Vietnam holding US activist accused of "terrorism," family says

Deutsche Presse Agentur
Published: Monday September 4, 2006

Hanoi- A Vietnamese-American man and self-professed democracy activist has been jailed in Vietnam for more than two weeks accused of terrorism, his family and a Vietnamese lawyer said Monday. Neither the US embassy nor Vietnam's government answered requests for comment Monday on the case of Cong Thanh Do, 47, a naturalized US citizen whose family says he was arrested August 14 while visiting family in southern Vietnam.

His family said that Do, who lives in San Jose, California and is an account officer for a company in nearby Sunnyvale, began a hunger strike Friday in a Ho Chi Minh City detention centre.

Vietnamese attorney Nguyen Van Dai, who has defended several dissidents in Vietnam, said Monday he has been in contact with Do's family and will apply to represent him in court.

"He has asked me to be his lawyer," said Hai, adding that he will apply to meet with Do in detention.

Do has admitted to being a central committee member of a Vietnamese pro-democracy group, the Democratic Party of Vietnam, his daughter Bien Dobui said by telephone. She said her father has written internet essays on democracy under the pen name "Nam Tran."

But she denied what she said were Vietnamese police accusations he was involved in a terrorist plot.

"He's completely non-violent," Bien Dobui, 21, said of her father. "From my point of view he was arrested because he is a member of this political party."

She also denied her father had any association with a US-based anti-communist group, the Government of Free Vietnam, whose members have been accused of attempted attacks on Vietnamese embassies in Bangkok and the Philippines.

Based in the Vietnamese exile community in Garden Grove, California, the Government of Free Vietnam has seen professed members arrested in the Philippines and in the US, accused of plotting bombing attacks on Vietnamese embassies in Bangkok and Manila.

Former GFV leader Nguyen Huu Chanh was arrested earlier this year in Seoul on the request of Vietnam, which wanted him extradited on terrorism charges. However, a South Korean court freed him last month saying it would not return people sought on political charges.

Do's family said that police who arrested him and briefly detained his wife in the southern seaside town of Phan Thiet produced a hand-written letter accusing him of associations with Chanh and of plotting a terrorist attack.

His wife, Jane Dobui, and their 9-year-old son who was visiting family with them, left Vietnam soon afterwards.

Vietnamese police were unavailable for comment on Monday and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not answer faxed requests for information. Monday was a public holiday in Vietnam in honour of National Day.

© 2006 DPA - Deutsche Presse-Agenteur