- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 24, 2024
- Event Description
Two Vietnamese teachers were sentenced to prison on Wednesday in separate cases for criticizing authorities on social media under vague statutes often used to stifle dissent, people with knowledge of the situation said.
They are the latest examples of how Vietnam systematically suppresses basic freedoms and civil rights.
Duong Tuan Ngoc, 39, was sentenced by the Lam Dong People’s Court to seven years in prison and three years of probation under Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code for disseminating anti-state propaganda and “smearing senior leaders” on his social media accounts.
Retired teacher Nguyen Thu Hang, 62, received a two-year sentence under Article 331 for abusing democratic freedom that violated the interests of the state, rights and the legal interests of organizations and individuals.
She was convicted by the Dong Hoi People’s Court for using personal Facebook accounts to defame a judge who had presided over the land dispute case in which she was involved. She was also accused of streaming such video clips at various provincial offices.
Under the one-party rule of the Communist Party of Vietnam, the government severely restricts rights to freedom of expression, religion, association, peaceful assembly and movement, according to human rights and civil society groups.
“No one should be targeted for comments made on social media criticizing the government,” Josef Benedict, a researcher covering the Asia Pacific region for the CIVICUS Monitor, told RFA via text message.
Health videos
Ngoc, jailed since July 15, 2023, was an online teacher who specialized in macrobiotic diets, which aim to avoid foods containing toxins. He used to post articles and livestream videos about education, health and social issues on his Facebook and YouTube pages.
Police in Lam Dong province in southern Vietnam summoned him and his wife, Bui Thanh Diem Ngoc, on July 10, 2023, to question them about anonymous reports that Ngoc used his Facebook account to sell drugs.
But after Ngoc proved he was innocent, the police initiated a new probe on the charge of distributing anti-state propaganda and arrested him five days later.
Authorities accused the teacher of posting and sharing articles and videos on his Facebook and YouTube accounts that mocked, defamed and criticized the government and the party’s policies, and smeared senior party and state leaders, according to notices Lam Dong Police gave to Ngoc’s family.
A relative, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told Radio Free Asia that Ngoc’s first-instance trial, which his wife and lawyer were allowed to attend, lasted about two hours on Wednesday morning.
“The defense lawyer did not make a defense case for him but requested sentence litigation, saying that he had a clean criminal record and had performed many charity activities before his arrest,” the person said.
During the trial, Ngoc admitted to having “spoken ill of government officials” but affirmed his wish of “a multiparty and pluralistic regime and an improved political regime,” said the relative.
It appears as though Ngoc will not appeal the verdict because he wants to serve his sentence as soon as possible so he can see his family again and resume work, the person said.
‘Lip service’
Benedict from CIVICUS said Ngoc’s arrest for peaceful expression online is the latest attempt by the Vietnamese regime to stifle peaceful expression, which contravenes the country’s international human rights obligations to protect fundamental freedoms.
He expressed concern over the government’s use of Article 117, which U.N. experts have found overly broad and aimed at silencing those who seek to exercise their right to freely express their views and share information with others.
“These actions are unbecoming of a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council and shows that the government has been only merely paying lip service to human rights and has no intention of respecting and protecting them,” Benedict said.
Vietnam is a current three-year member of the Human Right Council in Geneva, Switzerland, for the 2023-25 term and will seek reelection to the body for the 2026-28 term, despite widespread rights violations.
Ngoc is well-known on social media, and his Facebook page has more than 45,000 followers with an introductory description declaring: “I have rights as a citizen. You have rights as citizens. Citizens are the rightful owners of the country.”
He has two YouTube accounts, one of which features hundreds of videos on health, medicine and life in the countryside, and has nearly 95,000 followers. His other channel has about 39,000 followers and features videos discussing politics, corruption and poor leadership in Vietnam.
Ngoc is the eighth Vietnamese activist convicted this year, and the third to be charged with disseminating “anti-state propaganda” according to an RFA tally.
Retired teacher
Meanwhile, the retired teacher, Nguyen Thu Hang, was sentenced to two years in jail for abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state.
Hang, a resident of Dong Hoi city in Quang Binh province in central Vietnam, previously worked at a middle school in Dong Hoi, and was arrested on Nov. 27, 2023.
Dong Hoi police’s investigation agency said Hang disagreed with a verdict handed down in a civil trial about a land-use rights dispute and a request to annul a land-use rights certificate in which she was a plaintiff.
The agency said that from March to May 2023, Hang repeatedly used her Facebook account to livestream comments on Judge Nguyen Van Ngh, posting videos of herself speaking at the headquarters of Nam Ly ward, Dong Hoi’s Department of Education and Training, and Quang Binh province’s Inspection Department.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 28, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 29, 2024
- Event Description
A prison in Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province is refusing to allow the family of political prisoner Nguyen Thi Tam to bring her traditional medicine to treat uterine fibroids, her sister told Radio Free Asia.
Fibroids are growths, which don’t normally develop into cancer but can cause major swelling in the uterus leading to the appearance of pregnancy.
Tam, 52, was arrested in June 2020 on charges of “propaganda against the State” under Article 117 of the criminal code.
The charges related to social media posts about a police attack on Dong Tam commune during which officers shot and killed protester Le Dinh Kinh.
In Dec. 2021, the People’s Court of Hanoi sentenced Tam to six years in prison.
After the appeal was rejected in Aug. 2022, Tam was transferred to serve her sentence at Gia Trung Prison in Gia Lai province, and then to Prison No. 5 in Thanh Hoa from the end of May 2023.
On Monday, Nguyen Thanh Mai told RFA her sister, Tam, was found to be suffering from fibroids in March last year.
She was not treated by an outside medical specialist but only at the prison’s infirmary, which lacked suitable medical equipment.
Her family sent traditional medicine and said Tam’s condition improved after using it. But since October, the prison stopped accepting the pills and dried leaves they sent.
“They said they could not determine the ingredients of the medicine the family sent,” Mai said. “They also said if she got sick she would have a prescription and the family could buy medicine according to the new instructions and send it.”
The medicine, Crinum latifolium, is on a list of 70 medicinal plants approved by Vietnam’s Ministry of Health in 2014, saying it was an “anti-cancer and eliminating fungus” supporting the treatment of cervical cancer,
Mai said the basic medicines given to Tam by the prison hospital had no effect on the fibroids and her sister had been bleeding for 17 consecutive days.
The reporter called Prison No. 5 to verify the information provided by Tam’s family. The unidentified call operator said prisoners can only receive medication with a doctor’s prescription.
“People here have a hospital. When they get sick they go to the hospital,” he said.
“As for Vietnamese medicine, we don’t know how it should be taken. There are no instructions on how to take it so how can anyone know?”
The person asked the reporter to come directly to the detention facility to have additional questions answered in person.
Mai said the prison also stopped giving Tam many other items the family sent including cassava flour and green bean powder which the prison canteen doesn’t have or sells at exorbitant prices.
Tam’s cell was searched, her sister said, and many belongings such as diaries, English books and writing materials were confiscated.
On March 29, Tam called her family to talk about mistreatment but a prison officer repeatedly intervened, telling her to “only talk about health issues” and finally hung up the phone.
Amnesty International publicized Tam’s health issues in March 2023, urging the Vietnamese government to urgently provide adequate health care and unconditionally release Tam and other activists. imprisoned for peacefully exercising human rights.
Former prisoner of conscience Dang Thi Hue said conditions in Prison No. 5 are extremely harsh, and poor nutrition caused even healthy inmates to get sick.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 11, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 21, 2023
- Event Description
Le Thi Ha, the wife of Dang Dang Phuoc, told Project88 that she received a decision by the head of Daklak’s School of Pedagogy to “discipline” the music teacher because he’s convicted of “anti-state propaganda” and is serving an 8-year prison sentence. On the same day that decision was signed (12/21/2023), another decision by the Bureau of Education and Training of Dak Lak was also issued to fire him; however, Le Thi Ha said she only received the latter a few days ago. She added that Phuoc had been receiving only half of his salary between the time he was arrested (Sep. 2022) to Dec. 2023; after Jan. 2024, everything was terminated. On March 25, Ha also received a notification that Phuoc’s electronic devices and data related to the case will be destroyed, and the rest will be returned to her.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to access to funding, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to work
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger arrested on catch-all charges
- Date added
- Apr 11, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 22, 2024
- Event Description
Huynh Ngoc Chenh, husband of Nguyen Thuy Hanh, told Project88 that on March 10 he was called to the police station to file paperwork that would allow him to bring Hanh home for cancer treatment, provided that she remain at the residence where she was living at the time of her arrest. However, that apartment had since been leased to another tenant, and the lease would not expire until March 18. Chenh told the police he would try to negotiate with the tenant to end the lease early so his wife could move back to that residence; however, that effort failed. Then on March 17, he called the authorities to let them know that he could take Hanh home on March 18, but received no response from them. Then on March 22, after Hanh’s radiation therapy, the authorities went to K Hospital and read an order to continue Hanh’s “temporary detention” for another three months. She was then taken back to the jail on 2 Thuong Tin St. It is not clear why Hanh’s family was given such false hopes.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 10, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 4, 2024
- Event Description
Below is a letter from Tran Phuong Thao, wife of imprisoned climate leader Dang Dinh Bach. In it, she alleges Prison No. 6 in Nghe An province deliberately withheld a package of food from Bach, leaving him to have essentially no access to food for two weeks. This serious allegation should be thoroughly investigated by the international community.
