Vietnamese authorities released one dissident from jail this week as they exiled the former political prisoner to France, but at the same time they blocked another well-known dissident from leaving the country.

Dang Xuan Dieu, a blogger, community organizer and a member of the outlawed Viet Tan organization, was released late Thursday and deported to Paris after serving six years of a 13-year prison term, according to family members and his international attorney.

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Stanford Law School professor Allen Weiner, who serves as Dieu’s international lawyer, called the release “gratifying,” while he criticized the arrest.

“Mr. Dieu should never have been imprisoned,” Weiner said.  “His arrest and imprisonment for engaging in peaceful political expression violated the settled international human rights standards that Vietnam itself has accepted, as well as Vietnam’s own constitution.”