VIETNAM – Now convicted: A lawyer defending bloggers
28 January 2010 10:28 pm

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) condemns in
the strongest possible terms the conviction on 20 January 2010 of Vietnamese
lawyer Le Cong Dinh, and expresses grave concern over its implications to the
overall human rights and free expression environment in Vietnam and Southeast
Asia. Lawyer Le Cong Dinh, after a one-day trial in Hanoi, was convicted of
subversion and meted a prison term of five years.

(Source: SEAPA, 21 January 2010)
BANGKOK — The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) condemns in
the strongest possible terms the conviction on 20 January 2010 of Vietnamese
lawyer Le Cong Dinh, and expresses grave concern over its implications to the
overall human rights and free expression environment in Vietnam and Southeast
Asia. Lawyer Le Cong Dinh, after a one-day trial in Hanoi, was convicted of
subversion and meted a prison term of five years.

Le Cong Dinh is an accomplished lawyer in Vietnam, known as much for his corporate
work as his courageous yet disciplined defense of writers and bloggers in the
country. Given his record and commitment to fight for free expression and human
rights from within the Vietnamese system, under the provisions of Vietnam's
very Constitution, his conviction sends an intimidating message to writers and
advocates rendered that much more defenseless, but also-most disturbingly-to
Vietnam's legal community itself. It seems it is not enough that Vietnam would
harass journalists, writers, artists, poets, and anybody with an independent,
critical mind; it would also now have little tolerance for lawyers who would
even bother to represent them.

SEAPA is additionally concerned by what the sentencing of Le Cong Dinh-charged
and convicted alongside three other Vietnamese citizens-would signal to the
rest of the Southeast Asian region. Vietnam, SEAPA notes, takes over the
chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year.
More troubling, it also is in a position to set the tone and direction for a
new ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) that must yet
prove its sincerity, credibility, and worth.

The conviction and imprisonment of a human rights lawyer in Vietnam cannot
possibly engender confidence in the prospects of the regional human rights
body.

SEAPA continues its call for the unconditional release of Le Cong Dinh. The
network of press freedom advocates also questions the integrity and fairness of
a trial that took all of one day. Vietnamese authorities at the very least must
review the conviction of Le Cong Dinh, preferably under a new, more
transparent, and fair judicial process open to independent observers from
within and outside Vietnam. The credibility not just of Vietnam, but also of
ASEAN, rests upon its treatment of Le Cong Dinh.