Spy case to air grave issues

Press, 1 May 1978, Page 8

Spy case to air grave issues

NZPA Alexandria (Virginia) United States constitutional issues that paral’el and may eclipse those of the Watergate era will be aired this week in the trial of two men indicted on charges of spying for Vietnam. The two, Ronald. Humphrey and David Truong, are scheduled to go on trial in a United States District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, today on charges of espionage, ' conspiracy, and failure to register as foreign agents.

I Truong, aged 32, is a Vietnamese national who has lived in the United States for 13 years. Humphrey, aged 42, served as an officer in the United States Information Agency. They are charged with espionage between April, 1977, and the time of their arrest in January. The trial will raise serious constitutional questions that approach—and may go well beyond — questions raised during the Watergate scandal. Among them are these: The United States Justice Department has sought to base its case in part on a wiretap installed under presumed Presidential authority to act in a foreign intelligence case without prior approval by any Federal Court. The department says this may never have happened before.

President Jimmy Carter authorised the AttorneyGeneral (Mr Griffin Bell), through the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to install a hidden microphone in the Washington apartment of Truong. That action also may have been taken without precedent.

Mr Carter authorised a videotape of Humphrey in the U.S.I.A. office where he was a watch officer with a top security clearance. The President gave authority to the F. 8.1. to open and photograph sealed mail to Truong, which the Government contends was sent through a courier from Communist Vietnam sources in Paris. Mr Bell testified for several hours at pre-trial hearings before United States District Judge Alberg Bryan of the eastern district of Virginia. The Justice Department has said that no AttorneyGenera! had ever testified before in such a case.

A key feature of the trial Will be the testimony of Dung Thi Mi Hung Kraß, a Vietnamese woman who has testified briefly before the trial. She swore that she delivered packages and envelopes between Truong and Vietnamese officials at the United Nations headquarters in New York and Vietnamese officials taking part in peace talks in Paris. Judge Bryan has ruled that Government intrusion in the case was great. The tap on Truong’s phone ran for some 2000 hours over 26S days between last May 11 and January 31, with about 567 calls recorded. The microphone was run for 255 days, starting last Mav 27. F. 8.1. agents have testified that only discussions between Truong and Humphrey were recorded. Lawyers in the case are estimating that the trial could last about three weeks. Conffiction on the sevencount indictment against each of the two men could result in penalties ranging from five years to life in prison. i