Vietnam expels US citizen it says plotted attack

HANOI, Sep 21 (Reuters) A Vietnamese-born US citizen, detained by police on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the communist government, was released and expelled to the United States today, officials said.

State-run Vietnam Television said police had suspended the investigation against Cong Thanh Do, a 47-year-old computer engineer of San Jose, California. Do was arrested in August while visiting relatives in Vietnam and had been held without charges.

VTV said Do had printed anti-government leaflets and distributed them in several Vietnamese cities.

The television showed footage of Do with his passport while passing through airport immigration on his way out of the country.

''I can confirm Mr Do has been released and that he is on an airplane going to the United States,'' said Lou Lantner, US Embassy spokesperson in Hanoi.

Since his arrest, Do had been held in Ho Chi Minh City, where he received a visit from a US consular official on September 1. His family later publicised his detention through the media.

Do was born in Vietnam but left the country in 1982 to settle in the United States.

Yesterday, state-run media cited Vietnam's security agencies as saying Do had plotted to overthrow the Vietnam government and to destroy the US consulate general in Ho Chi Minh City.

But Do's family and international human rights groups said he had been arrested after calling on a Web site for alternatives to one-party communist rule.

They said he told the consular official who visited him that he was a member of the outlawed People's Democratic Party of Vietnam and a peaceful supporter of multi-party democracy and freedom of speech.

The communist government keeps close watch on peaceful dissidents and US-based activists still angered by the 1975 collapse of the US-backed South Vietnam government.

Some overseas Vietnamese have appealed to the United States to increase pressure on Hanoi over its human rights record ahead of the country's expected membership of the World Trade Organisation this year and its hosting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum summit in November.

REUTERS PB MIR RAI2315