Le Viêt Nam, aujourd'hui

BRUSSELS - EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton criticised on Friday Vietnam's decision to uphold a dissident's seven-year jail sentence, saying it had failed to uphold the right to freedom of expression.

Hanoi - An appeals court in Hanoi on Tuesday evening upheld a seven-year sentence handed down to a prominent lawyer in April.

Ashton said in a statement that although 65-year-old Nguyen Van Ly "has partly recovered, his health remains very poor and he is still at high risk of death in prison."

HANOI - The U.S. government and international rights groups have called on Vietnam to immediately release a dissident priest suffering from a brian tumor who was sent back to prison after being granted more than a year of medical leave.

Fresh out of prison and starting a new life in the United States, Vietnamese dissident Tran Khai Thanh Thuy is hoping that rare public protests will escalate into a threat to the communist leaders.

Vietnam has released a dissident writer and pro-democracy activist and deported her to the United States on humanitarian grounds, officials said Friday.

Vietnamese authorities have dropped an investigation into a blogger who was detained for allegedly "infringing on the interests of the state", a report said Tuesday.

The defense team of a prominent Vietnamese dissident lawyer sentenced this week to prison has filed a complaint alleging the judge in his trial broke the law by obstructing their rights to hear all the evidence.

BANGKOK — A prominent Vietnamese legal scholar and human rights campaigner who has called for multiparty democracy was due in court on Monday in Hanoi, facing up to 12 years in prison in a case that has mobilized unusually broad public support.

A court in Vietnam is to try one of the country's most famous legal rights activists on April 4, his family said Monday.

HANOI — Vietnam has freed the second of three United States citizens arrested during a peaceful protest, a banned opposition group said Thursday.

Hanoi - The trial of one of Vietnam's most famous legal rights activists has been delayed until further notice, an official said Tuesday.

Hanoi - Vietnamese authorities have arrested three members of a banned pro-democracy group for joining a peaceful demonstration of farmers who have lost their land to the government, a spokesman for the group said Wednesday.

A Vietnamese human rights lawyer has been freed from prison after serving a four-year sentence for advocating a multiparty system in Internet posts, an official said Monday.

Hanoi - Vietnamese authorities arrested a dissident professor for 'distributing anti-government documents,' state media reported Monday.