March 31, 2007	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 11, 1428

HUE (Vietnam): A dissident Roman Catholic priest in Vietnam was jailed for eight years on Friday, yelling defiance to the last as the court convicted him of spreading propaganda against the communist state.

Pro-democracy activist Father Nguyen Van Ly, 60, was found guilty and sentenced together with four other advocates of multi-party democracy in a swift, half-day trial in the central city of Hue. The priest -- who has been jailed three times since the 1970s for a total of 14 years -- was dragged into the courtroom in handcuffs and shouted angrily as a police officer hastily covered his mouth.

Ly was later ejected and sentenced while being held in a separate room. The trial drew condemnation from diplomats, Vietnam watchers and human rights groups for the one-party state that has gone to great lengths over the past year to boost its international prestige.

Prosecutors said Father Ly was a founding member of the banned “Bloc 8406” pro-democracy coalition, named after its April 8 launch last year, and also a driving force behind the outlawed Vietnam Progression Party (VPP).

The four other defendants, all declared members of the VPP, were given sentences from an 18-month suspended jail term to six years behind bars.—AFP