A Catholic priest jailed for his criticism of Vietnam’s human rights record, has had his long prison sentence cut by five years for good behavior, the Vietnamese government said Thursday.
This Priest Should not Be in Jail!
The People's Court of the northern province of Ha Nam announced its decision on Wednesday to reduce the time Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, 57, will spend behind bars to 10 years.
Diplomats, however, said the move was aimed at appeasing Hanoi's human rights critics, particularly in the United States.
“He should never have been imprisoned in the first place and he should be released immediately,” said Raymond Burghardt, the US Ambassador to Vietnam.
Ly, a leading dissident and advocate for freedom of religion and expression, was handed a 15-year jail term, followed by five years' house arrest, on October 19, 2001 for undermining national unity.
A Storm of Protest
His sentence provoked a storm of protest from the United States and human rights groups. They have long charged the communist government with smothering all dissent by jailing democracy activists, critics of the regime and church leaders the government fears could undermine its grip on power.
The army mouthpiece, the Quan Doi Nhan Dan, said the decision to cut Ly's sentence was due “to his good behavior during his time in jail”. “When a person is still facing a 10-year jail sentence followed by five years of house arrest simply for the peaceful expression of his views, the government doesn't get much credit for such action,” said a Western diplomat.
The move followed the June 27 release of Vietnam's most famous Buddhist dissident Thich Quang Do two months earlier than scheduled from a two- year house arrest order.
“The Vietnamese government are becoming much more media savvy and this may all be part of that. I don't buy the government's argument that it is being humane and compassionate,” said another diplomat. “I don't think the timing of these two moves are coincidental either, given the Vietnam Human Rights Act in the United States,” he added.
Congress is currently considering legislation that would limit non-humanitarian aid to the Southeast Asian nation until there is an improvement in its rights record. Political observers say it is unlikely to be passed. Ly was placed under house arrest in March 2001 after providing written testimony to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom the previous month. He had been barred from travelling to Washington.
The priest — who led a small parish in the central city of Hue — had urged the US Congress to delay approval for the July 2000 US-Vietnam bilateral trade agreement until Hanoi eased curbs on religion. His statements outraged the Vietnamese government, which denounced him as a traitor. The trade pact came into force in December 2001. He was formally arrested in May and charged with violating his house arrest order.
A lifelong critic of Vietnam's record on religious rights, Ly had previously spent a total of 10 years in jail from 1977-78 and 1983-92 “for opposing the revolution and destroying the people's unity”.
© Copyright 2003 Agence France-Presse
They Are “Re-educating” Him!
The following is translated text of a report by the Vietnamese Newspaper Nhan Dan on July 17th 2003:
Mr Tran Cong Quyen, chief judge of the Ha Nam Province People's Court, signed on 16 July decision No 24/QD-TA to reduce by five years the prison term of prisoner Nguyen Van Ly as a result of his good behaviour during the re-education process while serving out his term.
Prisoner Nguyen Van Ly, born 1946, was prosecuted for “failing to obey the surveillance order of the responsible state authority” and “undermining the great unity policies” in accordance with Articles 269 and 87 of the Criminal Code. At the court trial on 19 October 2001, the Thua Thien Hue Province People's Court sentenced Nguyen Van Ly to 15 years in prison, followed by five years under surveillance at his place of residence.
(Source: Nhan Dan website, Hanoi, in Vietnamese July 17, 2003)
Emails in support of Fr. Ly can be sent to Nhan Dan editor-in-chief Dinh The Huynh.
