CONVICTION OF TRAN DUNG TIEN

UNCLAS HANOI 002898 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV and DRL E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV VM HUMANR SUBJECT: CONVICTION OF TRAN DUNG TIEN REF: Hanoi 2847 ¶1. (U) Activist Tran Dung Tien (usually described as a former bodyguard of Ho Chi Minh) was sentenced after a brief trial on November 12 to ten months in prison by the Hanoi People's Court under article of 258 of the Penal Code ("Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State"),the press office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed to embassy. Court officials declined to comment on the case. The trial was closed to the public, press, and foreign diplomats. Tien's wife and daughter were allowed to attend, but his brother and sister were barred from the courthouse. It is unclear whether Tien was represented by legal counsel (reftel). The sentence will recognize time already served; Tien should be released November 22. ¶2. (U) The atmosphere outside the court was marked by heavy police presence, with uniformed and plainclothes police attempting to herd observers as far from the courthouse as possible. In addition to Tien's family, several political activists and friends showed up outside the courthouse, including well-known activists Nguyen Thanh Giang, and Hoang Minh Chinh. Both activists openly criticized the trial and the lack of democratic freedoms in Vietnam to the assembled foreign press, with Chinh - himself a former revolutionary and ex-general secretary of the Vietnam Union of Youth Associations - declaiming that, were Ho Chi Minh alive today, even he could not stand against the power of the Communist Party. Other activists present declined to talk with observers. Tien's brother briefly denounced the trial publicly, but stopped speaking up after a conversation with what appeared to be a plainclothes security official. ¶3. (SBU) Comment: The relative leniency of Tien's sentence likely is in deference primarily to Tien's age and revolutionary connections, not the simultaneous presence of Defense Minister Tra in the U.S. The court apparently attributed the light sentence to Tien's "confession," but press sources have claimed that Tien rejected the charges completely. Upcoming but still apparently not scheduled trials of better known activists Tran Khue and Pham Que Duong -- whose December 2002 detentions Tien had originally denounced -- as well as that of Nguyen Dan Que, will likely result in much stiffer sentences, which Tien may feel compelled again to protest, even at the risk of another term in jail for himself. BURGHARDT