SEAPA condemns conviction of Vietnamese dissidents

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance, a coalition of journalist and press freedom advocacy groups from around Southeast Asia, released a statement condemning the conviction of Vietnamese lawyer Le Cong Dinh and three of his associates. SEAPA called for the unconditional release of Dinh, and expressed concern about what the sentencing would signal to the rest of the region. The Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism is a founding member of the organization, which has the specific mandate of promoting and protecting press freedom in Southeast Asia.

The full SEAPA statement follows.

SEAPA condemns conviction of Vietnamese lawyer; demands his release for sake of human rights and ASEAN

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.