Informant38

Nguyen Khac Toan, a former army officer, was arrested on 8 January 2002 in a Hanoi cybercaf� and has since been held in the B14 prison not far from the city.

RSF notes that three other cyber-dissidents are in prison in Vietnam. Le Chi Quang, who is in poor health, was sentenced to four years in jail on 8 November for advocating political reforms on the Internet (see IFEX alerts of 27 December, 8 November, 23 and 9 October, 27 September, 15 August and 14 March 2002). Pham Hong Son, who was arrested on 29 March (see IFEX alerts of 27 December, 23 October, 15 August, 26 July and 18 April 2002), and journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, who was arrested on 25 September (see IFEX alerts of 27 December, 23 and 9 October, 27 September and 23 July 2002), are in prison for having expressed opinions online and have not yet been tried. Tran Khue, a literature teacher who wrote a letter to then Chinese President Jiang Zemin which he put on the Internet, has been under house arrest since 10 March (see IFEX alerts of 4 July and 14 March 2002).