![\"AFP](\"..\/images\/AFP.gif\")
<\/a> Agence France Presse<\/span><\/p>\n\n
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HANOI, Aug 29, 2006 (AFP) – Human rights and press freedom watchdogs welcomed Tuesday the release of Vietnamese dissident Pham Hong Son, but asked the communist government to free other political and religious activists.<\/p>\n
Vietnam\u2019s ministry of public security said Monday that Son, a businessman and trained doctor, was to be released this week as part of a presidential amnesty.<\/p>\n
Other \u201cprisoners of conscience\u201d including Ma Van Bay, a leader of the H\u2019mong Protestant community, and Y\u2019 Oal Nie, a Montagnard from the Ede ethnic minority, were included in the amnesty.<\/p>\n
Vo Van Ai, President of the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights, welcomed their release, especially that of Son \u201cwhose health deteriorated seriously from lack of medical treatment and harsh conditions in prison\u201d.<\/p>\n
However he said in a statement : \u201cThis piecemeal amnesty is merely a propaganda exercise.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIn reality, Vietnam is increasing controls and legislation against dissidents every day, and hundreds of political and religious prisoners still languish in Vietnam\u2019s prisons and camps.\u201d<\/p>\n
Son was arrested in 2002 and sentenced on appeal to a five-year term for spying after translating and publishing online an article entitled \u201cWhat is democracy\u00a0?\u201d off the US State Department\u2019s website.<\/p>\n
His family confirmed his release. The 37-year-old will however immediately start a three-year period of house probation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re relieved by word that Pham Hong Son will be released from prison, but we call on the government to grant him complete freedom without condition,\u201d said Joel Simon, executive director of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).<\/p>\n
\u201cWe also call for the immediate release of Son\u2019s fellow Internet writer, Nguyen Vu Binh, who remains unjustly jailed,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Prominent dissident Nguyen Vu Binh, who is serving a seven-year term for criticizing a controversial China-Vietnam border agreement, was not reported to be on the presidential amnesty list.<\/p>\n
According to state media, the amnesty marking the September 2 national day related to 5, 352 convicts, including 5, 313 prisoners among whom six foreigners.<\/p>\n
The complete list has not been published.<\/p>\n
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Agence France Presse HANOI, Aug 29, 2006 (AFP) – Human rights and press freedom watchdogs welcomed Tuesday the release of Vietnamese dissident Pham Hong Son, but asked the communist government to free other political and religious activists. Vietnam\u2019s ministry of public security said Monday that Son, a businessman and trained doctor, was to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":375,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","","category-press-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/375"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}