Hanoi - The arrest of a prominent pro-democracy lawyer at the weekend on charges of "colluding with domestic and foreign reactionaries to sabotage the Vietnamese state" drew angry reactions Monday from Vietnamese intellectuals and concern from foreign governments.

Lawyer Le Cong Dinh, 41, was arrested Saturday and charged with violating Article 88 of the Vietnamese criminal code, which forbids distributing information opposing the government.

The crime carries a prison sentence of up to 20 years. Under Vietnamese law, suspects can be held for between four and 16 months without trial.

"This is a brutal choking-off of democracy," said economist Nguyen Quang A, director of the Institute for Stable Development in Hanoi.

On Sunday, US Ambassador to Vietnam Michael Michalak expressed "concern" over Dinh's arrest.

Dinh, who has a law degree from the US's Tulane University, was close to several of the dissidents who formed a pro-democracy movement in 2006 known as Bloc 8406. He served as a defence lawyer at the trial of human rights lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan in May 2007, where they were sentenced to prison for "disseminating propaganda that was harmful to the State."

Vietnam's government-controlled press reported Monday that the authorities had been investigating Dinh for years.

The official Viet Nam News on Monday cited Vu Hai Trieu, deputy head of the General Department of Security, as saying Dinh had "recruited for a domestic anti-state organization" and written "articles defaming leaders of the Party and the State, with a focus on the Prime Minister."

Trieu said Dinh had used the issues of Chinese-run bauxite mines in Vietnam's Central Highlands and territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea to "stir up thoughts against the Party and the state." Both issues have engendered widespread nationalist feeling in Vietnam in recent months.

A number of prominent Vietnamese intellectuals reacted unusually sharply to Dinh's arrest.

Quang A called those who arrested Dinh "a group of traitors to the country," and said the government should change Article 88 so that it would no longer be possible to arrest people for their political opinions.

Literary critic Pham Xuan Nguyen called the arrest "clearly a political case," and wondered what the real reasons for the arrest were.

Lawyer Cu Huy Ha Vu, who last week filed a suit against Vietnam's prime minister over the bauxite mining affair, said Dinh's articles, "cannot be considered evidence to convict him. Calling for a pluralistic society is a good thing, as it creates competition among people and drives society to develop."

Dinh rose to prominence in 2003 when, as a lawyer at the firm White and Case, he defended Vietnamese catfish farmers against US anti-dumping tariffs. He served as vice chairman of Ho Chi Minh City's Law Association before establishing his own firm in March. He is married to Nguyen Thi Ngoc Khanh, 33, a former Miss Vietnam.(dpa)