Vietnam jails Australian citizen for 12 years on 'terrorism' charges

 

FILE PHOTO: Police escort Chau Van Kham (L) and Tran Van Quyen (R) to their trial at a court in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam November 11, 2019. Thanh Chung/VNA via Reuter/File Photo

 

HANOI (Reuters) - A court in Vietnam sentenced a 70-year-old Vietnamese-Australian man on Monday to 12 years in prison after finding him guilty of “terrorism”, a lawyer who attended the trial told Reuters.

 

The Ministry of Public Security said in a statement on its official news website that Chau Van Kham was being tried for being a member of the U.S.-based human rights group Viet Tan, which Vietnam regards as a “terrorist” body. It made no mention of the verdict.

 

It said Kham had helped raised funds for anti-state activities, joined anti-Vietnam protests in Australia and recruited members for Viet Tan.

 

Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism from both within and outside Vietnam.

 

The People’s Court of Ho Chi Mih City also ordered Kham, a retired baker from New South Wales of Vietnamese origin, to be deported after serving the sentence, lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng said.

 

“At the trial, Kham said he loves Vietnam and doesn’t have any intention to carry out terrorism activities in the country,” Mieng said. “The prosecutors stuck to the idea that he’s a member of Viet Tan to charge him with terrorism.”

 

“The jail terms for political prisoners are getting longer and longer,” added Mieng, who is representing a co-defendant of Kham.

 

Kham entered Vietnam from Cambodia in January this year when he gave $400 to a man named Nguyen Van Vien to fund the operations of Viet Tan, according to the police statement.

 

“This is a very serious case of national security infringement led by Viet Tan’s key people,” it said.

 

In a statement published last week, Viet Tan dismissed the case as a “sham trial”.

 

“Viet Tan will continue to support human rights defenders on the ground. Chau Van Kham entered Vietnam to gain first-hand insight into the human rights situation in the country,” the organization’s chairman, Do Hoang Diem, said in the statement.

 

According to Vietnamese police, Kham, a navy veteran of the now defunct U.S.-backed state of South Vietnam, sought asylum in Malaysia after leaving Vietnam in 1975 before moving to Australia in 1983.

 

Last week, a Ho Chi Minh City appeals court upheld a 12-year prison sentence against U.S. citizen Michael Nguyen who had been found guilty of “attempting to overthrow the state”.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-11-11

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All those who threaten the dictatorship are terrorists.

But but cheap visa

If you didn't tell me all I would see are Vietnamese. 

How long before this kind of thing comes to Thailand?

Exposing governments failings upsets many governments. Ask Julian Assange

14 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Vietnam jails Australian citizen for 12 years on 'terrorism' charges

 

A dangerous 'foreign' terrorist captured…and there’s not a single vinyl poster anywhere in sight. Vietnam certainly has a long way to go before they can catch up with Thailand.

 

 

I am not sure anywhere in the world that much terrorism could be produced with $400!

4 hours ago, Pravda said:

But but cheap visa

And no TM30 ????

4 hours ago, Borzandy said:

All those who threaten the dictatorship are terrorists.

I think criticizing would be more appropriate than threatening ????

4 hours ago, ukrules said:

How long before this kind of thing comes to Thailand?

Wasn't it Uighur terrorists that allegedly blew up the Erawan Shine in Bangkok... until the junta realized that admitting to having a terrorist threat (not to mention the human rights abuses they committed as a precursor to the event), would scare tourists away?

 

The terrorist card has been open to abuse by all sides ever since Dubya, Cheney and Rumsfeld misguidedly used it as their throw away reason to carry out all sorts of abuses. Assad in Syria, Erdoğan in Turkey, Hun Sen in Cambodia, Putin in Chechnya, Min Aung Hlaing in Burma... you see a trend here?

Without going into the ifs, buts and why for,the guy was formerly involved with the US and South Vietnamese and described as a Navy veteran on the side which lost the war.

 

He then managed to obtain Australian citizenship after first seeking asylum in Malaysia. He then joins a group based outside Vietnam, namely Viet Tan, which Vietnam regards as a terrorist organization.

 

Then he enters Vietnam via Cambodia and hands over the sum of $400, to the Viet Tan member based in Vietnam for whatever reason, but it certainly wasn't to buy noodles.

 

The guy is 70 years old in the Autumn, maybe winter of his life, why did he feel the need to get involved and ' stoke the fire ' .

 

He is Vietnamese, he knows what reaction this would cause.

 

He had improved his life beyond recognition in Australia, far better than it would have been had he stayed in Vietnam. He would probably have been executed long ago, had he stayed, in the ' clean up ' when the NVA invaded the South.

 

Limited sympathy for him, I think the sentence is ridiculous but these are sentences handed out i South East Asia.

9 hours ago, ukrules said:

How long before this kind of thing comes to Thailand?

We all know that it is already here. A cigarette brand with two initials.

Overstepped the mark,,,,,, not that smart.

Hong Kong residents will be next if they are not really careful & some will disappear never

to be seen again

If someone seeks asylum and then returns to the country that they said they couldn't live in to get asylum shouldn't their visa or what ever be null and void.