Giới bảo vệ nhân quyền chỉ trích bản án đối với ông Phạm Minh Hoàng

Chính quyền Việt Nam phải ngay lập tức trả tự do cho blogger Phạm Minh Hoàng. Đó là lời kêu gọi của Tổ chức Ân xá Quốc tế trong thông cáo báo chí đề ngày 10/8.

Phó giám đốc phụ trách khu vực Châu Á-Thái Bình Dương trong tổ chức Ân xá Quốc tế, Donna Guest, tố cáo bỏ tù một blogger chỉ vì người ấy đã hành xử quyền tự do bày tỏ ý kiến một cách ôn hòa là một việc làm vô nhân đạo.

Bà Donna nói tiếp bản án của ông Hoàng và việc tiếp tục bắt giữ các nhà hoạt động cùng các blogger càng tô đậm bức tranh nhân quyền đen tối của Việt Nam.

Cùng ngày, cơ quan bảo vệ ký giả quốc tế mang tên Tổ chức Phóng viên Không biên giới tại Pháp lên án rằng bản án của ông Minh Hoàng cho thấy một xu hướng nguy hiểm tiến tới tình trạng ‘kiểm duyệt theo kiểu Trung Quốc’ tại Việt Nam.

Giám đốc Thông tin của RSF, ông Gilles Lordet, cho Ban Việt Ngữ VOA biết:

“Chúng tôi rất bàng hoàng vì bản án này cho thấy chính phủ cộng sản Việt Nam ngày càng đàn áp quyền tự do ngôn luận nhiều hơn. Ngoài lá thư chúng tôi đã gửi tới Thủ tướng Việt Nam, trong thông cáo báo chí của Tổ chức Phóng viên không biên giới hôm nay, chúng tôi cũng kêu gọi chính phủ Pháp tăng áp lực, yêu cầu chính quyền Hà Nội trả tự do cho ông Phạm Minh Hoàng.”

Việt Nam nằm trong danh sách ‘Những kẻ thù của internet’ do Tổ chức Phóng viên không biên giới công bố hồi tháng 3 năm nay, đứng thứ 165 trong tổng số 178 quốc gia trên danh sách chỉ số về tự do báo chí.

[url]http://www.voanews.com/vietnamese/news/vietnam/media-watchdog-slams-vn-08-11-2011-127516428.html[/url]

French-Vietnamese blogger sentenced to three years in prison

Published on Wednesday 10 August 2011.



Reporters Without Borders firmly condemns the sentence of three years in prison and three years of house arrest that a Hanoi court passed today on Pham Minh Hoang, a university teacher and blogger with French and Vietnamese dual nationality, on a charge of trying to overthrow the government. Hoang tried to “undermine national security,” Judge Vu Phi Long said during today’s trial. Hoang has decided to appeal and asks the French authorities to pressure the Vietnamese government to review his sentence, a friend said
“Pham Minh Hoang should not be in prison,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He is a citizen who just expressed his views on matters of interest to Vietnam. His conviction reflects a dangerous trend in Vietnam towards ‘Chinese-style’ censorship.
“Prime Minister Nguyen Tang Dung, who has just been given another five-year term and has been appointed Security and Defence Council vice-president, has instigated a crackdown that bodes ill for journalists, bloggers and free speech defenders. We urge France and the rest of Europe to make their voices heard so that their citizen can be freed as soon as possible.”
A politically-committed blogger using the pen-name of Phan Kien Quoc, Hoang wrote articles that circulated widely online on education, the environment and the defence of Vietnam’s sovereignty in its relations with China.

He participated in a campaign against Chinese mining of bauxite in Vietnam’s central highlands and gave extra-curricular training in leadership to his students. He is also a member of the banned pro-democracy party Viet Tan.

