RFA - January 30,2013
Authorities send the opposition member home after nine months of detention.
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| Nguyen Quoc Quan was detained in Saigon (Prey Nokor) City, |
Nguyen Quoc Quan, 59, was arrested on April 17 last year as he deplaned in Tan Son Nhat airport and charged with terrorism for allegedly trying to disrupt the anniversary of the fall of Saigon at the end of the Vietnam conflict.
Also known as Richard Nguyen, Quan is a member of the Viet Tan Party—a U.S.-based opposition group outlawed in the one-party communist state, and which credited “immense international pressure” for his release.
"Vietnam has expelled Nguyen Quoc Quan, who is an American citizen," the state-run Vietnam News Agency said in an online report Wednesday.
"Quan admitted his crimes, asking for leniency so that he could go back to the United States and be with his family," the report said, without providing additional details.
Following his arrest last year, state media reported that Quan “had schemes to execute some demonstration and terrorist activities planned by the overseas terrorist organization Viet Tan” to mark the April 30 anniversary of the fall of the U.S.-backed regime in southern Vietnam.
It said Quan’s plot had been revealed through an investigation by the Ministry of Security and that he subsequently “admitted to his involvement in the criminal activities.”
In August, Vietnamese authorities “quietly” changed the democracy activist’s charges from terrorism, under Article 84 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, to subversion, under Article 79, for merely being a member of Viet Tan.
He was due to go on trial earlier this month but the proceedings were cancelled without official explanation.
Release welcomed
In a statement Wednesday, Viet Tan expressed gratitude to the international community for exerting pressure on the Vietnamese government to secure Quan’s freedom.
“After months of illegal detention with limited access to legal counsel, Dr. Quan’s release comes amidst immense international pressure for his case,” the statement said.
“Viet Tan opposes the illegal detention of Dr. Quan and strongly rejects the Hanoi regime’s attempt at smearing the peaceful activities of Viet Tan.”
Quan’s U.S.-based attorney Linda Malone called the activist’s release “a major and wonderful surprise,” particularly in light of the Vietnamese government’s ongoing trial of 22 members of an obscure environmental group for trying to “overthrow” the country’s communist leadership and convictions of others on similar charges this year.
“Vietnamese authorities have been quoted as saying that he had admitted to his charges and asked for leniency,” Malone said.
“His wife has noted that this is patently untrue as, if he had admitted to the charges, he could have been released months ago,” she said.
Malone said media attention, public concern, and the efforts of the U.S. State Department had been “critical in preventing conviction of a U.S. citizen for exercising a clearly protected human right to freedom of speech and thought.”
Quan, who received his doctorate in mathematics from North Carolina State University, is a former high school teacher in Vietnam.
He was previously detained by Vietnamese authorities in November 2007 and held for six months for distributing materials promoting nonviolent tactics for civil resistance before being deported in May 2008.
Crackdown
Vietnamese authorities have jailed dozens of political dissidents since launching a crackdown on freedom of expression at the end of 2009.
Earlier this month, a court convicted 14 activists, including Catholics, students, and blogger under Article 79 for their involvement with Viet Tan. Nearly all of them were ordered jailed for between three and 13 years in prison.
Article 79 forbids “carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration” or establishing or joining organizations with the intent to do so.
Rights groups say Article 79 has been used in the past as a pretext to repress and silence peaceful democratic voices.
Reported by Joshua Lipes.
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