Eight get three-year terms for subversion

Bangkok Post: AP

A court in Laos has reportedly given unexpectedly harsh sentences to a group of Christians linked to a US-based missionary group who were arrested at a Bible study meeting two months ago.

Forty-four people we arrested the night of January 30 at a private residence in Vientiane. Thirteen, all Laotian nationals, were sentenced on Wednesday, a source familiar with the case told the Associated Press. The others were freed earlier.

Eight men each received three-year prison sentences for creating divisions and undermining the communist government that has ruled this Southeast Asian country since the Indo-china conflict ended in 1975.

One man and a 20-year-old woman each received two-year sentences which were then halved to one year. Three older women received suspended one-year sentences, said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity. The three women will nonetheless have to serve two more mnths in prison for unclear reasons.

Charges that the detainees received foreign funds apparently figured in the sentencing. Five of those receiving the three-year sentences worked for a US-based non-governmental organization with religious affiliations.

Those originally arrested included three US citizens, a French woman and a Thai preacher, all of whom were released and expelled after being held for four nights.

Twenty-six Laotians were also released later without being charged with any crime.

The Americans were members of Partners in Progress, a humanitarian evangelical organization based in Little Rock, Arkansas, with activities worldwide. It is affliated with the Churches of Christ.

The group has been working in Laos since 1993, providing medical aid, assistance in sanitation and clean water supplies for rural schools and English-language instruction for medical personnel.

In February, police told relatives of the 13 prisoners that the detainees could expect to receive prison sentences ranging from two months to five years.

But privately, the US embassy, which had taken a close interest in the case, had been expecting only one of the 13 to get a harsh sentence.

Embassy officials were trying to confirm the sentences yesterday. Laotian officials were not immediately available for comment.

The arrests drew concern from the human-rights group Amnesty International and puzzlement in the small foreign community in the capital of Laos, Vientiane, since such prayer meetings had taken place fairly regularly for several years.

In the only extended public comment on the case from the Laotian government, the official Laotian news agency KPL last month published what was described as a clarification of the case by the foreign ministry.

The statement said the meeting was a breach of Article 66 of the country's criminal code, specifying that "an individual who organises or takes part in a meeting to create social turmoil will be sentenced to one to five years imprisonment".