Source:      www.compassdirect.org

Date:         April 23, 2007

Vietnam Violates Due Process in Trial for Christian Attorneys

Christian lawyers accused of 'defaming' communist state are rushed to judgment. 

Special to Compass Direct News

 HO CHI MINH CITY, April 23 (Compass Direct News) – Christian attorneys Nguyen Van Dai and Le thi Cong Nhan are scheduled to be tried on May 11 in a case that appears to have fallen short even of Vietnam’s limited requirements for due process. As of Friday (April 20), a full six weeks after Dai’s arrest, authorities had not provided his wife, Khanh, with any legal papers. By law she should have received a copy of the arrest order at his March 6 arrest citing the reasons for his “temporary detention.” Calling Khanh in to police quarters on Friday afternoon, authorities told her that the investigation was completed but refused to give her a copy of the investigation report. They again denied her access to her husband, though previously they had told her she could visit him after the investigation was completed. Khanh has written several polite letters to Vietnam’s prime minister and other high officials asking permission to visit her husband and expressing concern that she was denied permission to take to him a Bible and his medication for a liver ailment. She has received no acknowledgements of her pleas.