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• In January, Ho Chi Minh City People's Court sentenced four dissidents — lawyer Le Cong <br />Dinh, businessman Le Thang Long, computer engineer and blogger Nguyen Tien Trung <br />and businessman Tran Huynh Duy Thuc — to between five and 16 years' imprisonment <br />after a trial lasting one day. They were convicted of "activities aimed at overthrowing the <br />people's administration ". The judges deliberated for 15 minutes before returning with a <br />judgement which took 45 minutes to read out, suggesting it had been prepared in <br />advance. Some family members and journalists observed the trial through a video link in <br />an adjacent room; others were refused entry. Sentences of three of the accused were <br />upheld on appeal in May; Le Thanh Long's prison sentence was reduced from five to <br />three and a half years. <br />• Novelist and journalist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was tried by Dong Da District People's <br />Court in February. She was arrested after being beaten by thugs several hours after police <br />had stopped her from travelling to another town to attend a dissidents' trial in October <br />2009. In an apparently deliberate distortion of the incident, she was charged with assault <br />and sentenced to three and a half years in prison after a trial that lasted less than a day. <br />Discrimination — religious minorities <br />Members of the Unified Buddhist Church of Viet Nam (UBCV) continued to face harassment <br />and restrictions on their freedom of movement in some provinces. Supreme Patriarch Thich <br />Quang Do remained under de facto house arrest. Local authorities and police harassed and used <br />unnecessary force against UBCV members at Giac Minh Pagoda in Quang Nam -Da Nang <br />province in May and August as they attempted to hold special prayers. <br />Disputes over land ownership between local authorities and the Catholic church continued. In <br />May hundreds of police used batons and electric prods against Catholics of Con Dau parish who <br />were attempting to bury a woman in a cemetery on land designated by the authorities for <br />development. Dozens of people were injured, and around 60 briefly detained. Two were <br />sentenced in October to nine and 12 months' imprisonment, and five received non - custodial <br />sentences after being charged with public order offences. Some 40 parishioners fled Viet Nam to <br />seek asylum in Thailand. <br />Death penalty <br />The National Assembly voted in May to change the method of execution from firing squad to <br />lethal injection, claiming that it causes less pain, costs less and reduces psychological pressure on <br />executioners. The change was due to come into effect in July 2011. According to media reports, <br />at least 34 people were sentenced to death. No executions were reported in the media. Official <br />statistics on the death penalty were not made public. <br />3 <br />