Authorities in Vietnam have arrested three pro-democracy activists, accusing them of colluding with a prominent civil rights attorney to sabotage the communist government, state media reported Thursday Jun 18.
The three allegedly violated Article 88 of the Penal Code, which bans spreading false propaganda about the state, the official Vietnam News Agency said. It said they plotted with the civil rights lawyer, Le Cong Dinh, who was arrested last week on the same charge.
Dinh, one of Vietnam's most high-profile attorneys, represented two human rights attorneys who were jailed by the government in 2007 on charges of spreading anti-government propaganda. At their trial, he made an outspoken defense of free speech.
Dinh, 41, was arrested Saturday at his home in Ho Chi Minh City. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The U.S. State Department has called for Dinh's immediate release, and human rights groups have criticized his arrest.
Dinh, whose pro-democracy writings have been widely published, studied law at Tulane University in New Orleans for two years on a Fulbright scholarship.
VNA identified the three arrested people as Le Thang Long of central Quang Ngai province, Tran Thi Thu of Hanoi and Le Thi Thu Thu of southern Tien Giang province.
It said authorities believe they and Dinh colluded with "foreign reactionaries" bent on sabotaging the state and overthrowing the government.
The VNA report provided no further details about the three or how they allegedly plotted with Dinh.
After his arrest Saturday, accounts in state media said Dinh had used his work as a defense attorney to "propagandize against the regime and distort Vietnam's constitution and laws."
Authorities also accused Dinh of exploiting a national debate over an expansion of bauxite mining in Vietnam's Central Highlands to incite people against the Communist Party and the government.
Dinh opposed the expansion, which includes a processing plant being built by a Chinese company. The plans have stirred an unusual level of debate in Vietnam, where government policies are rarely challenged.
Opponents of the plans say they would cause grave environmental damage. They also say Vietnam should not allow a Chinese company into the Central Highlands because of its strategic location among the border with Cambodia.
Suspicions of China are deep in Vietnam, which has fought several wars against its northern neighbor, most recently in 1979.
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