ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <TITLE> Doi Thoai - Tu Do Dan Chu cho To Quoc Viet Nam - Vu An Nguyen Khac Toan</TITLE> <META NAME="Generator" CONTENT=""> <META NAME="Author" CONTENT="doithoai"> <META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="Viet Nam, Viet, vietnam, vietnamese,free press for vietnam, Democracy, Freedom, Nguoi Viet, Vietnamese Dissidents, Dau Tranh, Que Huong, Tin tuc, tac gia, van chuong viet nam, vietnamese culture, Saigon, Hanoi, Hue, vietnamien, vietnamiens, Vietnamien, Vietnamiens,nguyen khac toan, News, news,Community, community, communauté, Communauté, Phuong Nam."> <META NAME="Description" CONTENT="Vietnamese newspaper fighting for free press in vietnam, the voice of freedom writers being oppressed by the Vietnamese communist party. "> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="doithoai.css"></link> </HEAD> <body bgcolor="#F0F8FF"> <div align="justify"> <!-- bài b¯t §u të ây....--> <table width="100%" bgColor="#CCCCFF" border=2> <tr><td width="100%"> <h2 align=center><font color="red">Vå Án NguyÅn Kh¯c Toàn </font></h2> </td></tr></table> <!-- bài b¯t §u të ây....--> <h3 align=center>VIETNAM: 12 YEARS IMPRISONMENT TO Mr NGUYEN KHAC TOAN FOR DEFENDING POOR PEASANTS AND USING INTERNET ! EUROPE HAS NOTHING TO SAY ?</h3> <p>Brussels, 25 December 2002. Mr Nguyen Khac Toan, 47, was sentenced on December 20 to 12 years in prison and 3 years probationary detention by the People's Court in Hanoi in trial which lasted less than one day. He was charged with "espionage" (Art. 80 of the Criminal Code). The Communist Party's official mouthpiece "Nhan Dan" (The People) stated that he had "slandered and denigrated the executives of the Party and State" by providing information to "exiled reactionaries" overseas. The trial was closed to the public. His lawyer was only able to meet his client twice before the trial (on 16th and 19th December), and was not allowed to speak to him in private. Born in Hanoi in 1955, he was formerly a soldier in the North Vietnamese Army and he is presently a businessman. Over the past 2 years, following demonstrations in Hanoi staged by farmers protesting against state confiscation of land, he had helped farmers' representatives to draft petitions to the National Assembly. He had also imparted information on these demonstrations via the Internet. He was arrested on January 8th. Police searched his home and confiscated several documents. He was detained in the notorious B 14 (Thanh Liet) Prison. <p>This extremely harsh sentence against Nguyen Khac Toan is one more episode in a new crackdown against dissenting voices in Vietnam. Le Chi Quang was sentenced to 4 years in prison on November 8th 2002. Dr Pham Hong Son, journalist Nguyen Vu Binh and professor Vu Ngoc Binh are also currently detained for using the Internet to call for peaceful political reforms. Vietnam has recently stepped up restrictions on freedom of expression and the use of the Internet. The UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva recently criticized these legal restrictions in their review of Vietnam's implementation of the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) in July 2002. The UN Committee also criticized Vietnam's loosely worded national security legislation, including offences such as "espionage", which criminalizes activities that are perfectly legal under international law. <p>Question of Olivier Dupuis, secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and member of the European Parliament, to the European Commission <p><i>"Is the Commission informed about the condemnation of Mr Nguyen Khac Toan ? Has the Commission formally asked to be allowed to assit to the trial ? What's the Commission evaluation of this intensified repression against democracy activists in Vietnam and does the Commission consider that this is compatible with the strenghtening of its cooperation policy with this country ?"</i> <p><a href="http://www.radicalparty.org/" target="_blank"><b>www.radicalparty.org</b></a></p> <hr></hr> <p align=right><a href="vuan_nguyenkhactoan.html"><b>Vå Án NguyÅn Kh¯c Toàn</b></a></p> </div> </BODY> </HTML>