Laos deports European activists

Laotians demonstrate in Paris to protest the detention of the five activists for mounting a pro-democracy protest in Laos

BANGKOK, Thailand -- A court in Laos has ordered the deportation of five western political activists, including a European Parliament member, arrested for staging a pro-democracy protest in the communist nation.

The activists were arrested on October 26 in the capital, Vientiane.

They had faced a maximum prison sentence of five years on charges of interfering in Laos' internal affairs after handing out leaflets commemorating the second anniversary of a pro-democracy student protest in Laos.

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But the court sentenced them to a conditional two-year jail term, and eventually allowed them to serve only two weeks of their sentence, said ambassador Klauspeter Schmallenbach, head of the European Commission delegation based in neighboring Thailand.

"We assume they will be expelled today and then taken into the care of their respective consular representatives of their countries," Schmallenbach told the Associated Press news agency by telephone from Vientiane, the capital of Laos.

Schmallenbach added the judge at the Lao People's Court ordered the five to be deported after paying a small fine.

The men were identified as Olivier Dupuis, a Belgian member of the EU assembly, three Italians -- Silvja Manzi, Bruno Mellano and Massimo Lensi -- and Russian national Nikolai Kramov.

They were all members of the Italian-based Transnational Radical Party,

On Thursday, Romano Prodi, the president of the European Union's executive commission, warned Laos that the case "risked casting a shadow" over diplomatic relations and urged the government to release the detainees "in the spirit of good cooperation."

The EU is a major aid donor to Laos, which relies on foreign assistance for about 80 percent of its public investment.

It remains one of Asia's poorest countries.

Laos' communist regime, which has ruled since the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, tolerates no political dissent.

Human rights groups say at least five Lao nationals involved in the 1999 protest are still being detained without trial.