Listen to Part I and Part II of the original broadcast in Vietnamese
Vietnamese authorities have cut the sentence handed down to a man whowas convicted of espionage after he posted an essay on democracy on theInternet, RFA's Vietnamese service reports. Pham Hong Son, a 35-year-old doctor, was sentenced onJune 18 to 13 years in jail and a further three years of house arrest.
The case caused an international outcry and resulted in increased pressureon the Vietnamese government to improve its human rights record. While theSupreme Court of Appeal in Hanoi cut Son's jail term to five years, it islikely that he will still have to serve the three years' house arrest.
"Really, I feel a little happy because people responsible in the case reallylistened to the opinions [of the defence lawyer]," Son's wife, Vu Thuy Ha, said after the decision. But she added: "I'm not happy because my husbandmust be declared innocent."
The Vietnamese government has come under great pressure from theinternational community to overturn the sentence, which they said wasintended to silence online political dissent.
Diplomats in Hanoi said the decision almost certainly came as a result ofthat pressure.
The court official said Son was still guilty of espionage, whichtheoretically carries a minimum 12 years in jail, but that the decision toreduce his sentence was based on "mitigating circumstances."
Son was initially charged with spying because he communicated by telephoneand e-mail with "political opportunists" in Vietnam and overseas and used e-mail to send anti-government and anti-Communist Party documents abroad.
He was arrested in Hanoi on March 27, 2002, a few weeks after translatingand publishing online a feature titled "What is democracy?", extractedfrom the U.S. State Department's web site.
Son was the fifth dissident in the last year to be arrested and charged withcrimes relating to e-mail communication or other Internet activity.
The U.S. Embassy in Hanoi said through a spokesman: "We welcome thereduction, but he should never have been jailed in the first place for hisactions." The embassy called again for Son's immediate release.
Amnesty International issued a statement in which it called the sentence reduction "unprecedented" but added "...we are dismayed that Dr Pham Hong Son remains in prison for the peaceful expression of his political beliefs."