HANOI (Reuters) June 19, 2003 - The United States condemned on Thursday the 13-year jail sentence passed on a Vietnamese doctor accused of using the Internet to disseminate a translated U.S. essay on democracy.
The (State) Department strongly condemns the harsh sentence given to Pham Hong Son for merely expressing his views on the Internet," a statement released by the U.S. embassy in Hanoi said.
"No individual should be imprisoned for the peaceful expression of his views. The sentencing of Pham Hong Son clearly violates international standards for the protection of human rights including freedom of expression," the statement added.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh said Vietnam puts no curbs on cyberspace. "I totally disagree with the critics who say Vietnam restricts the Internet. The Vietnamese government has been very supportive of the dissemination of the Internet," she said at a regular press briefing on Thursday.
Son's case has caught the attention of international human rights groups and diplomats based in communist Vietnam who view it as a fresh sign of Hanoi's intolerance of political dissent.
Two dissidents were jailed last year for cyberspace criticism of the government, which outlaws any attempts to achieve a multiparty political system.
Son, who worked for a foreign pharmaceutical company, is accused of translating into Vietnamese and posting on the Internet an article entitled "What is Democracy?" from the State Department's Web Site.
He was arrested in March 2002 and charged with espionage after he "took the initiative" to phone and email "political opportunists" in Vietnam and abroad, Human Rights Watch said in a statement, citing an April 10, 2003 indictment.
Last December the same court jailed a 47-year-old Vietnamese man for 12 years for espionage.
Son has the right to appeal the conviction within 15 days.
About a million of Vietnam's 80 million population surf the Net, many using Internet cafes because the cost of personal computers and telecoms charges are too high for most.
Human rights groups say five Vietnamese in all are being punished for being cyber-dissidents.