HANOI (AP)--The leader of a Buddhist sect that opposes Vietnam's communist regime has been placed under house arrest for allegedly planning a mass suicide, a police official said Monday.
The People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City on March 17 issued a two-year probation order against Le Quang Liem for committing acts deemed harmful to national interests, said an official with the Ho Chi Minh City police, who declined to be identified.
Le, 81, leads a group of dissident Hoa Hao Buddhists who oppose the government. The Hoa Hao sect, which claims some four million believers, is officially recognized as a religion by the nation's communist authorities.
The police official said that the probation order places strict travel restrictions on Liem, who currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City.
On March 17, Liem and other followers were detained by police who seized seven bags of gasoline-soaked cotton along with some banners. They allegedly planned to attempt a mass self-immolation in a park in Ho Chi Minh City.
In an article Sunday, the Quan Doi Nhan Dan (People's Army) newspaper called for severe punishment against Liem, who it said has repeatedly abused religion to oppose the government.
The newspaper said Liem had also traveled to Hue last month to meet with dissident Catholic priest Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly and other religious figures to discuss the establishment of a group to fight for religious freedom.
Ly, who was also placed under detention March 3, has been reviled in the local media for his testimony to a U.S. religious commission calling on the United States to link Vietnam's human rights record to the ratification of a pending bilateral trade agreement.