Bach, who is serving five years in prison on spurious charges of tax evasion, has been subjected to harsh prison conditions and has undertaken numerous hunger strikes in protest. His family has also faced constant harassment from the Vietnamese authorities, even threatening the confiscation of their home.
Hanoi, 13.03.2024 ~
Dear friends, colleagues and international organizations
I came home yesterday (March 12) at 9PM after visiting my husband Đặng Đình Bách in Prison No. 6, Nghe An province. I left home (in Hanoi) at 9PM the day before (March 11), which means twenty three hours on the road to see and talk to Bách through a glass pane for one hour, and to bring him the 5kg of dried vegetarian food allowed by the Vietnamese authorities, vital for his survival.
This letter is going to be short, because there is no amelioration to Bách’s detention situation to report. It has gotten even worse, so bad that I have been feeling suffocated from anxiety for Bách’s health and safety, as the prison seemed to increase their policy of deprivation of food by not handing over the 6kg of food I sent Bách per post on Feb 28.
This food parcel was the only nutrition source Bách would get for the last 2 weeks, as he depends entirely on his family’s supplies to eat vegetarian and safe food. In his last phone call on Feb. 2, Bach had already informed me that he was running out of food.
VN Post recorded that parcel 475790 (sent by me on Feb 28) was delivered on March 4 at 9:25:33 to a prison warden named San. But the parcel never reached Bách, and my husband was left without food for the last 2 weeks.
“Every two or three days, the canteen sold me something,” Bách said, “and my teeth are getting loose.”
Bách would like to thank —
–Ms. Mary Lawlor, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders; Irene Khan, Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Mr. Clément Nyaletsossi Voule, Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association.; Mr. David Boyd, Special Rapporteur on the issue of human rights obligations relating to the enjoyment of a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment; Mr. Marcos A. Orellana, Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes; Ms. Priya Gopalan (Chair-Rapporteur), Mr. Matthew Gillett (Vice-Chair on Communications), Ms. Ganna Yudkivska (Vice-Chair on Follow-Up), Ms. Miriam Estrada-Castillo, and Mr. Mumba Malila – Working Group on arbitrary detention,
for urging the Government of Viet Nam to stop targeting, convicting, and mistreating him
–Chairman Cardin for mentioning him and calling for his release in the Truth to Power series of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee SFRC.
As last week Vietnam and Vanuatu sought advice from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on national climate change obligations, Bách puts his trust in the wisdom and farsightedness of his friends and colleagues to monitor Vietnam’s national commitment on climate change issue.
Bách would like to wish you all endurance, peace of mind, and harmony.
Yours faithfully,
Tran Phuong Thao (Mrs)
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to food, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Lawyer, NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: detained environmental lawyer repeatedly harassed by prison management (Update)
- Date added
- Apr 10, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 6, 2024
- Event Description
Vietnamese state media declared two human rights organisations as terrorist groups on 6 March.
The groups are the North Carolina-headquartered Montagnard Support Group Inc (MSGI) and Montagnard Stand for Justice (MSFJ), which was established in Thailand. Both organisations specialise in defending the rights of the Montagnard minority ethnic group.
The majority of Montagnards are Christians and live in Vietnam’s central highlands. The community has a long history of conflict with the Vietnamese government and have faced intense harassment and intimidation since a June 2023 attack on provincial Communist party offices in Dak Lak that left nine dead, including local party officials and police.
The MSGI and MSFJ are accused of having helped plan the attack in Dak Lak, but leaders of both groups strongly deny these allegations.
The Vietnamese government’s press release named several human rights activists as terrorists and threatened that anyone working with them would face similar charges. It went on to give the personal home addresses of several key human rights figures in Thailand and the US.
CSW's Founder President Mervyn Thomas said: ‘The government of Vietnam is endangering the lives of human rights defenders by naming them and sharing their addresses on state media, which poses an immediate security concern and is clearly intended to silence, harass and intimidate. The government of Vietnam is an authoritarian state that is paranoid that the world will know the true nature of their control and repression of religious and ethnic minorities, and this is further evidence of its lack of inhibitions in participating in transnational repression against activists who are simply exercising their right to freedom of expression. CSW rejects the designation of the MSGI and MSFJ as terrorist organisations and we call on the Vietnamese government to recognise human rights groups as legitimate voices in any healthy civil society.’
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Vilification
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to protect reputation
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist, NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 10, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 26, 2024
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam on Tuesday sentenced a man to eight years in prison for managing a Facebook page that shared news and content that authorities said was against the state.
Nguyen Van Lam, 33, was the administrator of “The Diary of Patriots,” a page on Meta’s social media platform that authorities said defamed and smeared Vietnam's senior leaders.
Lam was convicted in the Tien Giang People’s Court in southern Vietnam of “making, storing, disseminating, propagandizing anti-state information and materials” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, which is criticized by rights groups as being an intentionally vague law that allows Hanoi to stifle dissent.
According to the indictment, Lam, a native of Vinh Hoa commune, Vinh Loc district in Thanh Hoa province, regularly visited websites and social media pages to read posts and articles with bad content and therefore developed a “hostile and anti-state” attitude.
He used the Facebook account “Nguyễn Lâm” to put up 19 posts with content distorting and defaming the system of one-party rule in Vietnam, it said..
There are multiple pages on Facebook with the same name, and Lam may have had connections to more than one of them, state media said.
One of the “Diary of Patriots” pages had more than 800,000 followers.
The earliest page was created in 2011, at the beginning of widespread demonstrations against China’s claims and aggressiveness in the South China Sea. Though Vietnam upholds its own claims, it often stifles anti-China dissent.
Restricting freedom of speech
The arrest was aimed at punishing those who had “created a forum for people to discuss and share multifaceted information in the spirit of freedom of speech,” said a member of that page who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons.
“I am against the punishments against those who exercise human rights and promote human rights values,” he told RFA Vietnamese in a text message, saying that he did not know Lam personally.
He called on Vietnamese authorities to adopt the world’s “civilized standards,” and said that the international community has a responsibility not to ignore Vietnam’s crackdowns on activists while supporting Hanoi’s bid to stay on the U.N. Human Rights Council.
State media reports did not include information about Lam’s arrest.
RFA attempted to find details about his arrest by contacting the Tien Giang provincial police department, but staff who answered the phone refused to respond to queries.
Lam did nothing criminal by managing pages on social media, said Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.
“He should be immediately and unconditionally released,” Robertson said. “Sadly, it looks like Vietnam’s leaders will not stop this crackdown until they have imprisoned every last activist in the country.”
In July 2023, Ho Chi Minh City police arrested Phan Tat Thanh, who was allegedly the former administrator of “The Diary of Patriots” page, charging him with “propaganda against the state” under Article 117.
RFA’s database shows that since January 2024, the Vietnamese government has arrested six activists on the same charges and sentenced one to six years in prison for the same accusation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 10, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 20, 2024
- Event Description
Two ethnic Khmer Krom activists who were arrested last year on suspicion of distributing books about indigenous peoples’ rights were sentenced to prison on Wednesday by a Vietnamese court.
Nearly 1.3-million Khmer Krom live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia. They have faced serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and movement.
The Cau Ngang District People’s Court in southern Vietnam’s Tra Vinh province convicted To Hoang Chuong, 38, and Thach Cuong, 37, of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331, a section of the penal code used by the government to silence dissenting voices.
Chuong received a four-year sentence and Cuong was given three-and-a-half years in prison, state media reported.
Last month, a court in neighboring Soc Trang province sentenced Danh Minh Quang, 34, to three-and-a-half years in prison on the same charge.
Quang was arrested in July 2023 as part of the same investigation as Chuong and Cuong.
Police in both provinces told local media that the men passed out copies of the United Nations’ “Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” which states that indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions.
Prosecutors last month said that Quang used his personal Facebook account to post comments and live-stream videos that “violated Vietnam laws.”
The indictments for Cuong and Chuong also accused them of using their Facebook accounts to live-stream videos and to post and share photos and video clips, according to the Tra Vinh newspaper.
The contents of the articles, photos and video clips “affected the national and religious unity, distorted the history of Vietnam and the authorities and insulted the prestige” of police and local authorities, according to the Tra Vinh provincial Department of Information and Culture.
‘The reality of suppression’
A Khmer Krom resident of Vietnam who follows Chuong on Facebook told Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity that he never saw any posts from Chuong that opposed the Vietnamese government.
“They reflected the reality of suppression against the Khmer community in southern Vietnam,” he said.
There was no information about whether Chuong and Cuong had a defense attorney present during Wednesday’s trial.
Khmer Kampuchea Krom for Human Rights and Development Association Secretary General Son Chum Chuon said the severe sentences were unfair and were particularly unjust if the two men were tried without access to a lawyer.
