Vietnamese sentence minority Christians to jail terms

Vietnam has sentenced nine members of a banned branch of Christianity to between 18 and 30 months in prison for their alleged actions against the state.

The nine members of the Montegnard ethnic minority founded a branch of "Dega Protestantism," a type of evangelical Christianity followed by many Montegnards in Vietnam's central highlands, in April 2001. The Vietnamese government approves a form of Protestantism among the six religions it recognizes, but regards all other faiths as illegal, Reuters reported.

The nine recruited 70 followers in Gia Lai's Krong Pa District and were indicted for sabotaging national unity in May 2001, when two of the accused "incited local believers to flee Vietnam and speak ill of the regime," according to a report the Official Vietnam News Agency.

Evangelical Christians have been heavily targeted in the government's crackdown on indigenous highlanders. - (RNS)