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Alert

Three priests who edit free speech magazine arrested: one jailed, two under house arrest

(RSF/IFEX) - Reporters Without Borders has called for the release of Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest and one of the editors of the underground magazine "Tu do Ngôn luan" ("Free Speech"), who was arrested on 19 February 2007 during an "administrative check" at the archdiocesan building where he lives in the city of Hue (Center). Two others editors of "Tu do Ngôn luan", Father Chan Tin and Father Phan Van Loi, were also put under house arrest.

"Father Nguyen Van Ly has already been the victim of detention without due process in the past," Reporters Without Borders said. "Any recurrence of such abuses would be unacceptable, especially as no information has been provided about the reason for his arrest. Defending freedom of expression is no justification for such practices."

Ly was arrested on the evening of 19 February, the Lunar New Year day in Asia, after several police cars pulled up outside the archdiocesan Nha Chung building where he lives. Around 60 police officers led by a colonel who specialises in religious matters cut phone lines and searched the entire building, breaking open a cupboard which Ly refused to unlock. They took away six computers and mobile phones and many documents.

Ly is a member of the pro-democracy movement called "Bloc 8406". He spent several years in prison in 1977 and 1978 and from 1983 to 1992 as a result of his activism in support of freedom of expression and worship. He was sentenced again in October 2001 to 15 years in prison for activities linked to the defence of free speech. The sentence was commuted several times and be finally left prison in February 2004 (see IFEX alerts of 2 February 2005, 13 February 2003, 3 October 2002, 10 November 2000, 26 and 6 January 1995).

His nephew, the cyber-dissident Nguyen Vu Viet, was charged in June 2001 with "using email, fax and telephone to disseminate abroad information about religious freedom in Vietnam." He and two colleagues were given sentences ranging from three to five years in prison. Their sentences were subsequently commuted and he was released on 18 February 2004.