“These allegations are contrary to their actual activities,” he told RFA. “That is why we urged the Vietnamese government or the court to give them a lawyer.”
Josef Benedict, Asia Pacific civil space advocacy expert for rights group CIVICUS, called Wednesday’s convictions “an outrageous travesty of justice.”
“Both were targeted for their advocacy of the rights of the Khmer Krom community and should have never been brought to court,” he said.
Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson called the charges “bogus,” saying they were designed to stop the Khmer Krom activists exercising their civil and political rights.
"Article 331 is a perfect example of the total injustice perpetrated by the government because they can use this charge to criminalize virtually anything the authorities don't like,” he said.
“The lapdog Vietnamese courts do whatever they are told to do by the ruling party, and the ordinary Khmer Krom people who stand up for their communities, their religion and their culture have no chance to escape being sent to prison.”
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Indigenous peoples' rights defender, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 8, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 15, 2024
- Event Description
A Vietnamese activist, accused of “propaganda against the State” is being denied access to a lawyer, his family told Radio Free Asia.
Phan Tat Thanh, 38, has been detained since July 2023, charged under Article 117 of the criminal code.
Prosecutors say he used three Facebook accounts to post and distribute content, “propagating information and documents with distorted content, causing confusion among the people, and fabricating and defaming the Communist Party of Vietnam.”
Thanh’s family have been able to meet him twice at a police detention center in Ho Chi Minh City, the first time on Feb. 16, 2024, and the second time on March 15.
Thanh told them that after a detention order expired police investigators issued a second order which lasted until Feb. 7.
Even though the police finished their investigation and transferred the case file to the City Procuracy, Thanh said he had not been allowed to meet the lawyer – Tran Dinh Dung – his family hired for him.
“Lawyer Dung went through all the procedures to request access to the files and contact Thanh. He doesn’t understand why the Procuracy and Security Investigation Department were completely silent and did not respond to him,” Thanh’s father Phan Tat Chi said on Wednesday.
The law states that defense lawyers should be allowed to participate in legal proceedings after the investigation has finished, even in cases relating to alleged violations of national security.
It also stipulates that lawyers are allowed to access documents related to the defense after the end of the investigation in order to take notes and make copies.
Ha Huy Son of the Hanoi Bar Association told RFA lawyers can file a complaint, asking the Procuracy to explain the reason for not allowing the lawyer to contact the client, and can use this to prove prosecutors failed to follow the correct procedures.
Thanh told his father investigators couldn’t find any evidence to convict him and didn’t appear to have any documents to support their case.
He also said he had been beaten by many of the policemen at the detention center.
RFA called the Ho Chi Minh City Procuracy to ask about Mr. Thanh’s case. The person on the phone said the reporter needed to come to the agency, or send a text in order to receive a reply.
Phan Tat Thanh is one of six Facebookers arrested on charges of “anti-state propaganda” last year.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Access to justice
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: social media activist arrested by the police
- Date added
- Apr 8, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 28, 2024
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities on Thursday arrested and charged two Facebook bloggers for “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe the interests of the state” for posting comments about the handling of a case of a death row inmate, Vietnamese media reported.
The Security Investigation Agency of the Binh Duong provincial police charged Nguyen Duc Du and Hoang Quoc Viet under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, saying their social media posts about death row inmate Ho Duy Hai being unjustly sentenced had insulted judiciary agencies.
Their cases bring to five the number of people who have been prosecuted under Article 331, a law that rights groups say authorities regularly use to suppress dissent or criticism of the government.
Authorities arrested and temporarily detained Du, 48, while they banned Viet, 46, from leaving his residential area. Both live in Binh Duong province in southern Vietnam.
The Public Security Ministry’s People’s Public Security Newspaper reported that police said Du and Viet published many social media posts with content that distorted, slandered and defamed agencies and individuals – without specifying the content of their posts.
The prosecution of the two bloggers also illustrates the lengths that authorities will go to to silence critics for comments they made or social media posts they wrote in the past.
Nguyen Van Dai, who used to work as a lawyer in Hanoi for many years, said social media platforms have been full of information defending and demanding justice for Ho Duy Hai since 2008.
Hai was arrested in March 2008 and convicted nine months later of robbery and the murder of two postal employees in Long An province. He was sentenced to five years in prison for the theft and given the death penalty for the murders, despite a lack of crucial evidence and irregularities in how the case was handled.
In 2020, the Supreme People’s Court rejected a request by the Supreme People’s Procuracy to reinvestigate the case, prompting Hai’s family members to petition lawmakers over his death sentence. That petition has not been addressed, and Hai, now 39, is still on death row.
The prosecution of Du and Viet is a crackdown on freedom of speech and was carried out to serve the political purposes of several officials in the judiciary system, Dai said.
“The arrest and detention of the two individuals who posted information concerning the Ho Duy Hai case on social media is nothing more than suppression, as the information [they posted] has been available for a long time,” Dai said.
Numerous democratic countries and human rights groups have called on Hanoi to repeal or amend Article 331, along with Article 117, arguing they are abused to stifle dissent.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 8, 2024
- 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
- Date added
- Mar 21, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 19, 2024
- Event Description
Human rights lawyer Dang Dinh Manh on Feb. 20 wrote on social media that Ngo Oanh Phuong, an influential Facebook user, had been banned from traveling abroad and that she had been summoned by the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department for posting information critical of the conglomerate Vingroup.
According to Manh, Phuong, a businesswoman with thousands of followers on her Facebook account, often engages in charity work and raises concerns on different social issues. Phuong learned she was prohibited from traveling outside Vietnam in early October last year when she boarded a flight at Tan Son Nhat Airport in Ho Chi Minh City.
Later, the Security Investigation Agency of Ho Chi Minh City Police summoned Phuong twice for questioning, on Jan. 19 and Jan. 30, stating that they had received a defamation complaint filed against her by Vingroup. Manh added that he could not access Phuong’s Facebook account, which she used as a platform to publish opinions and commentaries criticizing the business model of Vingroup - a crony conglomerate owned by Vietnam’s richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong.
Previously, in Dec. 2023, Tran Mai Son, a social media commentator known by his pen name “Sonnie Tran,” was allegedly detained by the Ho Chi Minh Police Department for days for questioning about his criticisms of the company. The account “Sonnie Tran” has over 3,000 followers on Facebook.
Son, an ardent critic of VinFast, the automobile subsidiary of Vingroup, frequently inquires about the company’s finances and suggests that it uses shell companies to hide debt and inflate its sales figures. Anonymous sources told VOA News that following the detention, the police confiscated all of Son’s electronic devices, interrogated him for 35 hours over four separate days, and threatened to charge him with Article 331 for “abusing democratic freedoms.”
In 2021, VinFast reported Tran Van Hoang, a customer and a local YouTuber, to the police after he posted a video complaining about the quality of his VinFast vehicle on his YouTube account. The company said Hoang’s complaints were made up to hurt its reputation, and its lawyers had “sufficient grounds to prove it is not just a normal complaint.” The Vietnam-owned automaker added that if a similar incident occurred when operating in the United States, they “will also submit a request to the authorities in accordance with local law.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Corporation Corporation (others)
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 21, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 16, 2024
- Event Description
Trinh Thi Nhung, the wife of Bui Van Thuan, told Project88 that during the Tet holidays she was suddenly summoned to the police station on Feb. 16 without a reason. Once there, they showed her a Facebook account using her name but which had been created only one day earlier; the account contained posts that could potentially be deemed “anti-state propaganda.” She denied it was hers and refused to sign an affidavit. Since that day, the police have allegedly been posting men around her house. She reported that unknown men wearing face masks have also been following her and her young child everywhere. At night, they even allegedly asked her neighbors to shine their lights on her house “all through the night.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to privacy
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: wife of detained HRD threatened with arrest
- Date added
- Mar 21, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 30, 2024
- Event Description
Activist Trinh Dinh Hoa reported to Project88 that he was abducted on Jan. 30 and interrogated for hours by Hanoi police. Three days earlier, while on his delivery route near the Ministry of Public Security, Hoa saw a large group of land rights protesters and stopped to take some photos, which he later posted on social media. On the day he was abducted, he got a delivery order to an address next to the police station of Buoi Ward. As soon as he got there, he was allegedly forced by a group of non-uniformed police into the station for questioning. Hoa was kept there from 11:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. The police focused their questioning on three videos he had posted about police abuse in 2016, the BOT protests in 2018, and a public gathering near Ho Chi Minh’s tomb in 2021. Before releasing Hoa, they asked him to sign an affidavit admitting that the Facebook account “Hoa DT” belonged to him, which he refused to do.
