VZCZCXRO6945
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHHI #1185/01 2901011
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 161011Z OCT 08
FM AMEMBASSY HANOI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8626
INFO RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH 5223
RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 001185 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON PHUM PGOV KCOR KPAO SOCI PREL VM
SUBJECT: VIETNAMESE JOURNALISTS WHO EXPOSED CORRUPTION FOUND GUILTY 
OF ABUSING "FREEDOMS" 
 
Ref: A) HANOI 1166; B) HANOI 569; C) HCMC 1136; D) HANOI 672; E) 
HANOI 563 
 
HANOI 00001185  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: After a day and a half of testimony, the Hanoi 
People's Court on October 15 found two reporters who exposed a major 
corruption scandal guilty of "abusing democratic freedoms."  The 
court sentenced Thanh Nien newspaper's Nguyen Viet Chien to two 
years in prison and sentenced Tuoi Tre newspaper's Nguyen Van Hai to 
a two-year non-custodial "re-education" sentence.  Ministry of 
Public Security (MPS) Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Van Huynh, who served 
as a story source, was sentenced to one year in prison for 
"deliberately revealing state secrets" while police Major General 
Pham Xuan Quac received only a warning.  The verdicts, entirely 
expected, were quickly condemned by Reporters Without Borders as a 
severe blow for press freedom in Vietnam.  End Summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Two years ago the two reporters helped expose how officials 
inside the Transport Ministry's PMU-18 unit stole millions of 
dollars worth of foreign development funds meant for bridges and 
roads and gambled on English football matches.  On May 12, they were 
jailed and on October 15, after a day and a half of testimony, the 
Hanoi People's Court sentenced Thanh Nien reporter Nguyen Viet Chien 
to two years in prison for abusing "freedom and democratic rights 
harming state interest, legal rights and the interests of 
organizations and citizens" in connection to his stories on the 
PMU-18 scandal.  The Court also sentenced Ministry of Public 
Security (MPS) Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Van Huynh, who was involved 
in the corruption scandal investigation and served as a source for 
the reporters, to one year in prison for "deliberately revealing 
state secrets."  Chien's and Huynh's prison terms include time 
served behind bars since their arrests. 
 
¶3. (U) European Union, Canadian and Australian diplomats and Poloff 
attended the trials.  Police officials did not allow diplomats into 
the actual courtroom; they watched via video feed from an adjacent 
room.  Police cordoned off the area around the courthouse and 
security in and around the area was heavy. 
 
¶4. (U) Nine lawyers pleaded for the four defendants at the first 
hearing on October 14 and the Court summoned ten witnesses.  At the 
beginning of the trials, the prosecutors spent over an hour reading 
the full indictment aloud.  The indictment said the news reports 
were incorrect and biased and were an effort to hurt the reputations 
of government officials, Vietnam and its leadership before the 10th 
Party Congress in April, 2006. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Thanh Nien's Chien gave a spirited defense of his 
reporting, maintaining that he verified information he received from 
a variety of sources with police investigators.  He added that, as a 
professional journalist, he "only published what I was told by 
investigating authorities."  He said Major General Pham Xuan Quac 
(also on trial) confirmed that he had a list of over 40 senior 
officials, some of whom sit on the Communist Party's powerful 
Central Committee, who were involved in the corruption scandal. 
Chien asserted that other journalists reported details of the 
corruption scandal before he did.  He pointed out that the 
corruption case attracted a lot of public attention and that 
newspapers were competing against one another in getting the story 
out.  He asked why, if his stories contained inaccurate information, 
did not one Party official ask for a retraction.  Chien pointed out 
that he served his country for five years in the Army, covered 
political and economic issues for over 25 years as a reporter and 
won several prizes for his journalism skills. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Chien's attorney, a well-known lawyer in Vietnam, took 
issue with prosecution claims that Chien "violated the State's 
interests" and asked for prosecutors to define those interests. 
Chien's attorney also asked how exactly his client had taken 
advantage of democratic freedoms.  Prosecutors chose to ignore these 
points, instead just re-reading parts of the long indictment. 
 
¶7. (SBU) The Hanoi People's Court also sentenced Tuoi Tre's Nguyen 
Van Hai to a two-year non-custodial "re-education" sentence and 
allowed him to walk free.  (Note: This "re-education" will entail 
Hai's employer and local officials teaching him how to live as "a 
better citizen."  End Note).  In reading the verdict, the presiding 
judge cited Hai's "cooperation and remorse."  During his testimony, 
Hai admitted to some unintentional mistakes in his reporting.  Hai 
contritely pointed out that he asked Tuoi Tre's vice editor-in-chief 
to devote a special issue of the newspaper to the mistakes made in 
reporting on the corruption scandal.  In an odd sequence, Hai's 
lawyer launched into a defense of his client's innocence after Hai 
admitted to some "professional accidents" and was told by other 
lawyers to stop attacking the case against his client. 
 
¶8. (SBU) The Court merely issued an official warning to MPS General 
Pham Xuan Quac, who oversaw the corruption investigation and who 
stood accused of leaking secrets to the media.  He denied serving as 
the source for reports on the corruption scandal, but admitted to 
meeting journalists after the scandal broke.  Quac said no 
 
HANOI 00001185  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
evidentiary documents were produced and all the Court had heard was 
hearsay.  He told the Court he asked Deputy Prime Minister Truong 
Vinh Trong if Quac's MPS unit should investigate media claims that 
"a large group of people" was involved in the corruption scandal. 
This was only a proposal and it did not mean he thought the 
information was correct or that he verified information for the 
reporters, he asserted. 
 
¶9. (U) When the Court announced the sentences, Thanh Nien's Chien 
displayed little emotion.  His relatives, however, were seen crying 
outside the courtroom.  Tuoi Tre's Hai burst into tears and hugged 
his wife.  The roughly 100 people standing across the street from 
the Court awaiting news peacefully dispersed after the verdicts were 
read. 
 
¶10. (U) Following the announcement of the verdict, Reporters Without 
Borders issued a statement that Chien's sentence deals a "severe 
blow to press freedom" and said: "The outcome of this trial is a 
terrible step backwards for investigative journalism in Vietnam. 
The fragile basis of a press capable of playing its role of 
challenging established authority has been badly shaken."  The 
organization added: "We urge the Vietnamese authorities to quickly 
grant Chien an early release and we call on the international 
community, especially the European Union, to condition aid to 
Vietnam more closely on respect for press freedom and the release of 
imprisoned journalists." 
 
Comment: A Pre-Determined Result 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶11. (SBU) In keeping with standard practice in Vietnam, defense 
attorneys were not able to cross-examine witnesses and only learned 
about the prosecution's evidence at the trials.  Four years ago, 
Hanoi changed the criminal procedural code to empower courts to 
decide guilt or innocence on their own but in practice the courts 
enjoy little independence.  Particularly in this politically 
sensitive case, it is highly likely that Party higher-ups likely 
decided the four defendants' fate well in advance of the brief 
trial.  End Comment. 
 
¶12. (U) This cable was coordinated with ConGen Ho Chi Minh City.