Vietnam jails lawyers in latest crackdown on democracy activists

dpa German Press Agency Published: Tuesday March 6, 2007

Hanoi- Vietnamese police on Tuesday arrested two prominent
human rights lawyers in the capital, with orders to jail them for
four months for investigation into "conducting propaganda against the
Socialist Republic," their supporters said.
The arrests were the latest moves in a harsh crackdown on the
communist country's small-but-growing dissident movement.

Attorney Nguyen Van Dai, 38, and his law partner Le Thi Cong Nhan,
27, were taken into custody separately at their homes on Tuesday
morning, according to Dai's wife, Vu Minh Khanh.

At about 10 a.m. Tuesday, six plainclothes police came to Dai's
home in Hanoi with a warrant for his arrest. The order read that he
would be held in detention for four months.

"They let him pack some belongings before they took him away,"
Dai's wife said by telephone.

Around the same time, Nhan was taken into custody under a similar
warrant, according to another supporter, Bui Ngoc Duong.

Dai had gained prominence for defending several pro-democracy
activists on trial for statements criticizing the Communist Party.

Nhan is a spokeswoman for the Vietnam Progression Party, an
illegal opposition party whose two founders were also arrested in a
crackdown last month.

Both Dai and Nhan are facing charges under Article 88 of the
Vietnamese criminal code, which forbids distributing information
opposing the government. The crime carries a 10-20 year prison
sentence, but under Vietnamese law, suspects can be held for between
four and sixteen months without a trial.

The arrests of Dai and Nhan follow last month's police detention
of dissident priest Father Nguyen Van Ly and also Nguyen Phong and
Nguyen Binh Thanh, the two co-founders of the Vietnam Progression
Party.

Vietnam's government did not answer a request for comment on
Tuesday.

The ongoing crackdown was condemned by Reporters San Frontiers
(RSF), a Paris-based group advocating freedom of expression.

A spokesman for RSF also said that now that Vietnam has joined the
World Trade Organization and hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) summit, it feels free to crush any opposition with
little international criticism or leverage.

"We were expecting a crackdown," said RSF spokesman, Julian Pain.
"Here it is."

The wave of dissident arrests may also be related to Vietnam's
planned May elections for the National Assembly.

Only the Communist Party can field candidates but the government
allows 10-20 per cent of the legislators to be individually
"self-nominated," as long as they are approved by the
communist-linked Fatherland Front.

There had been reports that some of the underground opposition
parties might publicly call for a boycott of the vote.

© 2006 - dpa German Press Agency

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