Call on the Vietnamese authorities to release Trung

Trung's trial will take place in the next few weeks. Trung has recently been charged with attempting to overthrow the state and faces the death penalty.

Therefore, Amnesty International calls to write to the Vietnamese authorities as soon as possible to call for Trung's release, as well as Le Cong Dinh and Tran Anh Kim's.

If you wish to take part in this urgent action, write to the Prime Minister of Vietnam, as well as to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Vietnam, following the instructions of Amnesty International.

You can use as a basis the following model of letter:


Dear Prime Minister / Dear Minister

I am deeply concerned with the fact that the prisoners of conscience Le Cong Dinh, Nguyen Tien Trung and Tran Anh Kim have been charged under Article 79 of the Penal Code, which can carry the death penalty, solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression. Therefore, I ask you to release them immediately and unconditionally, and drop all charges against them.

Moreover, I ask you to ensure that they are allowed access to their families, and lawyers, and are provided with any medical attention they may require.

Finally, I ask you to either repeal or amend provisions in the 1999 Penal Code which criminalize peaceful political dissent.

Yours sincerely,


Addresses

Prime Minister
Nguyen Tan Dung
Government Office
1 Hoang Hoa Tham St.
Ba Dinh district, Ha Noi
Viet Nam
Fax: + 8443 804 4130
Email: vpcp@chinhphu.vn
Salutation: Dear Prime Minister

Minister of Foreign Affairs
Pham Gia Khiem
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
1 Ton That Dam Street
Ba Dinh district, Ha Noi
Viet Nam
Fax: + 8443 823 1872
Email: bc.mfa@mofa.gov.vn
Salutation: Dear Minister

Also send copies to diplomatic representatives accredited to your country.

Feel free to use all the mediums of communication, i.e., mail, e-mail and fax.
Please send appeals as soon as possible, and in any case before 8 February 2010.

Don't forget you can also send New Year postcards to the prison where Trung is detained.

Thank you for your support to Trung!

Send a postcard to Trung!

Trung is going to spend Christmas in jail. Therefore, we ask you to send him a Christmas postcard from your city. The idea is not to deliver a political message, but just to let him know we think to him.

His prison's address is the following:

Nguyễn Tiến Trung
Trại giam 34, 237 Nguyễn Văn Cừ
Quận 1, T.P. Hồ Chí Minh
Việt Nam

You can also print the 4 New Year postcards we prepared; hundreds of such postcards were sent in the last days. Download the pdf file.

Thank you very much for Trung!

At the conference of humain right

Committee for the Liberation of Nguyen Tien Trung - December 13, 2009
From left to right: Severine Ke Nguyen Vu, Nguyen Hoai Nam, Hon Viet Quoc

It was the Conference on Human Rights in Asia "Asia and the freedom of speech, press and media" organized by several Asian communities living in Paris as the Vietnamese, Chinese, Taiwanese , Tibetan, Laotian and Burmese community.

The conference aimed to promote the public on the topic of freedom of press and expression in Asia where the situation is getting worse now with the arrest of bloggers, activists Democrats who dared to ask for more freedom in their country.

This is the reason why members of the Committee for the Liberation were present and speak in public about Trung, collect signatures and distribute postcards to send to his prison in Vietnam.

Severine, vice chairman of the committee was authorized to speak publicly if Trung request for action by signing on the website freetrung.tk


Les cartes

Blogger and activist faces possible death penalty (RSF)

From RSF

Reporters Without Borders is deeply concerned about French-educated blogger and pro-democracy activist Nguyen Tien Trung, now facing a possible death penalty under article 79 of the criminal code after the charges against him were changed to “trying to overthrow the people’s government.” Arrested more than five months ago, he is due to be tried at the end of the month.

“We call for Nguyen Tien Trung’s immediate and unconditional release as the charges against him are entirely fabricated,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Trung is a pacifist who has never endangered the Vietnamese state. He just exercised his right to free expression, a right he learned to use in France.”

The press freedom organisation added: “Trung is a scapegoat. The authorities want to make an example of him in order to intimidate other Vietnamese students who want to press for more freedom when they return home after studying abroad.”

