Vietnam to try Americans as terrorists Friday in alleged radio plot

dpa German Press Agency
Published: Tuesday November 7, 2006

Hanoi- Vietnam will try three naturalized US citizens on terrorism charges Friday over an alleged plot to use radio transmitters to take over state airwaves and call for an uprising against the communist government, a judge said Tuesday. Vietnamese-born Thuong Nguyen "Cuc" Foshee and Le Van Binh, both of Florida, and Huynh Bich Lien "Linda" of California, were scheduled to stand trial in the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court on Friday along with four Vietnamese nationals. It was unclear whether the trial, expected to last a single day, would be open to the public.

"They are charged with terrorism," said Bui Hoang Danh, the court's chief judge. "It means that they may face sentences of at least 12 years imprisonment or even death sentences."

The defendants are accused of bringing 14 radio transmitters and five generators into Vietnam in early 2005, allegedly planning to electronically seize control of the Voice of Vietnam Radio and call for an uprising against the government, according to Nhan Dan, the official Communist Party newspaper.

Danh would not elaborate on how the alleged radio-jamming could be interpreted as a deadly act, but the Nhan Dan article briefly mentioned that the alleged plot also involved plans to "jam and disturb" aviation radio communication.

The defendants rented a house in Cambodia and opened a phony charity organization in order to train in broadcasting skills, Danh was quoted as saying by the Vietnam News Agency.

Vietnam's government says the seven defendants were following orders of Nguyen Huu Chanh, a California-based exile who is Vietnam's most-wanted man.

Chanh was arrested earlier this year in South Korea earlier this year on a request from Hanoi, but later freed after a court in Seoul ruled the charges against him were political and declined to extradite him to Vietnam.

Supporters say the accused are political and human rights activists, not terrorists. The case has reopened longstanding animosity between the communist government in Hanoi and the Vietnamese exiles who fled after the fall of US-backed South Vietnamese regime ended the Vietnam War in 1975.

The high-profile trial will come a week before US President George Bush visits Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation leaders meeting, and as the US Congress prepares to vote on Permanent Normal Trade Relations, which would finalize a bilateral agreement for Vietnam to join the World Trade Organization.

US Senator Mel Martinez of Florida has threatened to block the trade vote over the case of Foshee, a 58-year-old landscaper from Orlando.

Vietnam would be able to join the WTO without the US ratification, but such a situation, nearly unprecedented, would leave Vietnam unable to reap new WTO benefits such as dropping tariffs with its biggest export market.

Foshee, 58, has been held in a Ho Chi Minh City jail without charge for a year after being arrested in November 2005. It was unclear when the others were arrested.

The alleged radio plot is not that first time that Chanh, former self-declared "prime minister" of an exile group he calls the Government of Free Vietnam, has stirred up controversy between his birth country and his adopted US home.

Just five years ago, the shady group openly called for forcible overthrow of Hanoi's regime and its members were linked to several bombings of Vietnamese embassies abroad.

Chanh himself has boastingly claimed responsibility for torching Vietnamese embassies, and of having connections in the US Congress and the Republican Party. But he later said he renounced violence after the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US, and that he founded a charity dedicated to combatting human trafficking.

Vietnam still considers Chanh a dangerous terrorist and seeks to arrest anyone with links to him or his group, which has recently been focusing on peaceful anti-communist protests and civic organization.

In August, the government arrested another Vietnamese-American, Cong Thanh Do, 47, and accused him of terrorism and links to Chanh.

Human rights' groups said that Do was targeted for his on-line pro-democracy writings under the pen name "Nam Tran," and decried the arrest as an attempt to stifle a US citizen's free speech made on American soil. Do was freed in September.

© 2006 dpa German Press Agency