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NEWS AND VIEWS THAT IMPACT LIMITED CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT

"There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with
power to endanger the public liberty." - - - - John Adams

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Communists beat and torture Blogger


Tortured by the Communists
Vietnamese Blogger Ho Thi Bich Khuong has been repeatedly beaten, tortured and imprisoned by the Communists for daring to publish her views on the internet.


Vietnamese Communists Torture Bloggers as the U.S. gets in bed with the dictatorship.

  • Governments around the world are frightened to death of Bloggers and the free flow of information on the internet.
  • It is Communist policy in Vietnam to beat, torture and confiscate private property.



A Vietnamese court dismissed the appeals of two activists against jail terms imposed on them for spreading “anti-government propaganda,” despite calls for their unconditional release by international rights groups.

Female blogger Ho Thi Bich Khuong, 44, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of house arrest while Pastor Nguyen Trung Ton, 40, was given two years in jail and two more under house arrest. Both their sentences were meted out last December reports Radio Free Asia.

The two had been arrested on November 15 for violating article 88 of Vietnam’s penal code, which forbids “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” state media said at the time.

Khuong was also accused of slandering the Vietnamese government in interviews with foreign radio stations and of belonging to rights groups with “reactionary” people.



Agence France Presse quoted an official at the court in central Nghe An province who confirmed the rejection of the appeals after a half-day hearing.

"The prison sentences of Ho Thi Bich Khuong and Nguyen Trung Ton were upheld on appeal this morning," the official said on condition of anonymity.
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Beaten and tortured by Communists
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In a statement released ahead of the appeal hearing, HRW called on the Vietnamese government to free Khuong, who says she was beaten and tortured in jail.

“For the third time in seven years, Ho Thi Bich Khuong is in prison for exercising the right to voice her views,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW.

“The systematic application of article 88 to arbitrarily punish bloggers and critics shows that Vietnam’s disrespect for freedom of expression continues unabated.”

Khuong was previously jailed for two years in 2008 after being convicted of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state.” She was also imprisoned for six months in 2005 for “disrupting public order” under article 245 after filing complaints to the central government against the confiscation of her shops by local authorities.

Robertson also called on the Vietnamese government to investigate allegations by Khuong of most recently being beaten several times by another prisoner while guards looked away and by investigation police during pre-trial detention for one of her earlier jail terms. 

“Police continue to systematically torture people in pre-trial detention,” said Robertson. 
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(Radio Free Asia)



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