HIS MAJESTY KING BHUMIOL ADULYADEJ

THE KING OF THAILAND

THE GRAND PALACE

NA PHRA LAN ROAD

BANGKOK 10200 THAILAND

Email: govspkmn@mozart.inet.co.th, webmaster@thaigov.go.th

January 05, 2006

ADDITIONAL MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED TO

HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THAI LAND

Re:  Ly Tong’s Extradition Case

On behalf of the Lawyers Committee for People’s Rights, we would like to draw Your Majesty’s attention to Hanoi’s policy of political repression during the last two decades.  The outcome of the Ly Tong’s extradition case will depend on that policy.

On September 24, 1982, Vietnam acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and has been bound by its provisions since December 24, 1982.  As a State Party, Vietnam has to abide by its obligations under international law.

In May 1990, on behalf of the Movement for Human Rights, Dr. Nguyen Dan Que issued a manifesto calling on the Government of Vietnam to dismantle its military apparatus to bring a lasting peace in Southeast Asia, to abolish the monopoly of leadership of the Communist Party, and to promote the people’s right of self-determination so that they could freely determine their political status.

One month later, in June 1990, Dr. Que was arrested and charged with treason, specifically,  “having activities aiming at overthrowing the people’s government”.  In November 1991, he was brought to trial before the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court.  In a three-hour trial, he was convicted and sentenced to twenty years imprisonment and five years house arrest.  During the 18-month investigation, and before the Court, he was not represented by a defense attorney.  

In March 1993, Doctor Doan Viet Hoat, former Vice-Rector of the Buddhist Van Hanh University of Saigon, was sentenced by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court to fifteen years imprisonment and five years house arrest for the same crime of “having activities aiming at overthrowing the people’s government”. Dr. Hoat was prosecuted for having published four newsletters “Freedom Forum”, calling on the Communist leaders to start a process of dialogue, national reconciliation and concord based on the people’s right of self determination.

 During the 28-month investigation, and before the Court, Dr. Hoat did not have access to independent legal counsel.

Amnesty International submitted Dr. Que’s and Dr. Hoat’s cases to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. On April 30, 1993, the Group submitted a report declaring these arrests and detentions as arbitrary. 

In September 1992, after escaping from a prison camp, and becoming a U.S. Citizen, Ly Tong used a Vietnam Airlines passenger jet to drop leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City urging an uprising against Communist leaders.  In the initial complaint, Ly Tong was charged with treason.  However, to deny him the status of a political prisoner, the Public Prosecutor had amended the charge of treason to that of “taking over an aircraft in flight “, and had him sentenced by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court to 20 years in prison.  In September 1998, under international pressures, Dr. Que, Dr. Hoat,  and Ly Tong were released by amnesty. 

On January 1^st, 2000 Ly Tong dropped leaflets from a Cessna plane over Havana, calling on Cubans to rise up against Fidel Castro.  He became a hero in Miami’s Little Havana.  He was not criminally prosecuted for violating the American airspace, but had his pilot license suspended for six months.  Cuba’s request for his extradition was denied by the American Government. 

His latest daring leaflets-dropping act from a single-engine plane over Ho Chi Minh City on November 17, 2000 – the eve of President Clinton’s visit – has landed him in jail in Thailand for seven years and four months.  Referring to this incident, Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Phan Thuy Thanh called Ly Tong  “a dangerous  international terrorist”, and accused him of “violating Vietnam’s national security”, e.g. “having activities to overthrow the people’s government” with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment or death. 

In August 2005, the Thai Attorney General informed the American Embassy in Bangkok that Thailand has offered to accept a request for Ly Tong’s extradition to Vietnam only for the charge of “violating Vietnam’s airspace”. 

On December 25, 2003, the  Rayong Court sentenced  Ly Tong to four months in jail for violating Thailand’s airspace. The US Criminal Court classifies this offense as a misdemeanor punishable of fines or of a jail term up to one year.  

Actually, there are hundreds of airspace violations each year around the world.  In serious cases, according to the Chicago Convention of 1944, four measures should be taken to solve the problem: 

1. Warning the violating aircraft to leave the airspace of the violated country;

2. Forcing the violating aircraft to land at an airport of the violated country;

3. Shooting the violating aircraft if a provocation takes place; or

4. Sending a diplomatic protocol of complaint to the country of the violating aircraft.

There are no rules to extradite an airspace violator.  Furthermore, dropping leaflet is not an act of terrorism, but an exercise of the right to freedom of expression.  In Ly Tong’s Havana flight on 1 January 2000, his violation of US airspace was sanctioned by suspending his pilot license for six months.  The Havana‘s request for his extradition was denied by Washington. 

From experience, we have good reasons to believe that, if Ly Tong is extradited to Vietnam, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court, once more, would charge him with “having activities to overthrow the people’s government” and could inflict him a penalty of life imprisonment or death. As an alternative, the Court would sentence him to the maximum penalty of ten years imprisonment for “violating Vietnam’s airspace”, pursuant to the Vietnam’s Criminal Code.  That would constitute a cruel and inhuman punishment, in violation of Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 

For the above-mentioned reasons, we would request Your Majesty and His Royal Cabinet to reconsider the Decision to Extradite Ly Tong to Vietnam. 

Thank you for your consideration in this matter. 

Respectfully yours, 

For THE LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR PEOPLE’S RIGHTS 

NGUYEN HUU THONG

Attorney at Law to the California Supreme Court