A dissident Catholic priest in Vietnam will stand trial Friday in the central city of Hue after a month-long investigation into spreading anti-government information, a court official said Wednesday.The trial is part of a general crackdown on several pro-democracy activists in Vietnam, which outlaws any political movement outside the Communist Party.
Father Nguyen Van Ly, 59, was detained by police last month at his parish in Hue and police reportedly seized copies of a pro-democracy magazine he was editing.
"The trial of Nguyen Van Ly will begin on March 30 and is expected to last one day," said Judge Bui Quoc Hiep, who is to preside the trial at the People's Court in Hue, 600 kilometers south of Hanoi.
The court had not decided whether the trial would be open to the public, the judge said Wednesday.
It also was still unclear what law Ly would be charged with breaking. Judge Hiep said the court's judicial council would decide later this week.
When Ly was detained last month, state media reported he was being investigated for violating Article 88 of Vietnam's criminal code, which outlaws "spreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic."
His detention came barely a month after Pope Benedict XVI met in the Vatican with Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in what the time was hailed a as a breakthrough in Catholic-Communist relations.
The Vatican has not commented on Ly's trial. Ly has been a frequent critic of the communist government. He has been imprisoned twice since 1983, most recently serving four years of a sentence for "undermining national unity," a crime under Article 87 of Vietnam's penal code.
He was released in a general amnesty in 2005. Since his release, Ly resumed working with Vietnam's small and illegal pro-democracy movement.
Ly and human-rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai - also recently arrested - have been accused in state-controlled media of working with US-based democracy groups to undermine the Communist Party by forming their own illegal parties and trying to field candidates in upcoming National Assembly elections.
The May 20 elections allow only one party - the Communists - to register candidates for the 500-seat Assembly, but "self-nominated" individuals may stand for office with the approval of the Communist-linked Fatherland Front.
State media accused Ly and Dai of plotting to recruit "undercover" candidates to nominate themselves for the non-Party seats, which make up 10-20 per cent of the total Assembly, and later push for further democracy within the system.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce