US embassy cable - 04HANOI1267

UNCLAS HANOI 001267 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV and DRL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, PREL, PGOV, VM, HUMANR 
SUBJECT: NGUYEN VU BINH'S SENTENCE UPHELD ON APPEAL 
 
REF: 03 Hanoi 3373 
 
1.   (U) The Appeals Court of Hanoi upheld activist Nguyen 
Vu Binh's sentence of seven years imprisonment and three 
years administrative detention at home during a May 5 
hearing, according to press reports and family friends. 
Court and Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials refused to 
confirm the verdict to Embassy. 
 
2.  (U)  Binh, a former journalist for Tap Chi Cong San 
(Communist Review), was detained in September 2002, and 
convicted on January 31, 2003, under article 80 (espionage) 
of Vietnam's Penal Code (reftel).  The appeal trial was 
closed to the public, press, and foreign diplomats.  Binh's 
wife and father were allowed to attend, but his brother, two 
sisters, and mother-in-law were barred from the courthouse. 
Binh was represented by two lawyers of his choosing, 
however.  Binh's family members reported to journalists that 
he had pleaded not guilty during the appeal, and plans a 
hunger strike to protest the result. 
 
3.  (SBU) Outside the court gates, uniformed and 
plainclothes police attempted to herd family members and 
observers away from the courthouse.  In addition to Binh's 
family, several political activists, including Hoang Minh 
Chinh, an ex-general secretary of the Vietnam Union of Youth 
Associations, stood outside the courthouse talking to 
journalists and demonstrating their support to the family. 
The atmosphere became difficult when a number of 
unidentified women came to the area and started manhandling 
and screaming at family members.  When police took no action 
to protect the peaceful observers, journalists and diplomats 
stood between the family members and their tormenters. 
Eventually, a police officer commanded police to restrain 
the aggressive individuals.  Binh's family later told 
journalists that, after international observers left the 
scene, the women returned and assaulted Binh's sister, 
leaving her with scratches and bruises, while police did 
nothing to help. 
 
4.  (SBU) Comment:  The refusal to reduce the sentence is 
disappointing, and somewhat of a surprise in light of what 
we had heard had been many statements of support made behind 
the scenes by long-standing CPV members and friends.  After 
the reduction of the sentence of Pham Hong Son in August and 
those the nephews and niece of Father Nguyen Van Ly in 
November, as well as the relatively lenient sentence given 
to Tran Dung Tien in November, it looked as if the GVN might 
be beginning to understand the importance to its 
international image of making gestures of judicial leniency 
and forgiveness.  Likely, Binh's refusal to admit guilt or 
express remorse was considered by the court (and CPV) as yet 
another hostile political gesture, hence obviating hopes for 
a reduction.  The apparently new tactic of female storm 
troopers attacking family members and observers outside the 
court is bizarre and so far inexplicable. 
BURGHARDT