Armed security agents tried to intimidate journalists during today’s trial and to dissuade them from covering the proceedings. The judge ruled that Hoang had “blackened the image of the country” and was guilty of “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government.” Arrested on 13 August 2010, Hoang spent almost a year in pre-trial detention. Under Vietnamese law, this will be discounted from the jail time he has to serve.
Hoang’s conviction comes just eight days after an appeal court upheld a seven-year jail sentence for another prominent blogger and dissident, Cu Huy Ha Vu. And Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest and editor of the underground publication Tu Do Ngon Luan, was returned to jail just two weeks ago after a year and a half on parole because of very poor health.
Reporters Without Borders wrote to the prime minister on 8 August urging him to “reverse this trend” and to “stop the political arrests and trials.”
Vietnamese foreign ministry spokesperson Nguyen Phuong Nga insisted on 27 July that “all of the basic rights and freedoms figure in the Vietnamese constitution and in the laws that are below it” and “are respected in practice too.” In Vietnam, “no one is punished for expressing their opinions,” she claimed.
The legality of the activities of Hoang and the other jailed netizens is guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and articles 35, 50, 53 and 69 of Vietnam’s own constitution.

Vietnam is on the Reporters Without Borders list of “Enemies of the Internet” that was released on 12 March and is ranked 165th out of 178 countries in the Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.


[url]http://en.rsf.org/vietnam-french-vietnamese-blogger-10-08-2011,40766.html[/url]


In the same country » Vietnam

* Letter to prime minister requesting blogger Pham Minh Hoang’s release - 8 August 2011
* Blogger Paulus Le Son arrested again amid mounting tension - 4 August 2011
* Court upholds seven-year jail term for blogger Cu Huy Ha Vu - 2 August 2011
* Ailing dissident Catholic priest sent back to prison - 28 July 2011
* Independent publisher freed, but questioned again - 5 May 2011

[url]http://en.rsf.org/vietnam-french-vietnamese-blogger-10-08-2011,40766.html[/url]

Vietnam jails French-Vietnamese teacher over blogs


August 10, 2011

A French-Vietnamese math professor was sentenced Wednesday to three years in a Vietnamese prison for belonging to a banned pro-democracy group and publishing an anti-Communist blog, his lawyer said.

Pham Minh Hoang, 56, was found guilty of trying to overthrow the government by posting 33 articles against the one-party Communist system, as well as of holding membership in the banned Viet Tan group and recruiting others to join it. It was the second high-profile dissident trial in just over a week.

[B]U.S.-based Viet Tan says it is a nonviolent advocate of democracy, but Hanoi considers it a terror organization — a claim U.S. officials say they have not found any evidence to support.
[/B]

France’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement saying it “strongly deplores the conviction’’ and that French consular officials had repeatedly pleaded with Vietnamese authorities for a “favorable solution.’’

“We hope that this decision is reconsidered, so that Pham Minh Hoang can be freed as soon as possible,’’ it said.

Hoang told the court during the half-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City that he joined Viet Tan in France where it is not banned and that he did not do anything to oppose the government, according to defense lawyer Tran Vu Hai.

Hoang, who was teaching math at a Ho Chi Minh City university at the time of his arrest, said he returned to Vietnam in 2000 to contribute to the country and take care of his ailing parents, Hai said.

The court convicted him on charges that included attending a Viet Tan-organized course in Malaysia and helping to recruit new Vietnamese members, Hai said.

The Communist government does not tolerate dissent, and rights groups say it uses vague national security laws to imprison anyone who challenges its rule. Hanoi maintains that only lawbreakers are jailed, but there has been a wave of crackdowns since the country’s new government took over last month.

Last week, an appeals court in Hanoi upheld a seven-year prison sentence for the dissident son of one of Vietnam’s founding revolutionaries, despite arguments that his support for a multiparty system did not mean he was against the Communist Party.

The ruling against Cu Huy Ha Vu drew immediate criticism from activists, the U.S. government and the European Union.

The Communist Party newspaper Nhan Dan on Wednesday quoted Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Nguyen Phuong Nga as saying Hanoi rejected what it called “statements that interfere with its internal affairs.’’

Two weeks ago the United States also called for the release of one of Vietnam’s best-known pro-democracy activists, a Roman Catholic priest suffering from a brain tumor. The Rev. Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, 65, was sent back to prison after receiving more than a year of medical leave.


[url]http://articles.boston.com/2011-08-10/business/29872864_1_hanoi-vietnamese-authorities-viet-tan[/url]

[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/10/vietnam-blogger-jailed[/url]