Hanoi, May 11: A Vietnamese court on Tuesday began hearing the appeal of a high-profile group of dissidents jailed for trying to overthrow the communist regime, a court official said.
Foreign diplomats and journalists were denied access to the hearing in southern Ho Chi Minh City.
The case, originally tried in January, was the most prominent in a series of arrests and convictions of dissidents and bloggers over the past year and triggered criticism from the United States, European Union and Britain.
Human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh, Internet entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, and Le Thang Long, have asked the higher court to review their case.
Thuc received a 16-year sentence while Dinh and Long were sentenced to five years each after the court convicted them of a well-organised non-violent campaign, in collusion with “overseas exile reactionary organisations”, aimed at overthrowing the government with the help of the Internet.
A fourth dissident, French-trained computer expert and blogger Nguyen Tien Trung, was jailed for seven years at the same trial.
Trung did not appeal but was present at the court building in case he is called as a witness, his father Nguyen Tu Tu said.
Analysts, rights groups and diplomats have described a worsening human rights situation in Vietnam, where at least 20 activists have been jailed since October.
New York-based Human Rights Watch on Tuesday called on the appeals court to reverse the convictions of Dinh, Thuc and Long.
“These activists and scores of other peaceful government critics unjustly imprisoned in Vietnam should be freed immediately,” the group said.
In late April, a separate appeals court upheld a five-and-a-half-year jail sentence for a fifth man, Tran Anh Kim, who was also convicted of attempted subversion.
—Agencies