Vietnamese rights lawyer jailed over call for democracy

Cu Huy Ha Vu, son of a revolutionary leader, sentenced to 10 years' detention for calling for end of one-party system

guardian.co.uk, Associated Press in Hanoi, Monday 4 April 2011 13.07 BST

Cu Huy Ha Vu, centre, is escorted from court in Hanoi. His one-day trial saw
protests and the judge evicting one of his defence lawyers. Photograph: EPA

A dissident lawyer and son of a Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader has been sentenced to seven years in prison and a further three years' house arrest for calling for an end to Vietnam's government and its one-party system.

Cu Huy Ha Vu was sentenced after a dramatic one-day trial in Hanoi in which one of his defence attorneys was ejected by the judge and his other three lawyers walk out in protest. Vu was left alone to defend himself and had several heated exchanges with the judge.

The court convicted him of conducting propaganda against the state for calling for a multiparty government system, demanding the abolition of the Community party's leadership, defaming the state and distorting Vietnam's struggle for independence by calling the country's war against the US a civil war.

Vietnam does not tolerate any challenge to its one-party rule.

The 53-year-old Vu is the son of Cu Huy Can, a famous Vietnamese poet and revolutionary leader in the government formed by the late president, Ho Chi Minh, when he declared independence from France in 1945.

"I did not commit the crime of spreading propaganda against the state," Vu told the court. "This criminal case was invented against me. This case is completely illegal."

Judge Nguyen Huu Chinh disagreed.

"Born and raised into a revolutionary family, he did not sustain that tradition but instead committed erroneous acts," he said.

Vu's wife, Nguyen Thi Duong Ha, also a lawyer, said she believed her husband was innocent. "When you did not commit a crime, one cannot say your sentence was harsh or not," she said. "I think the sentencing was illegal."

Vu was arrested in November having attempted to file a lawsuit against the prime minister, Nguyen Tan Dung, in 2009 after a controversial Chinese-built bauxite mining project was approved in the Central Highlands. Vu argued the project violated environmental protection, national security and cultural heritage laws.

Court officials dropped the suit, saying they did not have the authority to put the country's leader on trial.

Vu attempted to sue Dung again a year later for prohibiting class-action lawsuits from being filed, saying it violated a constitutional guarantee of the right to "gather, form groups and protest in conformity with the law".

Security was tight around the courthouse on Monday, with police stopping traffic and pushing onlookers away. Limited access was given to international media organisations.

Vu's lawyers walked out of the courthouse after the judge refused to read or distribute 10 news interviews his client was accused of conducting with foreign media, including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia. The interviews were used as key evidence against him.

Last week the New-York based Human Rights Watch demanded Vu's release, calling him "one of the most prominent defenders of cultural, environmental and human rights in Vietnam".

"Vietnam should amend or repeal its broad national security laws instead of using them to silence peaceful government critics," Phil Robertson, the group's deputy Asia director, said in a statement. "How can Vietnam become a country governed by the rule of law if the government continues to punish legal advocates?"

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