Hanoi - A Vietnamese court Thursday released dissident writer Tran Khai Thanh Thuy after sentencing her to time already served. Nguyen Huu Chinh, deputy chief judge at the Criminal Court of Hanoi, said Thuy had pled guilty to "causing public disorder," under Article 245 of Vietnam's criminal code.
Thuy was a member of the pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406, and wrote essays critical of Vietnam's Communist government over a period of several months in 2006. She edited an independent political newsletter, "To Quoc" (Fatherland).
Vietnam's government-controlled press has printed a wide range of charges against Thuy, including conspiring with other democracy activists to overthrow Vietnam's government, and urging foreign citizens to kidnap Vietnamese diplomats.
Human rights groups have protested Thuy's detention, saying she was being persecuted for her political views. In 2007, Human Rights Watch awarded her one of its Hellman/Hammett prizes for persecuted writers.
"Like dozens of other activists arrested during the last year and a half, she should never have been imprisoned simply for peaceful expression of her views," said a researcher for Human Rights Watch, who asked to remain anonymous.
"We are of course happy that she has been released, but remain concerned that she was held for more than nine months in pre-trial detention, prohibited from family visits, while suffering from TB."
Vietnam jailed a number of democracy activists in 2007, including the Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly and the human rights lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan. Most were sentenced to terms longer than those Thuy received, generally several years in prison, under Article 88 of the penal code, which forbids "spreading propaganda against the Vietnamese state."
Under Vietnamese law, all press organs must be affiliated with a government-approved organization, and independent publications like "To Quoc" are not permitted.
