Court cuts jail terms of 3 Vietnamese activists

HANOI, Aug 17 (Reuters) A Vietnamese appeals court today reduced the sentences handed to three men who were convicted and jailed in May for spreading ''propaganda against the state'' and forming a political party.

A lawyer for one of the defendants said the court in Ho Chi Minh City ruled that Le Nguyen Sang, 48, a doctor, should serve four years instead of five years.

The trial in May was one of four this year in one-party ruled Vietnam of political activists who called for a multi-party system and greater freedom of speech, mostly over the Internet.

The sentence of businessman Nguyen Bac Truyen, 39, was reduced to three years from four years and another businessman, Huynh Nguyen Dao, 39, to two years from three years, said Truyen's lawyer Trinh Vinh Phuc.

The court concluded that the actions of the three men did not lead to any tangible consequences, the lawyer said.

At their Ho Chi Minh City People's Court trial in May, the three men were accused of using the Internet ''to sow discontent among the public'' and creating the People's Democratic Party to organise protests, including during last November's visit of US President George W Bush.

The outlawed People's Democratic Party is one of a few that emerged last year and carried information, mostly on the Internet, calling for alternatives to one-party rule in Vietnam.

Prosecutors linked the defendants to a Vietnamese-born US citizen, Cong Thanh Do of San Jose, California, who was expelled from communist-run Vietnam last September. Do was accused of advocating the government's overthrow.

The People's Democratic Party, in an email received today, called for the release of the three men and others under detention.

The Vietnam government says it does not charge people for their political views, only those who break the law. It is a criminal offence in Vietnam to disseminate views the government considers anti-state or opposed to the ruling Communist Party.

Hanoi rejects accusations by Western human rights groups of cracking down on dissidents after it successfully hosted an Asia-Pacific summit, won World Trade Organisation membership and was removed from a US religious rights blacklist in 2006.

REUTERS ARB KN1658