HANOI, April 6 (Reuters) - A prominent Vietnamese dissident arrested a month ago has been charged with ``abusing democratic rights'' and faces a maximum sentence of three years in jail.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh, after repeated requests, said on Tuesday that 62-year-old geophysicist Nguyen Thanh Giang had violated the communist-ruled country's criminal code.
``Nguyen Thanh Giang has violated article 205a of the Penal Code,'' she said. She would neither elaborate, nor state whether Giang would be put on trial.
Article 205a states that a person who abuses freedom of speech, press or religion, or who wrongly uses other democratic rights to encroach upon the interests of the state, social organisations or citizens can face a maximum three-year jail term.
Giang's arrest, which occurred in Hanoi on March 4 when he was allegedly in possession of documents considered anti-communist, provoked a storm of international protest.
On March 12, U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin, in Washington's toughest words to Hanoi since diplomatic ties were established in July 1995, called for Giang's immediate and unconditional release.
On Sunday, the Paris-based Free Vietnam Alliance, citing sources in Vietnam, said Giang was being held in Hanoi's Thanh Liet Prison Camp and his family was suffering harassment and surveillance from security police.
Vietnam has suffered serious human rights-related setbacks in recent months that have threatened to derail bids by Washington and Hanoi to fully normalise economic ties and agree on a comprehensive trade agreement.
Following an official visit to Vietnam last October U.N. Special Rapporteur for Religious Intolerance Abdelfattah Amor, slammed the communist country for failing to allow basic religious freedoms.
Hanoi in turn accused Amor of lacking objectivity and expressing bad will. It said international groups wishing to investigate religious or human rights-related issues would no longer be allowed into the country.
Analysts have said the Communist Party, in a bid to stamp out rising dissent within its ranks, has been tightening controls and that Giang's arrest was a clear threat to those who called for political reform or questioned its authority.