Vietnam: human rights defender issued two invitations for police questioning
Event- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 25, 2024
- Event Description
Dr. Nguyen Quang A, a critic of government policy and a human rights defender, had been twice “invited” by the Hanoi Police Department over his social media postings and interviews with foreign media agencies.
According to photographs of the invitation letters published by human rights attorney Dang Dinh Manh, the Cybersecurity and High-tech Crimes Prevention Office of the Hanoi Police Department issued two invitations for questioning on Sept. 25 and Sept. 27. The letters said the reason for questioning was regarding Dr. A’s “participation in discussions and interviews on social networks.” The Vietnamese Magazine’s sources said Dr. A refused to accept the police requests for questioning because he believed he had done nothing wrong.
Dr. Nguyen Quang A is the former director of the now-dissolved Institute of Development Studies (IDS). This independent think tank analyzes public policy and provides recommendations for the government to improve its policy-making process. He had engaged in popular demonstrations in the past decade, including several protests against the incursion of Chinese ships into Vietnamese territorial waters and the discharge of untreated wastewater by the Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Co. in 2016. The Vietnamese authorities imposed a travel ban on Dr. A for “national security” reasons before he boarded a plane to Bangkok in May 2023.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression
- Offline
- Online
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- Freedom of expression
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 21.018647539498517
Longitude: 105.77995389225839
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 25 September 2024, Dr. Nguyen Quang A, a human rights defender and a vocal critic of government policy from Vietnam, was issued two invitations by the Hanoi Police Department for questioning regarding his social media posts and participation in media interviews.