2007-12-11
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) – Vietnam has released a detained U.S. pro-democracy activist and sent him back to the United States, state television reported Tuesday.
Truong Van Ba, whose Americanized name is Leon Truong, was released from jail Tuesday afternoon and later departed from Ho Chi Minh City’s airport to the United States.
Vietnam state television showed Ba leaving jail and checking in at the airport.
Ba is a member of a U.S.-based pro-democracy group called Viet Tan, which Vietnam regards as a terrorist organization. Viet Tan says it supports nonviolent political change in Vietnam, and the U.S. government said it has seen no evidence that the group has terrorist aims.
«My father is on the plane right now and he’s coming back home,» Lauren Truong, Truong’s daughter, said by telephone from Washington, D.C. «I’m very happy and excited.
Truong was heading to his home in Hawaii, his daughter said.
Truong is one of four U.S. citizens who were detained in Vietnam last month on unspecified charges.
Arrested with Truong on Nov. 17 was U.S. resident Nguyen Quoc Quan and a French citizen, a Thai national and two Vietnamese.
Quan is still being detained in Vietnam, where authorities say he entered the country with a forged Cambodian passport.
Two other U.S. citizens were detained at the Ho Chi Minh City airport on Nov. 23 after Vietnamese authorities alleged that they entered the country with a firearm in their luggage.
U.S. officials say they have seen no evidence that the two sets of arrests are related, and Viet Tan says the U.S. citizens arrested at the airport do not belong to their group.
