BẢN LÊN TIẾNG

Đòi Trả Tự Do Cho Ký Gỉa NGUYỄN VŨ BÌNH Đang Bị Trọng Bệnh

Ký tên:

1. Lê Minh Nguyên – Mạng Lưới Nhân Quyền Viêt Nam

Request To Free

The Seriously Sick Journalist NGUYEN VU BINH

 Journalist Nguyen Vu Binh (NVB), 38 years of age, was slandered and sentenced by a Hanoi People’s Court on 12-31-2003 in a merely 3-hour trial to 7 years in prison and 3 years under house arrest, based on Article 80 of Vietnam’s Criminal Law. He appealed but the sentence was retained by a court on 5-5-2004, causing him to go on fasting for 2 weeks in protest.

 His sentence was for “espionage” but not a single nation involved was cited, showing that the law was permitted to be applied at will to suppress the citizens’ right of peaceful expression as well as their other human rights. This is a rude violation of international laws that Vietnam has pledged to comply with, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Worse, the sentence was a contradiction to the democracy principles of Vietnam’s Constitution.

 Mr. NVB used to work nearly 10 years for the official “Communist Magazine” of the Vietnamese Communist Government (VCG) until he resigned in December 2000 to attempt to found a political party. He also belonged in a group that planned to organize the “People Against Corruption Association’ in 2001. Both his endeavors met with failure, leading him to post on the Internet his writings about the necessity of political and economic reforms. As a reward, he received the Hellmann/Hammett Award offered to victims of political suppression. In July 2002, he sent to the U.S. Congress a testimony on the human rights violations in Vietnam during its hearing on the issue, resulting in his arrest in September of that year. Instead of respecting his civil rights in peaceful expressions of disagreements, the VCP resorts to national security laws to impose harsh prison sentences. 

On November 2, 2006 Doctor Pham Hong Son, a recently released prisoner of conscience, sent an urgent message from Hanoi, reporting the deterioration of Mr. NVB’s health due to very high blood pressure and the serious disorder of his digestion system. According to Mr. NVB’s wife, Ms. Bui Kim Ngan, who was visiting him in early of November 2006 at his isolated cell of the Ba Sao prison, Ha Nam province where he has been staying for more than four years, the government ignored his sickness, gave no medical treatment and permitted her only thirty five minutes visiting. 

The VCG has been violating the roles of government in trying to censor or imprison the freedom and democracy activists who express their views peacefully.  

We, individuals and organizations, inside and outside of Vietnam, request the VCG immediately release Mr. Nguyen Vu Binh and all the prisoners currently in jail or under house arrest who expressed their views peacefully; stop all apprehension, oppression, imprisonment against them; and respect their human rights which the Vietnam’s Constitution and International Laws have clearly defined. 

Westminster November 8, 2006. 

Signed: 

1.  Le Minh Nguyen - Vietnam Human Rights Network