Vietnam jails net dissident for 12 years
The Vietnamese government has jailed a former teacher for 12 years on espionage charges for collecting anti-government material via the internet. Last month another teacher was jailed for publishing anti-Communist articles on the web.
The state-run Vietnam News Agency said late on Friday that the People’s Court of Hanoi sentenced Nguyen Khac Toan on a charge of espionage. Toan, a resident of the capital city, “received direct orders” from members of an exile “Vietnamese reactionary organization” based in France to gather letters of complaints and protests from those unhappy with Hanoi. The group was not identified. Amnesty said Toan had been a soldier and a mathematics teacher before going into business. “The branding of Nguyen Khac Toan as a ‘spy’ not only stifles freedom of expression through the use of loosely worded national security legislation but also criminalizes activities which are regarded as perfectly legal under international law and in most countries of the world,” Amnesty said. – Reuters, Vietnam ‘Spy’ Gets 12 Years for Internet Dissent