Vietnam dissident
sentenced to 30 months in jail
By CHRIS BRUMMITT
Associated Press
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) --
A Vietnamese court sentenced a U.S-trained lawyer and well-known dissident to
30 months in jail Wednesday after finding him guilty on tax evasion charges,
the latest salvo in a crackdown against activists in the authoritarian
Southeast Asian nation.
The verdict against Le Quoc Quan was immediately criticized by
the United States, which is pressing Vietnam's Communist leaders to loosen
restrictions on those advocating democracy and human rights. Washington, along
with human rights groups and other observers, had considered the charges
against Quan to be politically motivated.
.
Quan, who maintained a
popular blog that highlighted human rights abuses and other issues off-limits
to the state media, proclaimed his innocence throughout the one-day trial.
Hundreds of his supporters braved an intense security crackdown to rally in the
normally sleepy city during the trial.
"I have long been
denouncing and fighting against corruption, bureaucracy and the stagnation that
is doing harm to this country," Quan said. "To be frank, I was
prosecuted because I love this country," he said before the audio and
video feed into a side-room where a small number of reporters and diplomats
were allowed to listen to proceedings was briefly cut off.
Presiding Judge Le Thi
Hop said Quan was found guilty of evading corporate income tax of $30,000 in
relation to a consultancy he had headed before his arrest last December in
Hanoi. He was also fined $60,000. The maximum penalty Quan could have received
was seven years.
Trials in Vietnam do
not meet international standards for fairness, according to human rights
groups. Quan was giving access to lawyers during his detention, but his family
had been prevented from meeting him.
The U.S. Embassy in
Hanoi said the use of tax laws "to imprison government critics for
peacefully expressing their political views is disturbing" and called on
the government to "release all prisoners of conscience and allow
Vietnamese to peacefully express their political views."
The verdict could
complicate efforts by the Obama administration to press ahead with a free trade
pact it is currently negotiating with Vietnam and other Asian-Pacific nations.
Congress will have to pass any deal, and U.S. officials have said that ongoing
human rights abuses in the country will make it a difficult sell.
Quan, in his early
40s, was detained in 2007 for three months on his return from a U.S.
government-funded fellowship in Washington. He kept up his activism, meeting
with reporters and diplomats, and taking part in peaceful protests against
Chinese sovereignty claims over parts of the South China Sea in 2011. He is a
Roman Catholic and drew some of his support from the church, which has
difficult relations with the Hanoi government because of its social activism.
Vietnam converted to a
market economy in the late 1980s and wants to integrate with the world, but
maintains strict controls on freedom of speech and political expression.
Bloggers, activists and others are routinely arrested and imprisoned. Foreign
media representatives are allowed to live in Vietnam but are subject to restrictions
on where they can travel and what they can report.
The Internet has
emerged as a vital organizing tool for dissidents in recent years, and there
has been a surge of blogs and Facebook pages highlighting criticism of the
government. The rise of the Internet, combined with an economic slowdown, has
left the ruling elite feeling vulnerable.
In an interview with The Associated Press last September, Quan said he
was under constant surveillance and that he, his family and staff received
frequent warnings and pressure from authorities. But he pledged to keep
speaking out against the government and in favor of multi-party democracy and
freedom of speech and religion.
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