US embassy cable - 03HANOI2898

UNCLAS HANOI 002898 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV and DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PGOV, VM, HUMANR 
SUBJECT: CONVICTION OF TRAN DUNG TIEN 
 
REF: Hanoi 2847 
 
1.   (U) Activist Tran Dung Tien (usually described as a 
former bodyguard of Ho Chi Minh) was sentenced after a brief 
trial on November 12 to ten months in prison by the Hanoi 
People's Court under article of 258 of the Penal Code 
("Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests 
of the State"), the press office of the Ministry of Foreign 
Affairs confirmed to embassy.  Court officials declined to 
comment on the case.  The trial was closed to the public, 
press, and foreign diplomats.  Tien's wife and daughter were 
allowed to attend, but his brother and sister were barred 
from the courthouse.  It is unclear whether Tien was 
represented by legal counsel (reftel).  The sentence will 
recognize time already served; Tien should be released 
November 22. 
 
2.   (U) The atmosphere outside the court was marked by 
heavy police presence, with uniformed and plainclothes 
police attempting to herd observers as far from the 
courthouse as possible.  In addition to Tien's family, 
several political activists and friends showed up outside 
the courthouse, including well-known activists Nguyen Thanh 
Giang, and Hoang Minh Chinh.  Both activists openly 
criticized the trial and the lack of democratic freedoms in 
Vietnam to the assembled foreign press, with Chinh - himself 
a former revolutionary and ex-general secretary of the 
Vietnam Union of Youth Associations - declaiming that, were 
Ho Chi Minh alive today, even he could not stand against the 
power of the Communist Party.  Other activists present 
declined to talk with observers.  Tien's brother briefly 
denounced the trial publicly, but stopped speaking up after 
a conversation with what appeared to be a plainclothes 
security official. 
 
3.   (SBU) Comment: The relative leniency of Tien's sentence 
likely is in deference primarily to Tien's age and 
revolutionary connections, not the simultaneous presence of 
Defense Minister Tra in the U.S.  The court apparently 
attributed the light sentence to Tien's "confession," but 
press sources have claimed that Tien rejected the charges 
completely.  Upcoming but still apparently not scheduled 
trials of better known activists Tran Khue and Pham Que 
Duong -- whose December 2002 detentions Tien had originally 
denounced -- as well as that of Nguyen Dan Que, will likely 
result in much stiffer sentences, which Tien may feel 
compelled again to protest, even at the risk of another term 
in jail for himself. 
BURGHARDT