Vietnam: Wife of jailed HRD fined, her trade goods confiscated
Event- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 2, 2024
- Event Description
In a separate case, Le Thanh Lam, wife of political prisoner Bui Tuan Lam, also known as “Spring Onion Bae,” wrote on her Facebook account that police in Da Nang had fined her and seized the foods that she sold to make a living, claiming that these goods did not have proper invoices declaring their origins. After her husband was arrested and imprisoned, Thanh Lam, a mother of three, started to sell local snacks and condiments on social media to earn extra income.
However, on Feb. 2, a market inspection team of the Da Nang Police Department approached Lam when she delivered goods to a customer, confiscating all her products worth about 2 million dong ($82). On Feb. 19, the inspection department summoned Lam, fining her another 1.5 million dong for “selling undocumented goods.”
Thanh Lam believed the police had selectively targeted her because her husband, Bui Tuan Lam, is a political prisoner. She said that after she was forcefully taken to a police station for trying to attend the public trial of her husband in May 2023, a Da Nang public security officer pointed his finger at her face, telling her that he would not leave her and her daughters alone, implying that the police would continue to intimidate and harass them due to their peaceful resistance.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- Right to work
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 16.067641551929366
Longitude: 108.21169517107317
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 2 February 2024, Le Thanh Lam, wife of jailed pro-democracy HRD Bui Tuan Lam, was fined and had her trade goods confiscated in further intimidation by the police in Da Nang, Vietnam.