A Vietnamese Buddhist monk considered a victim of religious persecution was sentenced to jail on charges he tried to undermine the communist government, state-run media reported.
Pham Van Tuong, also known as Thich Tri Luc, was sentenced in Ho Chi Minh City for committing "acts that distort the Party and state's policy of great national unity, creating conditions for other forces to cause internal insecurity and external instability," the People's Army newspaper reported last Saturday.
Although his sentence was 20 months, he should be released soon because he was held in pre-trial detention for nearly the same length of time, according to the International Buddhist Information Bureau in Paris.
Luc, 50, a member of the outlawed Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, was granted refugee status by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees in Cambodia, who said he had fled religious persecution in Vietnam.
International human rights groups allege that Vietnamese secret police kidnapped Luc from a guesthouse in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in July 2002, then repatriated him and held him incommunicado until last August, when his family received notice of the trial.