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| Cu Huy Ha Vu stands between policemen in front of the dock during his trial at a court in Hanoi, April 4, 2011. |
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued the call Tuesday in response to the seven-year prison sentence handed this week to Vietnamese legal scholar and human rights defender Cu Huy Ha Vu.
Leonard Leo, chairman of the independent, bipartisan commission, said it is "past time" for the administration of President Barack Obama to return Vietnam to its list of Countries of Particular Concern, which includes the likes of Burma, China and North Korea. Countries on the list can face additional action from the United States, including economic sanctions.
Vu, who has defended various dissidents including Roman Catholics, was convicted on Monday of conducting propaganda against the state and conducting acts considered dangerous to society. The case attracted widespread interest in Vietnam because of Vu's contacts among the ruling Communist Party elite.
Vu's father, a prominent poet, was a member of the first provisional Cabinet established by independence leader Ho Chi Minh in 1946.
Vu angered party leaders by filing lawsuits in 2009 and 2010 against Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, charging that his policies violated environmental laws and the constitution. The courts rejected the cases and Vu was arrested last year during a crackdown on dissidents ahead of a ruling party congress in January.
Vietnam was removed from the list of Countries of Particular Concern in 2006 amid improving relations with the United States. But Leo said said that placing it back on the list "will advance the United States' strategic interests" while "producing tangible religious freedom improvements on the ground."
The USCIRF is charged with monitoring religious freedom in countries around the world and making recommendations to the U.S. president, the Secretary of State and Congress.
VOA
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At his first instance trial in Hanoi today, Cu Huy Ha Vu, 54, who wrote many articles against the State and government, was sentenced to 7 years imprisonment.
Pursuant to Article 88, Section 1 of the Criminal Code, Vu was charged with “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The trial was chaired by Hanoi People's Court Chief Judge Nguyen Huu Chinh.
Four lawyers who defended Vu at the trial are Tran Dinh Trien, Tran Vu Hai, Ha Huy Son and Vuong Thi Thanh.
Nearly 30 local and international news agencies watched the trial through a monitor arranged outside the court room.
According to the indictment from the local People’s Procuracy, from 2009 to October 2010, Vu wrote many anti-State articles and posted them on the Internet.
Vu also wrote articles as reply for interviews from the Voice of America and the Radio Free Asia, in which he distorted and maligned Party and State guidelines and policies, defamed the administration and State institutions, and blackened the Vietnamese people’s resistance wars.
He also called for a multi-party regime in Vietnam and demanded Article 4 of the Vietnam’s Constitution be abolished.
The Ministry of Public Security’s investigators seized from Vu about 240 pages of anti-State documents.
The court concluded that the evidence and documents collected by the investigators proved that Vu’s acts constituted the crime of propagandizing against the State.
This afternoon, after taking all into account, the court gave the sentence to Vu.
From Tuoitrenews - page of Vietnam
there are some differences why?
"international news agencies" watch TV?
why don't they get in?
Europe joined the United States on Thursday in expressing concern over the jailing of a prominent Vietnamese dissident, saying the country's international reputation is at stake.
Differences because Vietnam news did not show true infomation. Vietnamese has to find right one in other one through the Internet.
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