Trung’s family told Reporters Without Borders that his father was allowed to visit him on 10 December for the second time since his arrest. The authorities are reportedly now going to allow his family to visit him once a month. Trung seemed to be in good physical and psychological condition and did his best to reassure his father. He asked his father to bring him books, especially economics and French books. The authorities are considering the request.

A former student at the National Institute for Applied Sciences (INSA) in the northern French city of Rennes, where he got a masters in information technology, Trung was arrested at his parents’ home in Ho Chi Minh City on 7 July on a charge of propaganda against the state under article 88 of the criminal code. A government TV station broadcast taped footage in which he made a confession.

He seems to have been arrested because of the pro-democracy views he posted online and, in particular, an open letter to the government about education policies.

The Trung support committee website posted an opinion piece by Philippe Echart, who was one of Trung’s teachers at the INSA.

“It is strange for a teacher to realise that one his students, which whom he had a few talks and to whom he paid special attention because he was a foreigner, is now being in prison at the other end of the world, in his own country, on serious charges,” Echard writes. “And why is he in prison? For expressing his views freely. For criticising university education in Vietnam. For calling for more freedoms and more democracy, as many other intellectuals in his country have.”

The support committee is calling for a determined campaign on his behalf. “The worst that could happen to Trung is that people gradually forget him,” the committee’s appeal says. Trung’s friends and family have relaunched the campaign for his release. Sign a petition at the http://freetrung.tk website.

Letter of Nicole Kii-Nielsen, European deputy to the Embassador of Vietnam in France

Dear Sir The Ambassador,

I am writing to you about a young Vietnamese man, Nguyễn Tiến Trung. I am really worried about him. Trung, who studied in Rennes, the city where I live, for 5 years. He did not only obtained outstanding results but was also an open-minded young man and very dedicated to his country, Vietnam. He is a democratic activist and a pacifist. He created the Young Vietnamese For Democracy Association. However, he was arrested on the 7th of July. The reason for his arrest is still unclear. He has been in jail since this date.

I was in charge of the partnership between Rennes and Hué, as the assistant of the mayor of Rennes. I had an outstanding stay in Hué and I feel really linked to Vietnam and Vietnamese people. I am now an European deputy and a member of the Foreign Affair commission as well as a member of a commission for Human Rights. Due to my experiences as well as my responsibilities, I am really sensitive to the injustice that Trung is now facing. I see democracy, freedom of speech as well as right of association as the most important Human rights.

I thus would be really pleased if you could speak with your government so that Trung be released soon. This is about Humanism.

Your Excellency, M NGUYEN Dinh Bin, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,

Nicole Kiil-Nielsen

European Deputy

AFP - French-schooled activist could face death in Vietnam: father

A French-educated democracy activist could face the death penalty if convicted at a trial expected in Vietnam late this month, his father said on Thursday.

A French-educated democracy activist could face the death penalty if convicted at a trial expected in Vietnam late this month, his father said on Thursday.

Nguyen Tien Trung, 25, was arrested in July along with several others, including human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, and accused of anti-state activities.

The United States and European Union have expressed concern over their cases.

"Trung told me that probably he would be brought to trial at the end of this month," his father, Nguyen Tu Tu, told AFP after meeting his son in detention earlier in the day.

Trung was arrested for "propaganda against the state", which carries a prison term on conviction. But he is now facing the more serious charge of "subverting the people's administration", his father said.

The charge carries a maximum penalty of death.

Tu said this was the second time he had met his son since the arrest.

"He is fine," Tu said.

Dinh, Trung, and another activist, Tran Anh Kim, 60, are allegedly linked to the banned Vietnam Democratic Party, the state Vietnam News has reported.

Trung graduated from an engineering college in Rennes, France.

He was an outstanding student with a love of his country, French European Parliament member Nicole Kiil-Nielsen said in a letter to Vietnam's French embassy, calling for his release.

He is a "democrat and pacifist", she said in the letter posted on a blog set up by Trung's supporters.