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Vietnam authorities release dissident priest from prison

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Vietnamese authorities on Monday released a Catholic priest and leading rights activist from Hanoi prison. Father Nguyen Van Ly was released early Monday morning and has been reunited with his family in Hue. Ly had been arrested and charged in 2007 under Article 88 of Vietnam's Penal Code, which provides for the incarceration of individuals involved in "conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam." Ly was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for distributing anti-government documents and communicating with foreign pro-democracy activists. He suffered two strokes in 2009 that left him partially paralyzed. Calls for Ly's release included a June 2009 letter from 37 US senators addressed to President Nguyen Minh Triet. Ly is known as one of the founders of Vietnamese pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406. Ly's international counsel Freedom Now has praised him as a "prisoner of conscience". Ly's release comes days after the release of leading Vietnamese rights lawyer Le Thi Cong Nhan. No clear connection has been identified between the two incidents, but the releases happen in the midst of what some rights groups such as Human Rights Watch have termed a "campaign to silence dissent." At least 16 activists have been jailed in the last few months. Despite the releases of Ly and Nhan, other high-profile activists, such as human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, are still serving sentences.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on March 16, 2010 (boomark / email).