April 26, 2011
HANOI, Vietnam — A Vietnamese appeals court on Tuesday reduced the jail sentence given to a former Communist Party official turned democracy activist convicted of posting articles on the Internet calling for a multiparty system and democracy, his wife said.
Hoang Thi Tuoi said the court cut the prison term for her husband, Vi Duc Hoi, from eight years to five years at an hourlong proceeding in northern Lang Son province. The term for the house arrest he will serve after his release from prison also was reduced, from five years to three years, she said.
Hoi, 54, joined the Communist Party in 1980 and quickly rose to a high-ranking position that involved overseeing the education of future local party leaders. But he started calling for democratic reforms in 2006 and was expelled from the party a year later. He has blogged online and written essays calling for change in the government.
Tuoi said the judges from the Supreme People’s Court of Appeals announced they were decreasing the jail term because of Hoi’s sincerity and co-operation with investigators and his contribution to the party in the past.
“I think the sentence is still too harsh for what he did,” Tuoi said by telephone from Lang Son. “He just wrote articles to express his views. He did not do anything against the state.”
New York-based Human Rights Watch issued a statement last week urging the court to immediately release Hoi. The organization honoured him with an award in 2009 for his pro-democracy work.
“The government makes a mockery of rule of law when it imprisons former officials and party members for nothing more than their constructive criticism,” Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director, said in the statement.
Vietnam’s government maintains tight control over all aspects of life and does not tolerate any challenge to its one-party rule. It maintains that people are free to express themselves and that only lawbreakers are jailed.