SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After two tearful, nerve-racking weeks, Ngo Mai Huong got some good news yesterday: Her husband, Sacramento engineer and pro-democracy activist Nguyen Quoc Quan, is alive and well in a Vietnamese prison.

Ngo said the U.S. State Department told her that her "husband is in jail with two other detainees, and right now he's teaching one of them English."

On Nov. 17, Nguyen and several other activists, including another Vietnamese-American, "Leon" Truong Van Ba of Honolulu, were arrested around Ho Chi Minh City for allegedly distributing pro-democracy leaflets.

Nguyen and Truong's arrests triggered protests from Vietnamese organizations in the U.S. and members of Congress, including Rep. Neil Abercrombie, D-Hawai'i, have written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice asking for her help in gaining their release.

Nguyen, a 54-year-old father of two teenage boys, belongs to Viet Tan — the Vietnam Reform Party. The international pro-democracy movement has been labeled "a terrorist organization" by the Vietnamese government.

Nguyen left Elk Grove, Calif., Nov. 9 to meet with democracy activists. Ngo said local Vietnamese activists told her Nguyen had been arrested. She heard nothing for days, and didn't know if he was dead or alive.

On Nov. 30, the Vietnamese government's official news agency reported arresting several Viet Tan sympathizers, "crushing the plots by a group of reactionaries in exile to sabotage the Vietnamese State."

The government's report alleged Nguyen "who used a fake passport under the name of Ly Seng for entry into Vietnam ... was assigned by the Viet Tan to return to the country to conduct anti-government activities in association with other elements."

Duy Hoang, a Viet Tan leader based in Washington, D.C., said Nguyen was indeed sent by Viet Tan to Vietnam "to promote methods of nonviolent struggle."

Hoang challenged the Vietnamese government to publish the leaflet in its newspaper "to let the people decide if this is in fact an act of terrorism.

"We view ourselves as patriots who want to bring about political change by mobilizing the power of the people through all forms of nonviolent struggle, from peaceful protest to civil disobedience," he said.

"I was involved in the planning of his trip," said Hoang, a 1993 University of California, Davis graduate in economics and political science. "He and other Viet Tan members were in the process of distributing a two-page leaflet on what nonviolent struggle is and how it can be a tool to liberate the people."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.