WASHINGTON - A bipartisan group of 37 US senators have sent a letter to Vietnam's president calling for the "immediate and unconditional release" of a dissident Catholic priest jailed for eight years in 2007.
The lawmakers urged Nguyen Minh Triet to intervene in the case of Father Nguyen Van Ly, who was convicted in a half-day trial in the city of Hue for spreading propaganda against the communist state.
The senators -- led by Democrat Barbara Boxer and Republican Sam Brownback -- said Ly's trial appeared "seriously flawed," stressing that the pro-democracy activist was denied access to counsel and prevented from presenting a defense.
"Given these serious flaws in relation to his arrest, trial and imprisonment, we request that you facilitate Father Ly's immediate and unconditional release from prison, and allow him to return to his home and work without restrictions on his right to freedom of expression, association and movement," the letter said.
The 63-year-old priest has been jailed three times since the 1970s for a total of 14 years, and his 2007 trial drew condemnation from diplomats, Vietnam watchers and human rights groups for the one-party state that has gone to great lengths over the past year to boost its international prestige.
The senators' letter reminded the president of Vietnam's commitment to protect the rights of criminal defendants including "the presumption of innocence, the right to present a defense and the right to counsel.
"Father Ly's arrest, trial and ongoing detention in this instance call into question Vietnam's commitment to these fundamental principles," wrote the lawmakers, who also sought information on Ly's "health and welfare."
Two senators who strongly supported normalization of US-Vietnam ties in the 1990s, Democrat John Kerry and Republican John McCain, a prisoner of war in Hanoi for more than five years, did not sign the letter.
It comes just weeks after a Vietnamese human rights lawyer, Le Cong Dinh, was arrested for "propaganda" against the state. That case has sparked concern from European countries, the United States, and human rights watchdogs.
The US State Department in 2004 designated Vietnam as a "country of particular concern" for severe violations of religious freedom, then removed it from the list in November 2006 after Hanoi passed religious freedom legislation, including the outlawing of forced renunciations.
Maran Turner, executive director of advocacy group Freedom Now, said Hanoi has ignored recent calls to improve its human rights.
"We have actually seen further repression by the Vietnamese government, more now than in quite some time," Turner told AFP, citing arrests or harassment of religious figures, journalists and bloggers.
"At this time we feel they are backsliding," she added.
In May, the House of Representatives passed the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, into which an amendment was inserted calling on the State Department to re-list Vietnam as a "country of particular concern."
AFP
2 July 2009