Trinh Dinh Hoa became an activist in 2015 when he participated in a memorial for soldiers killed by the Chinese Navy at Johnson Reef in 1988. In 2016, he joined protests for protection of trees in Hanoi and later against the Formosa environmental disaster. Then in 2018, he became actively involved in the nationwide protests against the proposed Cybersecurity Law. During those years, Hoa also attended–or tried to attend–the trials of other activists. In 2017, he was beaten by police and had his ID card and phone confiscated outside the courthouse where Tran Thi Nga was sentenced to eight years in prison for disseminating “anti-state propaganda.” During the Dong Tam trials in 2019, his home was monitored by police for an entire week. Hoa also participated in the translating of two books – one about the Formosa incident and the other about anti-democratic elections in Vietnam. Since 2019, however, Hoa has remained low-key and works as a deliveryman for a restaurant in Hanoi.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Abduction/Kidnapping, Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Two activists beaten by government loyalists while broadcasting news on formosa
- Date added
- Mar 21, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 26, 2024
- Event Description
The Security Investigation Agency of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has issued a third summons for Ngo Thi Oanh Phuong, an influential Facebook user and a critic of conglomerate Vingroup, saying that they received a defamation complaint filed against her by Vingroup, according to a recent Facebook posting of human rights lawyer Dang Dinh Manh.
Previously, Manh wrote on social media that the police had twice summoned Phuong, also known by her Facebook name Phuong Ngo, on Jan. 19 and Jan. 30. In the third summons, dated Feb. 26, they told her to come to the security investigation headquarters on March 4 to question her relations with Tran Mai Son, another critic of Vingroup, and to resolve the defamation report submitted by the conglomerate.
Manh said that Phuong did not come to the previous questioning sessions because she said she was busy. He suggested that if she were absent this time, the investigation agency would issue a warrant to search for her, similar to the warrants the Long An Provincial Police Department filed against him and other human rights lawyers, Nguyen Van Mieng and Dao Kim Lan, last year.
According to Manh, no legal provisions allow Vietnamese investigators to search for people who do not respond to summons. Attorneys Manh, Mieng, and Lan fled to the United States late last year after Long An Provincial Police issued warrants to search for them after they were accused of violating Article 331 of the Penal Code, which concerns “abusing democratic freedoms.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Corporation Corporation (others)
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: WHRD summoned over defamation complaint
- Date added
- Mar 21, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 29, 2024
- Event Description
The Hanoi Police Department on Feb. 29 detained and searched the house of activist and blogger Nguyen Chi Tuyen to investigate his alleged engagement in “distributing anti-state propaganda,” a violation of Article 117 of the Penal Code.
Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, Tuyen’s wife, confirmed her husband's detention on the same day, adding that he would be held at Hanoi Detention Center No. 2 for four months during the investigation period. The police also confiscated his cell phone, a laptop, and some of his handwritten notes.
Tuyet said that the previous afternoon, her husband received a summons from the Hanoi Police Department to come in for questioning, but he declined to go because he felt unwell. Last January, the police sent Tuyen a notice informing him that he was prohibited from traveling outside Vietnam.
Tuyen, who is also known by his blog name “Anh Chi,” is a renowned environmental activist, blogger, and human rights defender who often participated in demonstrations against China’s excursions in Vietnam’s maritime territories. He also established two YouTube channels, Anh Chí Râu Đen and AC Media, that discuss social issues in Vietnam and report on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Because of his activism, Tuyen became a target of harassment and surveillance by Vietnamese security. In 2015, he was hospitalized after being beaten by strangers, possibly plainclothes police.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 21, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 29, 2024
- Event Description
Independent journalist and former political prisoner Nguyen Vu Binh has been arrested again. On the morning of Feb. 29, the 56-year-old Binh was summoned to the police headquarters in Hanoi to discuss the YouTube channel TNT Media Live, which he and lawyer Nguyen Van Dai (currently in exile) worked on together from 2021 to 2022. After the meeting with the police, Binh was taken back to his apartment where the police formally arrested him and searched his residence. Nguyen Thi Phong, his sister, who witnessed the arrest, told Project88 that when she went to the police station on March 4 to retrieve Binh’s motorbike, she was told verbally that he had been charged with conducting “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117. She said she was not shown anything in writing. The police said Binh will be held at Detention Center No.1 in Hanoi for four months while they investigate his case.
Four months is the maximum amount of time by law that authorities can detain a suspect; however, they can file for multiple extensions which can stretch the detention period to years, as has happened to many political prisoners in the past. Phong said that her brother had been “invited” to visit the police many times in the past year. She added that it was thus reasonable to assume that the police have been following his activities for some time now, and that the need to “investigate” Binh was just a legal fig leaf in order to detain him for as long as the law allows. Binh is no stranger to the Ministry of Public Security. He worked for The Communist Magazine for 10 years before joining RFA in the early 2000s. He was convicted in September 2002 and sentenced to seven years in prison for “espionage” – that is, for exposing the party’s dirty secrets. Under international pressure, Binh was released early in 2007. He was awarded the Hellman-Hammett Prize by Human Rights Watch in 2002 and again in 2007 for his courageous activism.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 20, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 11, 2024
- Event Description
Vietnam police have been summoning the wives of political prisoners for questioning over the past week, leading one lawyer to suggest that the Ministry of Public Security has launched a new harassment campaign against relatives of prisoners of conscience.
According to information obtained by Radio Free Asia, police summoned the wives of four prisoners this week: Trinh Thi Nhung, wife of Bui Van Thuan; Le Thi Ha, wife of Dang Dang Phuoc; Do Thi Thu, wife of Trinh Ba Phuong; and Nguyen Thi Tinh, wife of Nguyen Nang Tinh.
The women were questioned about their social media activities.
They also summoned Nguyen Thi Mai, daughter of female prisoner Nguyen Thi Tam.
The five prisoners are serving sentences of between five and 10 years, all for the crime of “propaganda against the state.”
On Tuesday, police also summoned Le Thi Kieu Oanh, wife of former prisoner Pham Minh Hoang, following her trip to France to see her husband.
In 2017, Hoang was stripped of his Vietnamese citizenship and deported after serving a 17-month prison sentence for “activities aimed at overthrowing the government.”
Questioned about Facebook Trinh Thi Nhung was summoned for questioning by the Nghi Son Town Police in Thanh Hoa province on Wednesday morning.
They said they believed she had used the Facebook account “Nhung Trinh” to sign a petition calling for the release of human rights activist Nguyen Thuy Hanh, who has cancer and is being held in a secure mental facility.
Nhung told the police the account was not hers and refused to sign a statement.
Do Thi Thu was asked to visit Ha Dong District Police in Hanoi on Thursday, also in connection with Facebook but she refused.
“I’m not going to meet them there because they've invited me so many times about the same thing,” she said.
“The investigator asked me if the [Thu Do] Facebook account was mine.
“They told me not to share articles related to prisoners of conscience.”
Le Thi Ha was summoned by the Internal Security Department of Dak Lak Provincial Police.
They asked her to come in on Thursday to provide information about her use of social media. She told RFA she would attend even though she doesn’t have a Facebook account.
“I find it annoying,” she told RFA Vietnamese. “It affects my job because I work all day at school and have no time to rest.”
Human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Miem wrote on Facebook, "There seems to be a campaign to harass the wives of prisoners of conscience."
Josef Benedict, Asia Pacific civil space advocacy expert for rights group CIVICUS also criticized Vietnam for harassing families of political prisoners.
"The Vietnamese government must halt the shameful and vindictive campaign of harassment against the wives of political prisoners for their social media posts,” he said.
“Prisoners’ families should not be targeted simply because they seek justice for their loved ones .
Instead they should be able to exercise their basic right to freedom of expression peacefully without fear of reprisal.”
According to Amnesty International, Vietnam currently has more than 250 political prisoners.
Hanoi always claims it has no political prisoners, only those convicted of crimes.
- Impact of Event
- 6
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 17, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 7, 2024
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam’s Soc Trang province has sentenced an ethnic Khmer Krom man to three-and-a-half years in prison for “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the country’s criminal code, state-controlled media reported.
Prosecutors said Wednesday that Danh Minh Quang, 34, used his personal Facebook account to post comments and live-stream videos which “violated Vietnam laws.”
Quang set up the account in Dec. 2018 and the prosecution claimed that from 2021 to July 2023 there were 51 comments, photos and videos that had “contents that were negative, propaganda and distorted realities for defaming the honor and dignity of State officials.”
Quang was arrested by Soc Trang Provincial Police on July 31, 2023 along with Thach Chuong and To Hoang Chuong.
All three were prosecuted on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on State interests, legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch , called for authorities to drop all charges against Quang and immediately release him.
“The government of Soc Trang province shamelessly trampled on the right of freedom of expression and retaliated against a citizen for simply stating his politically independent views on social media,” Robertson said in a statement on Feb. 11.
“The National Assembly of Vietnam should urgently amend the penal code and repeal rights-abused articles, including Aticle 331, which is systematically being used by the Vietnamese government to violate rights of ordinary people across the country,” he said.
Nearly 1.3-million Khmer Krom live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia. They have faced serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and movement.
In August last year, community members living in the U.S. organized a demonstration in front of the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington DC to protest the policy of oppressing the Khmer Krom people and demanding the release of the three men.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Indigenous peoples' rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 20, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 12, 2024
- Event Description
Prison authorities have refused to sell jailed Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Tran Huynh Duy Thuc food from the facility’s canteen, a week after he voluntarily ended a hunger strike, members of his family said Wednesday.
