<![CDATA[Australian retiree's 12-year jail term highlights Vietnam's tightening grip on dissent]>

A 12-year jail term handed to a 70-year-old Australian retiree in Vietnam for "terrorist activities against the state" has renewed international focus on Hanoi's squeeze on government critics after recent prosecutions of two Americans of Vietnamese descent.

Chau Van Kham, a former baker from New South Wales, was accused of giving campaigner Nguyen Van Vien, 48, US$400 towards Viet Tan, a pro-democracy opposition group banned in communist-ruled Vietnam but which the United Nations has described as a "peaceful organisation".

Vien, a member of another prohibited group, the Brotherhood for Democracy, was also put on trial and given an 11-year sentence, while a fellow activist, Tran Van Quyen, 20, received 10 years.

Both the latter will spend an extra five years under house arrest after their release from jail, while Kham will likely be deported.

Kham's case has drawn fury from human rights groups who say the jail term is essentially a death sentence for a man his age.

"Given the harsh and unforgiving conditions in Vietnamese prisons, he will face huge challenges to survive his entire sentence," said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division.

Chau Van Kham. Photo: EPA alt=Chau Van Kham. Photo: EPA

Kham's wife, Quynh Trang Truong, has written to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, asking him to intervene, but Canberra has suggested the retiree appeal against the verdict first.

Trinh Vinh Phuc, the lawyer who represented Kham in court, said neither Kham nor the two local activists had pleaded guilty. He described how the court had been filled with security officers but "reporters and diplomats, including Australian consulate members, were not allowed to sit in the trial room".

"They sat in the next room watching the trial through closed-circuit television where audio was delayed by 30 seconds," the lawyer said.

Vietnam has tightened its grip on state critics over the last decade, including those who highlight environmental concerns. A report by Amnesty International in May found nearly 10 per cent of the 128 prisoners held in the Southeast Asian country for expressing dissenting views had been jailed for posting anti-government comments on social media platforms such as Facebook.

The Viet Tan, also known as the Vietnam Revolutionary Reform Party, is considered a serious threat within Vietnam. The group consists of a network of activists both inside Vietnam and around the world who aim to establish democratic reform. The organisation was founded in 1982 and operated underground for two decades.

The website of banned opposition party Viet Tan. Photo: Handout alt=The website of banned opposition party Viet Tan. Photo: Handout

Kham's case comes after Will Nguyen, a Yale University graduate from the US state of Texas whose family is originally from Vietnam, was detained in June last year at a protest in Ho Chi Minh City against new economic zones that some feared would expand the influence of China.

The demonstration, which drew more than 100 people, turned violent, and Nguyen, then 32, was detained, charged and then deported. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Hanoi in the days preceding the trial and raised the issue with Vietnamese officials but gave no public comment on the discussion.

Similarly, Michael Phuong Minh Nguyen, 55, was jailed for 12 years in July this year for "attempting to overthrow the state". His wife, in a testimony to the US House of Representatives' Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, said he had gone to Hong Kong and Vietnam for a vacation in June 2018.

While there has been pressure on Vietnam for his release, it has largely fallen on deaf ears, human rights watchers said.

Under Vietnamese law, criminals jailed for activities related to terrorism or trying to overthrow the state are not eligible for early release even with good behaviour. Last year Vietnam's National Assembly declared a list of 16 crimes, including terrorism, for which this rule would apply.

US citizen Will Nguyen is escorted by police before his trial at a court in Ho Chi Minh City last July. Photo: Reuters alt=US citizen Will Nguyen is escorted by police before his trial at a court in Ho Chi Minh City last July. Photo: Reuters

Last month a group of 20 plain-clothes police officers arrested Thinh Nguyen, an independent photographer and filmmaker. A recent project of his explored in part how Taiwanese plastics company Formosa Plastics Corporation caused widespread marine pollution along Vietnam's central coast in 2016.

At the beginning of 2018, Vietnam introduced a cybersecurity law that human rights organisations feared would allow authorities to read citizens' private messages on social media and arrest those who criticised the government. Dozens of activists have indeed been detained in recent years, with "anti-state" comments on social media sites, including Facebook, often cited as the main offence.

Lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, who defended activist Vien at his trial on Monday, said of both Vien and Australian Kham's cases: "They suffered a miscarriage of justice. The court said they took part in a terrorist organisation, but who lists that organisation as a terrorist one? They cited a document published by the Ministry of Public Security."

He said only the courts had the authority to declare a suspect a terrorist, however.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Hanoi in the days preceding Will Nguyen's trial and raised the issue with Vietnamese officials but gave no public comment. Photo: DPA alt=US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Hanoi in the days preceding Will Nguyen's trial and raised the issue with Vietnamese officials but gave no public comment. Photo: DPA

"The ministry is the executive branch of government and does not have the authority," the lawyer said.

Benjamin Ismail, founder of freedom of information NGO Watchdogs Unleashed and a member of the Paris-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders, said the sentences were part of a general wave of repression against anyone deemed a threat by the ruling Communist Party.

"More than 35 activists, bloggers and human rights defenders were trialled in 2019. Around half were sentenced to more than five years and about 25 per cent were sentenced to more than eight years," he said. "Future sentences could be as harsh or even harsher as those we observed in recent days."

He called the punishments "totally counterproductive" and said "more injustice will only create more activists and human rights defenders".

"Unless international institutions and foreign countries such as Australia, the United States and France take strong measures against the Communist Party's actions, more Vietnamese, inside and outside Vietnam, will see their fundamental rights hampered."

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

Copyright (c) 2019. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.