Vietnam Postpones Trial of Falun Gong Broadcasters Again
October 10, 2011
Hanoi – The trial of two men arrested last year on suspicion of broadcasting radio programmes on the Falun Gong to China has been delayed for the second time, their lawyer said Thursday.
The announcement was made after people had gathered in the court room, a lawyer for the two men, Tran Dinh Trien, said.
Trien said he was told the trial was delayed because the Department of Radio Frequency, which was acting as a witness in the case, did not turn up.
Trien expressed dissatisfaction with the explanation, saying the trial should continue as normal in a criminal case despite the absence.
Vu Duc Trung, 30, and his brother-in-law Le Van Thanh, 35, are charged with illegally retransmitting the programmes in 2008.
The programmes were originally from the Sound of Hope Network, a Chinese-language radio station based in California. The men were accused of rebroadcasting the programmes from a farm outside Hanoi.
The defendants face up to three years in jail if convicted.
This is the second time the trial has been delayed. The first was in April, but the authorities gave no explanation for the change.
The journalists rights group Reporters Without Borders condemned the trial, saying Vietnam has bowed to pressure from China to stop the broadcasts.
It is illegal in China to broadcast information to help followers of the Falun Gong, but it is not explicitly forbidden in Vietnam.
The Falun Gong has been banned since 1999 in China, where the meditation movement is officially considered a cult whose purpose is to topple Communist rule.
Li Hung-zhi [Li Hongzhi], the Chinese founder of the group, who now lives in the United States, [has] said that its practices improve health and promote social harmony.
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