Agence France-Presse in Hanoi
April 15, 2014
Vietnam has released two more high-profile dissidents as it negotiates a free-trade deal with Washington that may not be approved unless Hanoi improves its human rights record.
Vi Duc Hoi and Nguyen Tien Trung were released over the weekend with 11/2 years and nine months of their sentences left to serve, respectively.
They were each convicted of crimes related to their peaceful advocacy for multiparty democracy in Vietnam, which is ruled by an authoritarian government that does not allow freedom of expression or political assembly.
“It was due to international pressure that the government of Vietnam had to release me,” Hoi, a former member of the ruling Communist Party, told Radio Free Asia, a US government-funded media network. “I lost some weight but I am still OK physically and mentally,” he said.
Read more: http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/article/1482186/vietnam-releases-two-dissidents-jail-amid-trade-talks-us
