Phan Văn Bàn

Who is Phan Văn Bàn?

Phan Văn Bàn is a Vietnamese political dissident. He spent 29 years in jail in Vietnam, after the fall of Saigon.

Phan Van Ban was born in 1937 in Tu An commune, Tu Nghia district, central Quang Ngai province. He was a former police officer of the pre-1975 South Vietnam regime in Dalat, was in charge of propaganda for the organisation that dropped anti-government documents and leaflets in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau. He has been in jail since 1978 and a People's Court sentenced him to life in prison in 1985, in Prison Camp Nam Ha in northern Vietnam.

"The release of Phan Van Ban is a welcome development," said Angela Aggeler, the press attache for the US embassy in Hanoi. "He's been held in prison for more than 20 years after calling for peaceful political change in Vietnam. We are pleased that Mr Ban will be able to join his family in the US."

The communist government has still to account for numerous religious and political prisoners remaining in prisons and Human-rights groups said Vietnam has stepped up its crackdown on dissidents. More than a dozen pro-democracy activists have been arrested since November 2006. The United States last year placed Vietnam on a blacklist of "countries of particular concern" for abusing rights to worship.