HANOI - THE defence 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.
Cu Huy Ha Vu, 53, the well-known son of a Vietnamese Communist revolutionary leader, was sentenced to seven years in prison and three years under house arrest at the one-day trial on Monday on charges of conducting propaganda against the state.
One of Vu's four defence attorneys was ejected from the courtroom for repeatedly asking the judge to read in full or provide copies of 10 interviews Vu gave to foreign media, which were used as key evidence against him.
The three other attorneys walked out in protest, leaving Vu to defend himself.
In the complaint, posted at a popular dissident website and verified on Tuesday by lawyer Tran Dinh Trien, the defence team accused the judge of violating their rights as attorneys and the rights of their client by refusing to provide the full evidence.
'There has been a serious violation of laws during the investigation, prosecution and at the court,' said Mr Trien, one of the three lawyers who left the court in protest. 'According to the law, the evidence must be announced at the trial, but they did not. -- AP
0 Comments:
Post a Comment