Convicted in 2010 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, Thuc is serving a 16-year sentence for writing online articles criticizing Vietnam’s one-party communist state.
Thuc is now in the final year of his sentence, counting the time of his detention in 2009, and is in poor health. He has staged other hunger strikes in the past to protest conditions at Prison No. 6 in Nghe An province. He began his latest hunger strike on Jan. 27.
In Vietnam, prisoners are fed basic prison food, but can also buy higher quality food from the canteen, and inmates are allowed to receive non-perishable food from their families. But it’s not unusual for jail authorities to deprive political prisoners of canteen food, hot water, medicine and outside health care as a means of further punishment.
Thuc ended his hunger strike on Feb. 2 after canteen workers finally sold him something to eat. But a week later, they again refused to sell him food, saying that he had exceeded the monthly limit for purchases, even though he had not bought enough to meet his dietary needs, his relatives told Radio Free Asia, two days after a prison visit on Feb. 12.
Canteen workers said Thuc purchases exceeded the monthly limit of 1.7 million dong (US$70), and he could only buy more food beginning in March, according to his family.
Thuc has only one package of instant noodles and about 8 kilograms (18 pounds) of other food his relatives gave him on Monday.
Tran Huynh Duy Tan, Thuc’s younger brother, said the family was happy when Thuc ended his hunger strike, but now they are worried about the possibility that he will resume it. They also expressed concern that the food they gave him will only last a few days.
“The family is very worried that he will continue to not have enough food,” Tan said. “He said he would continue to protest by going on another hunger strike if the prison continued to mistreat him, as it is doing now.”
RFA was unable to reach prison officials for comment.
During his recent hunger strike, Thuc became exhausted and lost consciousness, his family said. He also complained of being constantly cold, although he had not complained previously about the winter weather in Nghe An.
Thuc’s family called on Vietnamese authorities as well as human rights organizations and the governments of democratic countries to pressure the prison to stop treating Thuc harshly.
Prison authorities have continued to restrict access to hot water for Thuc and his cellmate, fellow political prisoner Dang Dinh Bach, Thuc’s relatives said.
Bach, a lawyer and the director of the environmental group that had been campaigning to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal, was arrested in July 2021 and sentenced to five years for “tax evasion.”
When the warden said Thuc could only exchange instant noodles for boiling water because the amount of water was limited, Thuc refused, his family said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to food, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 20, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 17, 2024
- Event Description
The correctional authorities of Gia Trung Prison in Gia Lai Province have disciplined prisoner of conscience Truong Van Dung for allegedly insulting prison personnel. Dung’s wife, Nghiem Thi Hop, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) about his punishment. Dung is serving a six-year prison sentence on accusations of “distributing anti-state propaganda,” a violation of Article 117 in Vietnam’s Penal Code.
According to Gia Trung Prison, Dung will not be allowed visitations or to receive supplies and handwritten mail from his family for a month, starting from Jan. 16. Hop said she was worried about Dung as the Lunar New Year, a national holiday in Vietnam, was approaching. The prison added that after the punishment concludes on Feb. 17, Dung can only see his family once every two months, instead of once a month, until he is “progressively rehabilitated.”
On Jan. 3, Dung’s family sent some gifts to him in prison, including a poster prepared by the Viet Tan Party, which is deemed a “terrorist organization” by the Vietnamese government. The organization named Dung the recipient of its 2023 Le Dinh Luong Human Rights Award. When the parcel containing the poster arrived a week later, the warden examined it and then refused to let Dung receive it. A tense argument broke out between him and the correctional officers, leading to disciplinary action.
According to a notice from Gia Trung Prison dated Jan. 17, Truong Van Dung was disciplined for “insulting the honor and dignity of others,” but they did not elaborate on what he said. On Nov. 9, 2023, Dung was transferred from An Diem Prison in Quang Nam Province to Gia Trung Prison in Gia Lai Province, hundreds of miles from his home in Hanoi. The Vietnamese authorities often send human rights activists to prisons far from their homes to make it difficult for family members to visit them often.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to property
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 12, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 26, 2024
- Event Description
A Vietnam court in Phu Yen Province on Jan. 26 sentenced Nay Y Blang, a Rhade religious activist, to four and a half years in prison on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” for allegedly holding unauthorized spiritual services in his home, state media reported. Blang did not have a lawyer defending him.
Blang, 48, was arrested on May 18, 2023, for his alleged engagement in the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ, an indigenous religious organization that the Vietnamese government has banned. According to the state media, the Rhade religious activist has “admitted his wrongdoing and has asked for leniency.”
The Communist authorities in Vietnam have called this Protestant group a “foreign-based reactionary organization” that purportedly seeks to “incite ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands and the surrounding areas to erode the national solidarity bloc, trigger secession, and promote the establishment of a separate state.” The indictment of Blang said that from the end of 2019 to 2022, he used his private home in Phu Yen to gather key figures of this religious sect for meetings and prayer sessions and hosted other online Christian fellowships.
Pastor Aga, the North Carolina-based founder of the Protestant sect, told RFA that his group is purely religious and that they do not conduct any anti-state activities nor attempt to establish a separate state. “We just want to express our religious beliefs, our religion, to worship God and follow the religion that suits us while still following the laws of the Vietnamese government,” Pastor Aga said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: religious rights defender arrested
- Date added
- Feb 12, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 20, 2023
- Event Description
Prisoner of conscience Nguyen Nhu Phuong told his family that he coughed up blood and had suffered pain after being assaulted by the correctional officers of the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Police Detention Camp in Long Dien District, according to Phuong’s mother, Nguyen Thi Thu Ha. In 2022, two Vietnamese courts sentenced Phuong to a sentence of six years and three months on combined charges of “distributing anti-state propaganda” and “storing and using narcotics.”
Ha told RFA that the assaults began on Nov. 20, 2023, after she visited the detention camp and gave her son two shirts. However, Phuong said he did not receive them even though the shirts were shown in the gift receipt record. After that, he went to meet the correctional officers to ask them about these items, but the officer reportedly cursed and beat him.
Phuong told Ha that a correctional officer named Nhat used a glass bottle to hit him in the face, and then several other officers rushed in to beat him and lock him in an isolated room. Ha added that her son was also punished by not being allowed family visits in December 2023. When she called Nhat to question the beating of her son, the officer allegedly admitted that the beating happened, but it was because Phuong "spoke rudely" to him and asked her to forgive the beating.
Ha told RFA that on Jan. 8, she went directly to the Ba Ria - Vung Tau Provincial Police Detention Camp to inquire about the incident. A detention supervisor named Luan apologized to her and asked her not to make a big deal of this incident. The officer named Nhat and the provincial detention camp did not immediately respond to RFA reporters' request to verify the incident.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 8, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 29, 2023
- Event Description
Police in Hanoi have detained a former member of a YouTube channel on which videos about those who had suffered injustices were posted, his wife told Radio Free Asia on Tuesday.
Authorities apprehended Phan Van Bach, a former member of the CHTV channel, an independent television channel on YouTube specializing in social injustice issues, from his home in the capital’s Dong Da district on Dec. 29. They have held him for five days without informing his family, his spouse Nguyen Thi Lieu said.
Bach, 48, was involved in the channel from 2017 to 2019, according to Vu Manh Tuan, another CHTV member who now lives in Nha Trang city.
“Bach did not focus on any particular subjects,” he told RFA. “He used to conduct talks in an improvisational way. He used to talk about the bad things of the regime and society. Then, Bach announced he was quitting CHTV.”
It is common for security forces in the one-party communist state to detain activists for days of interrogation before publicly disclosing their arrest warrants and charges.
Lieu said her husband was home alone at the time of his arrest, and before leaving with authorities, gave his house keys to a police officer in charge of the residential area to hand over to his family.
That officer told Lieu that city police searched their home but confiscated nothing.
“The neighborhood police officer said that my husband had been ‘invited’ to a meeting by the city police,” Lieu said. “I went there [to city police headquarters] the next day to ask about my husband, but the staff said I’d better just leave my phone number, and their agency would contact me later.”
As of Tuesday, the family had not received any updates from police.
No word
During the past few days, Lieu dropped by city police headquarters multiple times only to receive the same response. She said she didn’t know why police were still holding her husband.
“Previously, they summoned him for meetings several times but let him return home on the same day,” she said. “However, this time [is different].”
RFA could not reach the neighborhood police officer for comment.
A staffer at the Hanoi police hotline said the service did not have information about Bach’s detention.
Bach participated in several peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi, including protests against China’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea since 2011, tree cutting in 2015, and the environmental disaster caused by a toxic waste spill that affected Vietnam’s central coastal area in 2016.
He also spoke up against government crackdowns on political dissidents, supported people facing injustice via Facebook, and took part in campaigns demanding the release of detained activists.
Founded by prisoner of conscience Vu Quang Thuan, CHTV covered hot-button socioeconomic issues in Vietnam.
Thuan along with members Le Van Dung and Le Trong Hung are in prison on charges of disseminating anti-state propaganda because of their involvement in CHTV.
Former CHTV member Tuan said police also summoned and questioned him about the YouTube channel, but released him the same day.
