Vietnam sentences pro-democracy activist to jail for 5 1/2 years.
Obviously, the punishment Tran Ahn Kim is to get is much less severe than the threat of death Akmal Shaikh is facing, (although Kim’s “Crimes” did have the potential sentence of death), but what Kim has been charged with worries me a lot more than drug smuggling.
He’s been charged with crimes of “subversion” and “conducting propaganda against the state”- he joined a couple of banned political parties, and, oh, me, oh my, published pro-democracy articles online.
He used his freedom of speech and his freedom of association in ways which caused no harm to anyone else! He quite clearly must be kept under lock and key by the state. After all, obedience is the key to happiness and justice for all, eh? I mean, The wonderful Communist Party works exclusively for the benefit of the citizens…
The UK is hardly a bastion of freedom, but Vietnam makes the UK look like Galt’s Gulch by comparison.
You’re right this is worse, though I have no sympathy about Shaikh and rather doubt the mental illness aspects too (37 and wandering around the world unsupervised and undiagnosed?).