Internet dissident Huynh Nguyen Dao released

Dissident Huyen Nguyen Dao, age 41, was released Wednesday, Feb. 25, after serving a 2 1/2 year prison sentence for "storage of anti-government materials" and "propagandizing against the state." Dao, who writes under the pen name Huynh Viet Long, was arrested along with Le Nguyen Sang, Nguyen Bac Truyen and Vietnamese American Do Thanh Cong in August 2006. In addition to their dissident activities on Internet, all were co-founders of the Democratic Party, which like all other independent political parties in Vietnam is banned. Cong was expelled from the country in September 2006; while the other three were held in prison without trial until May 10, 2007. At the trial they were convicted of political opposition activities, with Sang sentenced to five years, Truyen to four years and Dao to three years. Dao's sentence was reduced to 2 1/2 years at an appeals hearing in Hanoi on August 17, 2007. Sang and Truyen remain in prison.

Dao said, "Every three months in jail, I was given a form to repent, but I always wrote that I was innocent." He said he served his full-term and did not apply for amnesty because he felt in doing so it would be an admission of guilt, when in fact he is performing his patriotic duty as a dissident voice of conscience in the nation.

Sources: Agence France Press, Feb. 18; Reporters without Borders Feb. 20; Viet Tan Feb. 18.