Vietnam activists jailed up to 8 years: US exiles

HANOI: A court in Vietnam has jailed seven activists agitating for land rights and religious freedom for up to eight years for attempted subversion, a US-based opposition group said.

American lawmakers have said the case further tarnishes Vietnam's rights record.

In a statement late Monday, the organisation Viet Tan said the heaviest sentence of eight years went to its member Tran Thi Thuy, 40, while two other Viet Tan members were also jailed.

Duong Kim Khai, 52, received a six-year term while Nguyen Thanh Tam, 58, got two years.

Four other activists were jailed for between two and seven years, said Viet Tan, also known as the Vietnam Reform Party.

It said they were convicted after a one-day trial on Monday. Court officials told AFP they had no information about the case.

Viet Tan said the "pre-determined" sentencing was an attempt to silence people who "spoke out against the regime's failings".

The accused are all land rights activists and include a Mennonite pastor, Khai, who is a veteran advocate on behalf of dispossessed farmers in the Mekong Delta, Viet Tan said. Two others are also Mennonite evangelists.

Most were arrested between July and November last year, Viet Tan said, adding that all were convicted under Penal Code Article 79 based on their "affiliation" with the opposition group.

The maximum penalty for the charge is death.

Viet Tan said the activists had attended courses on non-violent struggle and distributed slogans about two disputed South China Sea archipelagos over which Vietnam has a long-running sovereignty dispute with China.

Viet Tan calls itself non-violent and pro-democracy, but Vietnam -- a one-party communist state -- calls it a "terrorist group".

Land disputes and complaints that residents have been cheated out of compensation have become the most common cause of protests in Vietnam, a mainly rural country that is rapidly industrialising.

In a letter Thursday to Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, five members of the US Congress described the case as "a stain on your government's increasingly troublesome religious freedom record".

The letter was spearheaded by Representative Ed Royce, a Republican whose southern California district is home to many Vietnamese-Americans.

Amnesty International has said dozens of peaceful political critics have been sentenced to long prison terms since Vietnam launched a crackdown on free expression in late 2009.

Vietnam says it has achieved significant progress on human rights.