June 19, 2013
The brother of a prominent Vietnamese dissident lawyer detained on
tax evasion charges said attorneys have been refused access to court
documents ahead of his trial next month, as rights groups appealed to
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to pressure Hanoi for his release.
Le Quoc Quyet told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that the legal team
representing his older brother Le Quoc Quan, who is also a blogger, had
experienced frequent standoffs with the authorities over legal documents
since his case was transferred to the Hanoi People’s Court in April.
“The lawyers have faced constant obstruction when trying to access
case documents,” Quyet said, adding that the defense had only been
notified last week by the court of his brother’s July 9 trial date.
“Lawyer Tran Thu Nam was only given a chance to make copies of the whole set of documents on June 13,” he said.
