Hanoi frees man after 22 years in jail for treason

HANOI, May 10 (Reuters) A Vietnamese man who has served 22 years of a life sentence for treason and plots to overthrow the government has left the country for the United States after being released, the official Vietnam News Agency said.

Phan Van Ban, 70, was released from a prison in northern Vietnam yesterday in an amnesty signed last month by President Nguyen Minh Triet and boarded a plane for a family reunion in the United States, the agency said today.

Ban, a policeman in the pre-1975 U.S.-backed regime, was found guilty in November 1985 of treason and conspiring against the state for his part in an organisation that attempted to overthrow the government, the report said.

Ban was in charge of propaganda for the organisation that dropped anti-government documents and leaflets in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau until his arrest in 1985, it said.

While serving the jail term, Ban sent a letter to Triet pleading for clemency and saying he wished to reunite with his family in the United States.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday that the presidential amnesty was in line with Vietnam's humanitarian policy, the Vietnam News Agency said.

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