When visiting friends and some activists in the Central Highland province of Lam Dong in late December 2018, Bach was injured during a beating by local security forces, and then forced to return to Hanoi, said activist Pham The Luc.
In recent years, Bach worked with a company that sends Vietnamese people abroad as guest workers, according to information on his Facebook account.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Abduction/Kidnapping
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 1, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 6, 2023
- Event Description
Former political prisoner Pham Thanh Nghien, who emigrated to the United States with her husband earlier this year, reported that HCMC Police have surrounded their former neighborhood, Loc Hung Vegetable Garden in Binh Thanh District, which for years has been a contentious flashpoint against land-grabbing by the authorities. Since Dec. 6, work trucks have been bringing dirt, sand and other construction material to the site. Ambulances, fire trucks and frequency-jamming vehicles have been stationed in two schools near the area. All roads going in and out are monitored and controlled by police. Several people who live right outside Loc Hung have also been ordered not to leave their homes.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Raid, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 30, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 4, 2023
- Event Description
Political prisoner Nguyen Ngoc Anh’s wife, Nguyen Thi Chau, continues to be “invited” by Ben Tre provincial police in Binh Dai County to “receive guidance on fire prevention for small businesses and other related matters.” The latest “invitation” was on Dec. 8, with the previous one delivered on Dec. 4. Chau told the police to stop sending her these invitations because it causes her stress and she would not comply the next time.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Jailed Environmental Activist in Solitary After Cellmate Beat Him Unconscious (Update)
- Date added
- Jan 30, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 23, 2023
- Event Description
The Internal Political Security Department of the Tra Vinh Provincial Police on Dec. 23 said it had issued a fine to Thach Tha, 56, and Kim Vu Linh, 33, both Khmer residents of Tra Cu District, Tra Vinh Province, for allegedly “posting and sharing false information” to “distort, slander and insult the reputation of government agencies and organizations,” according to the official announcement.
The Tra Vinh Provincial Police concluded that since 2022, Thach Tha had used his personal Facebook account to participate in online discussions organized by groups deemed as “reactionary,” which, according to Vietnamese authorities, share distorted information about the history of the southern region and seek to divide the “great national unity bloc.”
One specific incident occurred on Nov. 24, when Thach Tha shared on his personal Facebook account a 7:29-minute video clip from a social media page that allegedly accused the authorities of Vinh Long Province and its police forces of using brute force to crack down on religious freedom. The Tra Vinh Police Newspaper stated that during the questioning regarding the online posting on Dec. 21, Thach Tha admitted that the content in the video clip was “untrue.”
Meanwhile, the police alleged that Kim Vu Linh, another Khmer resident of Tra Vinh, on Aug. 27, 2022, live streamed on his Facebook account, Nhatliinh Kimvulinh, a 7:47-minute video clip with content that was considered “untrue, distorted, and insulting.” On Dec. 19, Linh was called in for a questioning session by the police, in which he reportedly admitted that the livestream content in the video clip was false and agreed to remove the video. The police did not comment on the content of the video Linh published on his social media.
Thach Tha and Kim Vu Linh received a fine of 7.5 million dong ($309) each for their alleged violations of Decree No. 15/2020/ND-CP issued by the government, which criminalized the activities of publishing “false information” on the internet.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 29, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 7, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnamese human rights activist Lù A Da was arrested by Thai Royal Police at his rental home near Bangkok on Dec. 7, his wife said.
His arrest comes two weeks after he publicly denounced the Vietnamese government’s “systematic suppression of H’mong communities in Vietnam.”
“Last Thursday, the police arrested him and took him away while he and our daughter were washing a vehicle,” Lù’s wife Giang Thi A told Radio Free Asia.
“He’s now being held in a police station. If we pay 10,000 Thai baht, he will be transferred to the IDC [the Immigration Detention Center],” she said.
Giang explained that the 10,000 baht (US$280) bail is an administrative fee levied on Lù for having entered Thailand illegally in 2020.
If Giang does not pay the fee, her husband will have to remain detained at the police station for 20 days before being transferred to the IDC, she said.
RFA contacted the Thai Royal Police about his case, but has yet to receive a response.
Missionary and activist
Before arriving in Thailand, Lù worked as a missionary and preacher at the Northern Evangelical Church of Vietnam. He also served as the head of the H’mong Human Rights Coalition.
Lù fled to Thailand with his family in 2020 to escape ethnic and religious persecution and seek official refugee status from the UNHCR. His wife told RFA that their family has applied for refugee status twice since first arriving in Thailand.
Their first application was rejected, and their appeal – filed in March– has not yet been processed by the UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency.
Because they have not been officially recognized as refugees by the UNHCR, Lù, Giang, and their two children now face being deported back to Vietnam.
Although Thai police have yet to issue an official statement on the case, Lù was likely arrested for denouncing Vietnam’s “systematic suppression of ethnic and religious minorities” in a video released by Boat People SOS, a U.S.-based advocacy group for Vietnamese refugees.
“Tens of thousands of H’mong people in Vietnam are not granted identification and birth and marriage certificates,” Lù stated in the video.
“As a result, children cannot go to school, adults cannot work, and seniors are not entitled to healthcare assistance provided by the government like others from the dominant ethnic group.”
The BPSOS video was released on Nov. 29 as a preview to the UN’s upcoming review of Vietnam’s implementation of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The findings of the U.N. review were officially released on Dec. 8.
Asylum-seekers in Thailand
As of December 2023, there are more than 1,000 H’mong asylum seekers living in Thailand, the H’mong Human Rights Coalition reports.
Because Thailand has not signed the International Convention on Refugees, Thai police can arrest asylum seekers without providing any justification.
In late November, Thai police arrested 11 members of the Montagnard ethnic minority in a raid near Bangkok. As of Dec. 13, they have not yet been released from detention at the IDC.
Like the H’mong minority, roughly 1,500 Vietnamese Montagnards have sought freedom from persecution in Thailand.
After her husband’s arrest, Giang Thi A sought assistance from the Center for Asylum Protection, or CAP, in Bangkok.
“Yesterday, an attorney there said that they would be paying the fine for my husband today so that the police could send him to the IDC right away,” she told RFA.
“After being transferred to the IDC, the attorney could talk to the Thai police to see how much money they would need [to bail him out].”
The head of CAP said that the organization was working with the UNHCR office in Bangkok to support Lù A Da.
He explained that individuals who are in the process of applying for or have already been granted UNHCR refugee status can be released from the IDC provided that they post a 50,000 baht bail.
RFA reached out to the UNHCR in Bangkok to seek information about Lù’s case, but the organization responded that they “can not provide applicants’ personal information.”
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Transnational repression
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 29, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 15, 2023
- Event Description
Former Vietnamese political prisoners and relatives of prisoners say police are monitoring their homes with surveillance cameras and they believe hackers may be planning to sell the images on social media.
Recently, state-controlled media have run a number of reports about hacker groups selling accounts that allow people to access hundreds of cameras in bedrooms, bathrooms, student dorms, spas and massage parlors.
One group posted an advertisement on the Telegram messaging network claiming: "The group specializes in hacking videos from super hidden cameras of families and facilities in Vietnam. They are hidden and offer hot scenes of families," according to the VnExpress news site.
Dissidents and relatives of political prisoners are doubly concerned, saying police are already monitoring their every move with cameras pointing at their homes.
Le Thi Ha is the wife of former Dak Lak Pedagogical College music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in June, accused of “propaganda against the state.”
She lives in Dak Lak province’s Buon Ma Thuot city. On Monday, she told Radio Free Asia the police were spying on her.
“Neighbors secretly told me that local police installed cameras on Dec. 15. The camera was installed on the neighbor's porch across from my house and pointed directly at my house," Ha said.
“I don't know whether images from the camera will be posted online or used for some other purpose. But having a camera pointed directly at my house violates my privacy and shows that they want to closely monitor my daily schedule."
RFA Vietnamese called the Tan Loi Ward police to ask about the camera but the person who answered the phone asked the reporter to go to the agency's headquarters. RFA also called the Dak Lak provincial police department to ask about the incident but no one answered the phone.
Nguyen Thi Chau, wife of prisoner Nguyen Ngoc Anh, told RFA that the police of Binh Dai district in Ben Tre province installed two cameras pointing directly at her house several years ago, after her husband was arrested and charged with "conducting anti-state propaganda.”
On Monday she told RFA the police had ignored her concerns about the cameras.
“When I complained to the local police, they said the cameras were installed to prevent crimes,” she said. “I asked them not to point them at my house and they promised to fix it, but they didn't fix it and just kept monitoring my family for the past three years."
Concerned about the invasion of privacy, Nguyen Thi Chau tried to disable or reduce the ability of the two cameras pointed at her home by putting a black grille over the gate and fence.
RFA reporters repeatedly called Binh Dai district Police to ask about the cameras but no one answered.
Former political prisoners face the same surveillance as the families of current prisoners. Le Quy Loc was released in early September after a five year prison sentence for "disturbing security" and is currently serving two years’ probation in Truong Quang Trong ward, Quang Ngai city. He told RFA that his gate now has a camera pointed at it.
This camera was installed in the house of a neighbor who works as a police officer about 10 days before he left the prison.
