2009-01-26/Jailed Vietnamese journalist reportedly freed in amnesty
Jailed Vietnamese journalist reportedly freed in amnesty
By Michael de Laine, Copenhagen 26th January 2009
A Vietnamese journalist jailed for ‘damaging the state’s interests’ was reportedly freed in new year amnesty.
The 56-year-old Vietnamese journalist Nguyen Viet Chien, who was jailed for ‘damaging the state’s interests’ last October, was reportedly freed in new year amnesty last week, Danish daily newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad said.
Nguyen was jailed for two years ‘for abusing democratic rights to damage the state’s interests’. But he was apparently one of 15,140 prisoners released last week when Vietnam celebrated Tet, its new year, with an amnesty that freed prisoners who had behaved well in prison.
The journalist was jailed following a farcical trial and after he had exposed considerable corruption in the transport ministry in 2006 – which led to the dismissal of a deputy minister and eight civil servants, who had lost large sums derived from foreign aid donations through gambling.
Nguyen Viet Chien was apparently the only prisoner among those released who is included on the list of political prisoners maintained by the foreign diplomatic corps in Hanoi.