any challenge to their one-party rule and routinely arrest critics.
The rapid spread of the Internet in the country in the last five years has opened new avenues for dissent. This is alarming the government, which previously had a monopoly over most information. At least 46 people, many of them bloggers, have been convicted and sentenced for dissident activities this year.
In a statement, Human Rights Watch said international pressure likely played a part in the appeal court’s decision.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the