When he questioned the neighbor, he was told the camera was for the purpose of preventing theft, not aimed at former political prisoners.
However, he said the local police recently went to his house and planned to install a new camera near his house.
National monitoring system
In February 2021, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh approved a project of the Ministry of Public Security with a budget of VND 2.15 trillion (US$90 million) to install surveillance cameras and traffic command and control equipment across the country. The plan has now been taken up at a local level.
On Dec. 13, the Dak Lak Electronic Newspaper reported that the chairman of Buon Ma Thuot City People's Committee Vu Van Hung had announced plans to install over 100 security cameras in the city, including some with facial recognition, for security and order reasons. Buon Ma Thuot city has already installed 454 cameras in wards and communes. They will be connected to the surveillance center of the ward and commune police, the city police and the Provincial Smart Urban Operation Monitoring Center.
Vietnamese law has provisions to protect personal information. Article 38 of the 2015 Civil Code regulates the right to protect private life, personal secrets, and family secrets. According to the law, the collection, storage, use, and disclosure of information related to private life and personal secrets must be approved by the person concerned.
Article 21 of the Vietnamese Constitution stipulates: everyone is entitled to the inviolability of personal privacy, personal secrecy and familial secrecy and has the right to protect his or her honor and prestige. Information regarding personal privacy, personal secrecy and familial secrecy is safely protected by the law.
However, local security forces often send policemen to guard and monitor social events or visits by high-ranking foreign officials and the growing use of security cameras means that political activists and their families feel that the state is constantly watching them.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to privacy
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: wife of detained blogger intimidated by police
- Date added
- Jan 29, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 11, 2023
- Event Description
A Vietnamese court on Monday sentenced a man to eight years in prison for his Facebook posts in a trial with no defense lawyers that lasted only two hours.
The An Giang People’s Court found Nguyen Hoang Nam, 41, a member of the Hoa Hao Buddhist community, guilty of “disseminating, propagandizing information, materials against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” in violation of Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, a law that is often criticized by rights activists to be a vaguely written tool that the government uses to silence dissent.
“It was only my husband and I in the courtroom. Witnesses did not come,” Nam’s wife Lam Thi Yen Trinh told RFA Vietnamese. “They were invited [by the court], but it costs hundreds of thousands of dong (tens of U.S. dollars) to travel to the court, and they couldn’t afford that.”
The indictment said Nam had used four Facebook accounts to share and disseminate images and video clips with content against the ruling Communist Party and the state, state media said.
He had live-streamed many times on his Facebook profiles to satirize and insult local authorities and regularly took photos and filmed local government employees who passed by his home, and posted the videos on social media for offense and defamation purposes, the indictment said.
During the trial, Nam denied the accusations, saying that he had only taken photos of those who often insulted and teased him, his wife said.
According to Trinh, her family signed a contract to hire an attorney from Ho Chi Minh City but the attorney was not allowed to not see Nam before the trial or participate in the trial due to a prohibition put in place by the head of the law firm. She did not know the name of the law firm and refused to disclose the attorney’s name.
Her husband pleaded innocent, disagreed with the sentence, and announced that he would make an appeal, she said.
Hoa Hoa sect
Vietnam’s government officially recognizes the Hoa Hao religion, which has some 2 million followers across the country, but imposes harsh controls on dissenting Hoa Hao groups, including the sect in An Giang province, that do not follow the state-sanctioned branch.
Rights groups say that authorities in An Giang routinely harass followers of the unapproved groups, prohibiting public readings of the Hoa Hao founder’s writings and discouraging worshipers from visiting Hoa Hao pagodas in An Giang and other provinces.
“The Vietnam government's absurd idea of what constitutes a ‘crime’ is on full display in the outrageous eight year prison sentence given to Nguyen Hoang Nam simply because he posted opinions on Facebook that the government didn't like,” Phil Robertson, Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch’s Asian Division told RFA.
“Locking people away for years for peacefully expressing views is what petty dictatorships do, and shows just how the Vietnamese government falls pathetically short in meeting its obligations to respect human rights,” Robertson said.
Robertson also called on the Vietnamese government to immediately release Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nam and “end its campaign of harassment against Hoa Hao Buddhists who refuse to come under the state's rigid control.”
The eight-year conviction of Nam for conducting ‘anti-state propaganda’ is outrageous, CIVICUS Monitor's Asia-Pacific researcher Josef Benedict told RFA via text messages. CIVICUS Monitor is a research tool that provides data on civic freedoms in 196 countries.
“It highlights the severe punishment faced by activists in Vietnam and the relentless efforts by the authorities to silence individuals who have critical or dissenting views,” said Benedict. “This is a clear violation of the country’s obligations under international human rights law. CIVICUS calls for his immediate and unconditional release.”
Benedict called on Vietnam to stop using vague laws like Article 117 to silence online criticism and live up to its status as a member of the UN Human Rights Council.
“Such actions are the reason why the CIVICUS Monitor continues to rate Vietnam’s civic space rating as ‘closed’, the worst rating a country can have.”
Nam was previously sentenced to a four-year jail term in 2018 for “disrupting public order” and “resisting officers on official duty” along with five other Hoa Hao Buddhists.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: FoRB activist re-arrested years after release
- Date added
- Jan 29, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 6, 2023
- Event Description
A Vietnamese court in Binh Thuy District, Can Tho City, on Dec. 6 sentenced Le Minh The, a social media user, to 30 months in prison on charges of "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state and the legitimate rights and interests of other organizations and individuals," under Article 331 of the Penal Code. This is the second time he has been charged and convicted of violating Article 331.
The, 60, was arrested on Feb. 22 this year after the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control of Can Tho City Police found that The had allegedly used his two personal Facebook accounts, "Minh The" and "Le Minh The," to post, share and comment on articles containing content aimed at "distorting the Communist Party's guidelines and the state's laws and policies."
The police investigation agency added that The also posted livestreaming on social media, attracting anti-state critics living in Vietnam and abroad. The police alleged in a statement that those live streamings had “called for the overthrow of the government and demanded political pluralism and separation of powers in Vietnam.”
The refused his right to have a defense lawyer because he believed he was innocent, according to his family. Le Thi Nghia Tinh, his daughter, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that the family had been informed about the trial a few days earlier. Tinh said in a message to RFA that her mother was allowed to attend the trial but was only allowed to observe the trial through a monitor in another room near the courtroom.
The Can Tho social media user was first arrested in October 2018 under Article 331. He was accused of using Facebook to "host livestreaming that contained propaganda defaming the VCP and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam." The police said his livestreaming sought to "sabotage national unity, cause divisions between the people and the party, and harm national security and social safety." He was convicted during a trial in March 2019 and was released from prison in July 2020.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 3, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 7, 2023
- Event Description
The authorities of Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City, on the morning of Dec. 7, sent a large number of police and security forces to surround and build barricades made of metal sheets around the Loc Hung Garden area, forcibly evicting the remaining residents of the area from their makeshift homes, according to representatives of the evicted households. As of this writing, the dispute between the residents of Loc Hung Garden and Tan Binh District authorities has not been resolved.
Photos shared by Loc Hung residents showed that many police and plainclothes security forces were deployed to block all roads leading to the disputed area. Many former residents of Loc Hung said on social media that there was a heavy presence of police officers around their homes, preventing them from going outside.
Cao Ha Truc, one of the Loc Hung residents who has not received the compensation, said police and security forces surrounded his residence on the morning of Dec. 7.
"Today, beginning at 6 a.m., [the Tan Binh authorities] sent around 400 police officers and security forces to surround Loc Hung Garden. Then, they blocked the doors of the former residents of Loc Hung and did not allow them to enter or leave. They sent excavators and trucks carrying iron frames and corrugated iron sheets [to the disputed Loc Hung Garden]. Then, the excavators started to dig and plant corrugated iron pillars to barricade Loc Hung Garden," Truc told RFA on Dec. 7.
In January 2019, local authorities sent bulldozers to demolish the homes of Loc Hung Garden residents, making hundreds of residents of this settlement homeless overnight. In addition to flattening more than 500 homes in the area, Ho Chi Minh City authorities also destroyed their crops and gardens, claiming these structures had been built illegally.
The evicted residents had to relocate to other places or establish makeshift dwellings, and the land has since remained unused. Many of the Loc Hung residents are Catholics, political dissidents, and veterans of the former Army of the Republic of Vietnam. For years, they have sought legal assistance from lawyers and sent numerous petitions to the central government, but the case has not yet been resolved.
Last November, the Tan Binh authorities introduced a plan to raise compensation for the evicted Loc Hung Garden households to solve the years-long dispute. The authorities also announced that three schools would be built on the property once the case is settled. However, many Loc Hung residents who lost their homes in the area rejected the compensation offered by the authorities, saying that they are much lower than the market price.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Land rights, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to housing
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 2, 2024
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 3, 2023
- Event Description
A provincial board of Vietnam’s only state-recognized Buddhist Sangha decided over the weekend to expel ethnic Khmer Krom monk Thach Chanh Da Ra after authorities accused him of being “uncooperative,” state media reported.
