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VIETNAM
Pham Hong Son
Vietnam to free cyber dissident Pham Hong Son ( Audio Update, August 30, 2006 )
On March 27, 2002, police arrested thirty-four year-old Pham Hong Son. Son had translated an article from the website of the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam, titled "What is Democracy," and sent it to his friends and senior Vietnamese officials. In addition, he had written an open letter, which was published on the Internet, protesting the fact that his house had been searched and his computer and documents confiscated.
Son was charged with espionage by the government, which accused him of "collecting and dispatching news and documents for a foreign country to be used against the Socialist State of Vietnam."
After a half-day closed trial in Hanoi on June 18, 2003 Pham Hong Son was sentenced to thirteen years' imprisonment and three years of house arrest on espionage charges under article 80 of Vietnam's penal code. (See indictment) Western reporters and diplomats from Europe, the United States, and Canada were barred from attending the trial (See additional news in English in Vietnamese.)
On August 26, 2003 Pham Hong Son appealed his case in a closed trial before Vietnam's Supreme Court. International observers and Western journalists were barred from the proceedings, although diplomats from more than eight countries gathered outside the courthouse during the trial to register their concern. The Supreme Court ruled that Pham's sentence be reduced from thirteen to five years, plus an additional three years of house arrest.
In July 2003, Pham Hong Son was selected for a Hellman/Hammett grant in recognition of the courage with which he has faced political persecution.
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