Two state employees tried for dissent

Two state employees were tried in Hanoi Dec. 29, on the charge that they "wrote and sent many documents and petitions to State agencies, distorting the Party and Government's economic policy, and speaking ill of Party and State leaders and central agencies." The court sentenced Tran Van Luong, 65, to 21 months in prison, and Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Hoan, 57, to 8 months in prison for "abuse of the right to freedom and democracy by violating the State's interests and the legitimate rights and interests of organisations and citizens and by counterfeiting an organisational seal."

They were arrested in June when police seized more than 10 kg. of "ill-willed documents". At the time of their arrest Luong was Director of the Workshop for Technical Experiment of Physics at the Applied Physics Centre of the Viet Nam Institute of Science and Technology, and Nguyen Thi Minh Hoan was the former Vice Director of the Workshop. (Vietnam News Agency, Dec. 30; Deutsche Presse-Agentur Dec. 29).