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A Korean court on Thursday turned down a request for the extradition of a Vietnamese dissident Hanoi accuses of terrorism.
The Seoul High Court ruled that Nguyen Huu Chanh (58), who described as a criminal in its extradition request to Seoul, is a political prisoner and can thus not be extradited to Vietnam. That marks the first time South Korea has turned down an extradition request. As this verdict can not be appealed to the Supreme Court, Nguyen is now a free man. But that is likely to spark diplomatic tensions since Hanoi and Seoul have an extradition treaty .
Nguyen, who lives in the U.S., was arrested during a visit to Seoul in April after Vietnamese authorities accused him of seeking to overthrow the Vietnamese government and being behind series of attacks the country¡¯s missions overseas. A Vietnamese prosecutor testified during the proceedings here that Nguyen was behind a failed attempt to blow up statues of Ho Chi Minh in 1999 and the placing of explosives at the Vietnamese Embassy in Thailand in 2002. After hearing a wealth of testimony, the court concluded Nguyen is a political dissident, which constitutes grounds to refuse his extradion.
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Vietnamese dissident Nguyen Huu Chanh greets his wife and son upon being released from a remand prison in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province following the Seoul High Court¡¯s refusal to extradite him on Thursday./Yonhap
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The judge agreed the purpose of the Vietnamese government in exile Nguyen set up in the U.S. did have the aim of toppling the current communist government and establishing a democratic government in its place. As he has been working as a leader towards fulfilling such aims, he is political prisoner, and the crime was of a political nature. ¡°Since the alleged offenses were foiled in their preliminary or conspiratorial stages, there was no actual injury to persons or property, so the assertion [by the applicants] that the defendant should be an exception to the principle of never extraditing political prisoners does not hold water.¡±
Nguyen's Korean lawyer, Kwon Yong-suk said on the verdict, "I am grateful that the judicature issued this ruling after consideration to the concepts of justice and human rights." "This ruling will raise Korea¡¯s status as a nation of human rights, and that is surely in the national interest."
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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