Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. Military Space News .




SUPERPOWERS
Vietnam jails activists for up to three years
by Staff Writers
Hanoi (AFP) Aug 26, 2014


A Vietnamese court has jailed three activists for up to three years, a lawyer said Tuesday, after a one-day trial marked by strict security including the detention of scores of supporters.

Bui Thi Minh Hang, a high-profile anti-China activist and the most prominent of the three, was given a three-year jail term by the court in the southern Mekong Delta province of Dong Thap.

She was found guilty of "causing public disorder", her lawyer Tran Thu Nam told AFP.

Hang, 50, was arrested alongside the two other activists in February when they were on their way to visit a former political prisoner who lives in Dong Thap province.

Rights activist Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh, 28, was jailed for two years.

Nguyen Van Minh, 34, who is an independent Hoa Hao Buddhist practitioner, received a two-and a-half year jail term. All faced the same charges.

"All the defendants denied the charges against them and pleaded not guilty," lawyer Nam added.

Scores of people trying to attend the trial were detained, according to activists and online reports.

"About 60 or 70 people -- they arrested them and beat them at the police station," activist Nguyen Lan Thang told AFP by phone from Dong Thap province.

The US embassy in Hanoi said it was "deeply concerned" by the convictions.

"The use of public disorder laws by Vietnamese authorities to imprison government critics for peacefully expressing their political views is alarming," it said in a statement, calling for their immediate release.

New York-based Human Rights Watch has slammed the trial. Vietnam was "resorting to bogus traffic offences to criminally prosecute activists," Phil Robertson, HRW's deputy Asia director, said in a statement.

Hang had previously been detained at a "re-education centre" for two years in 2011. Minh and Quynh were not well-known in Vietnam.

The trial comes as a senior politburo member, Le Hong Anh, is in Beijing for high-level talks aimed at easing tensions following violent anti-China riots in Vietnam in May.

Hanoi is locked in a bitter maritime territorial conflict with Beijing over disputed waters and island chains in the South China Sea.

In May Beijing moved a deep-sea oil rig into waters that Hanoi claims, triggering waves of protests across Vietnam in which at least three Chinese citizens died and scores of foreign-invested businesses were destroyed.

Diplomats say there have seemingly been fewer high-profile convictions of activists this year as Hanoi has sought support in the territorial dispute from the international community.

Former wartime foe Washington has suggested it could lift a ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam, introduced due to human rights concerns, pointing to purported improvements in Hanoi's rights record.

A number of activists, including Cu Huy Ha Vu, one of the country's most high-profile dissidents, have recently been released. Vu now lives in the US.

Vietnam, a one-party state, is regularly denounced by rights groups and Western governments for its intolerance of political dissent and systematic violations of freedom of religion.

.


Related Links
Learn about the Superpowers of the 21st Century at SpaceWar.com
Learn about nuclear weapons doctrine and defense at SpaceWar.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








SUPERPOWERS
Kiev says captured 10 Russian paratroopers in east Ukraine
Kiev (AFP) Aug 25, 2014
Ukraine's security service on Monday said its military in the war-torn east has captured 10 Russian paratroopers on Ukrainian soil and was questioning them as part of a criminal probe. Soldiers from the 331st regiment of 98th airborne division based in central Russia were taken near the Ukrainian village of Dzerkalne, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) southeast of the rebel hub Donetsk, it said ... read more


SUPERPOWERS
US Congress approves funding for Israel's Iron Dome

MEADS International touts its air defense system capabilities

Space surveillance satellites being sent into orbit

Patriot getting enhanced radar capabilities

SUPERPOWERS
SM-6 missile undergoes follow-on testing

U.S. Navy, Italy receiving more AARGM missiles

Nearly all Gaza rockets self-made: Israeli army

Russia has violated arms treaty by testing cruise missile: US

SUPERPOWERS
Iran says it downed Israeli drone over nuclear site

Delivery by drone

Drones fly alongside manned planes in Navy test mission

US names New York test site for small drones

SUPERPOWERS
Harris' tactical manpack radio gets NSA certification

Saudis seek to upgrade AWAC planes

ADS will bid for USAF order for commercial satellite bandwidth

RRC supports Navy's Satellite Communications Facility in Virginia

SUPERPOWERS
Hungarian T-72 tanks on way to Czech Republic

Remington Outdoors facility to use Meggitt live-fire range systems

Supacat providing vehicles for Australian military

Military sensor needs focus of Swedish symposium

SUPERPOWERS
India says no to new deals with Finmeccanica

British arbitration tribunal backs up Raytheon

German coalition bickers over arms exports

Putin vows to boost arms sales to Egypt's Sisi

SUPERPOWERS
Taiwan says Chinese patrol aircraft entered its airspace

Indonesia's president satisfied on leaving office

United States demands Russia withdraw Ukraine convoy

Vietnam jails activists for up to three years

SUPERPOWERS
Introducing the multi-tasking nanoparticle

Electron microscopy enables imaging of gold nanoparticles

New Properties of Rotating Superfluids Discovered in Helium Nanodroplets

Shaping the Future of Nanocrystals




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.