A court in Vietnam convicted two exiled pro-democracy activists living in Germany of anti-state activities, state media reported, sentencing them in absentia to 17 years each in prison.
Nguyen Van Dai and Le Trung Khoa were charged with “making, storing, distributing, or spreading information, documents, or items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, the state media reported on Wednesday.
Both Germany-based dissidents were tried in separate cases in the one-party state where all political parties besides the ruling Communist Party are banned and critics of the government are frequently jailed.
Dai, a lawyer and activist, has long been a critic of Vietnam’s government and founded the Brotherhood for Democracy, a network of activists pushing for multi-party democracy.
Dai posted on Facebook on Tuesday calling the proceedings “a farce of justice designed to silence critical voices”.
In a separate trial at the same courthouse on Wednesday, journalist Khoa was also given a 17-year sentence for the same charge of anti-state activity.
Khoa is also living in Germany and, according to Vietnamese state media, had used his website to publish articles “attacking party and state leaders, distorting the situation on freedom of speech and media in Vietnam, and organising protests against Vietnam in Berlin”.
The public security ministry’s mouthpiece, the People’s Police newspaper, in a commentary piece early this week urged authorities in Germany to “take measures to prevent individuals such as Le Trung Khoa and Nguyen Van Dai from exploiting German territory and resources to undermine Vietnam and cooperate in extraditing or deporting these individuals to Vietnam for prosecution in accordance with the law”.
Relations between Germany and Vietnam were badly bruised in 2017 by a Cold War-style kidnapping of a fugitive executive from a Berlin park. — AFP
