On the afternoon of December 1, authorities in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak detained local activist Huynh Thuc Vy, who has been convicted of defaming the national flag and sentenced to 33 months in prison but enjoyed delayed imprisonment due to her maternal status. Currently, she is held incommunicado in the temporary detention center managed by the province’s Police Department and it is likely the local authorities will force her to serve her sentence although her second child is only two and a half year old.

Huynh Thuc Vy has been taken into custody after a court in Dak Lak revoked the suspension which allowed her to delay serving her prison sentence. The reason given was that she had violated her terms of suspension by “actions that violate the law which cause dangers to society.” The court did not specify what those actions were. A recipient of the Hellman/Hammett Prize in 2012, Vy was arrested in 2018 after she sprayed paint on a Vietnam flag. She was convicted of “defacing the national flag” under Article 276 and sentenced to two years and nine months in prison. According to domestic law, however, she should not have to report to prison until her child is three years old, which he isn’t yet.