Thach, 33, is the abbot of the Dai Tho Pagoda, which is also known as the Tro Nom Sek Pagoda in Khmer, in Vinh Long Province, in southern Vietnam.
According to state media, when a task force from the Tam Binh District People’s Committee came to the pagoda for “working purposes” on Nov. 22, the monk refused task force members entry to the pagoda and filmed their visit to “defame local authorities and divide national unity.”
The state-owned newspaper Giac Ngo Online has since accused Thach of “seriously violating Buddhist law” and the charter of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha by carrying out “propaganda against the state” and refusing to obey the regulations of the VBS.
However, Khmer Krom Buddhists in the region claim that neither Thach nor Dai Tho Pagoda have violated Vietnamese law.
The Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation said the Nov. 22 “task force” visit cited in the state media report was actually a planned attack on Dai Tho Pagoda by more than 50 members of the VBS. Three monks were injured in the altercation.
The advocacy group said the Dec. 3 order to expel Ra is the Vietnamese state’s way of punishing the monk for defending the pagoda.
The nearly 1.3-million strong Khmer Krom live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia. They have faced serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and movement.
Furthermore, they point out that Thach was never even registered with the VBS to begin with, as he felt that affiliating his pagoda with the state-controlled sangha would threaten the preservation of the Khmer Krom minority’s cultural and religious autonomy.
In protest, more than 20 Khmer Krom villagers have begun a sit-in at the pagoda to guard Thach Chanh Da Ra from being removed or arrested by Vietnamese authorities.
Khmer Krom activist Thach Nga told RFA that the monk has only disobeyed local authorities when attempting to protect Khmer Krom cultural heritage.
For example, the monk once directed the pagoda’s inhabitants to prevent local police from cutting down a 700-year-old Koki tree inside the pagoda. Thach Nga explained that this tree has special cultural significance to the Khmer Krom.
Thach Chanh Da Ra has also gone against local authorities’ wishes by hosting Khmer Krom activists such as Duong Khai at Dai Tho pagoda.
The monk told RFA that he fears for the safety of Khmer Krom Buddhists in Vinh Long Province.
“I am very worried for the well-being and safety of the monks and Buddhist followers,” he said. “I am very worried about Khmer Krom Buddhism, especially at Dai Tho Pagoda. I do not know how the future of Buddhism and our Khmer Krom indigenous culture will [turn out].”
He has since called on the Cambodian government as well as international human rights organizations to intervene on behalf of the Khmer Krom minority.
As of Dec. 4, RFA has not been able to obtain a comment from the Vietnamese embassy in Cambodia or from the Cambodian government’s official spokesperson Pen Bona.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 20, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 28, 2023
- Event Description
Prison authorities of Prison No. 6, Nghe An Province, reportedly cut short the visit of prisoner of conscience Dang Dinh Bach's visitation with his wife, Tran Phuong Thao, on Nov. 28 after Bach told her that the prison administration had not resolved his complaint that his cellmates had assaulted him.
According to Thao, their conversation was interrupted when she came to visit him on Nov. 15. Bach told her that he had previously sent two complaint letters, on Aug. 26 and Sept. 16, respectively, to the People's Procuracy of Nghe An to report the assaults he endured in prison, but the incidents had not been resolved. Although Bach had not finished speaking, the phone was disconnected, and three supervisory officers asked them to stop the visit immediately.
Thao said that as prison officials dragged her husband out of the visiting room, he shouted that an inmate named Nguyen Doan Anh had allegedly kicked him in the back of his head, resulting in a bruise. Previously, Bach told his wife that a group of inmates at Prison No. 6 also stormed into the living quarters of political prisoners, threatening to take their lives. However, the prison administration denied his allegations.
Dang Dinh Bach has rejected food rations from the prison since Sept. 4 and only used food sent by his family. Bach also had to soak dried food for a long time before he could eat it because the prison did not provide him with boiling water. The prison guards also confiscated Bach’s items, such as his reading lamp, watch, essential oils to treat his asthma, razor, and a diary. The family is also not allowed to send him some items, even though they are not prohibited.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 19, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 5, 2023
- Event Description
Poet Nguyen Thi Phuong, pen name Chieu Anh, reported to Project88 that she has twice been “invited” by Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) police to answer questions about her active support for political prisoners. At the first session on June 21, 2023, Phuong was asked about her middleman role of receiving money and then forwarding it to the families of prisoners. They also questioned her about a motorcycle she donated to the wife of political prisoner Huynh Truong Ca. Phuong told Project88 the police tried to frame her action as receiving funds sent from abroad as “support for terrorism.”
At the second meeting on October 5, she was once again grilled regarding what the police called “terrorism support funds.” Additionally, they asked about her sharing articles by RFA and former political prisoner Pham Thanh Nghien, who emigrated to the United States earlier this year. The police wanted Chieu Anh to sign a note promising not to repost content that has not been cleared by state censors, but she refused. Phuong was fined 7.5M dong ($300) for unspecified “violations of the cybersecurity law,” but she refused to pay, saying she did not violate any regulations. Watch our short interview with Chieu Anh from 2019 here.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Artist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 19, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 9, 2023
- Event Description
On Nov. 9, pro-democracy activist Truong Van Dung was transferred from An Diem Prison in Nghe An Province (northern Vietnam) to Gia Trung Prison in Gia Lai Province (the Central Highlands) hundreds of miles away. It is not clear why he was moved and whether his family had been notified ahead of time. Punitive prison transfers are often used as a means to further isolate prisoners from their support networks or to punish them for speaking up for their rights or the rights of other prisoners.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 19, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 6, 2023
- Event Description
On Nov. 6, former political prisoner Tran Hoang Phuc reported to his probation officer as part of the supervised release order. He was questioned for three hours about his online activities and his taking online courses from Hoa Sen University in Business Management and International Law. Phuc told Project88 he felt intimidated and that the officers in charge, who were not in uniform, treated him in a very condescending and threatening manner.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Student
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 12, 2023
- Event Description
On Nov. 12, Hoang Duc Binh’s mother and younger brother visited him at An Diem Prison. By law the meeting was supposed to last one hour, but it was abruptly cut off after 35 minutes by a Lt Lê Văn Hiếu. When the family protested, Hieu told them the reason was because they were overloaded with visit requests. The prison guards also told the family Binh was not allowed to receive any rice they sent him via the post and told them to take back the 3kg they sent last month. No reason was given. Binh is a labor and environmental activist serving 14 years in prison.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to food, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Labour rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 31, 2023
- Event Description
Hundreds of police officers broke up a construction site protest in northern Vietnam Tuesday by beating several demonstrators with batons and arresting about a dozen of them, the protesters told Radio Free Asia.
The US$30 million 15-hectare (37-acre) Long Son Container Port Project would build a 250-meter (820-foot) dock to be operational by 2025 in the Hai Ha commune in the northern province of Thanh Hoa, home to nearly 3,000 households, about 400 of which rely on fishing to make a living.
Tuesday’s arrests came after several consecutive days of protests of the project, with residents taking to the streets and occupying the beach to stop Long Son from working. The residents say they want satisfactory compensation and resettlement plans.
Videos of the protest taken by residents show that the police were equipped with batons and shields. At least one man sustained a head injury, and his clothes were stained with blood.
“At around 4 a.m., hundreds of police officers were sent to the scene and they pushed us away from the beach,” a Hai Ha resident who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told RFA Vietnamese. “When we did not leave, they used batons to hit us. Many got injuries on their heads and limbs. They also arrested many people and took them away.”
More than 10 people were beaten to the point that they sustained minor injuries, another resident, who was also present at the scene, told RFA on condition of anonymity.
“Also, 16 people were arrested and taken to the Nghi Son Town Police Station,” the second resident said. “We were about to go there to demand the release of our people but were blocked by the police right at the edge of our village.”
Since the protest was broken up, leveling work has been started, the second resident said. “We have lost in the struggle to protect our livelihoods.”
Suppressing images
A third resident said that authorities had jammed mobile phone signals to prevent residents from spreading the images and videos of the suppression. The police also prohibited residents from filming the incident, this person said.
To verify the information provided by residents, RFA contacted the Nghi Son Town police and the Thanh Hoa provincial police. However, staff who answered the phone declined to respond to questions and requested that RFA go to their headquarters with the necessary letters of introduction to be provided with information.
A report of the incident in the provincial government’s mouthpiece, the Thanh Hoa online newspaper, said that the provincial police and the authorities of Nghi Son town and Hai Ha commune had jointly “implemented a plan to ensure the construction of Dock No. 3 of the Long Son Container Port so that the construction contractor can carry out the project on schedule.”
The report also said that because “a number of Hai Ha residents continued obstructing the construction,” responsible forces had to “temporarily put some people in custody to investigate, verify and handle the case in accordance with the law.”
The report did not specify how many residents had been arrested and put into custody, nor did it mention any injuries caused by the police crackdown.
Week-long protests
The protests started on the morning of Oct. 23, when around 300 residents from Hai Ha commune took to the streets to oppose the construction project, which, according to them, will adversely affect their livelihood and living environment.
On the afternoon of the same day, Nghi Son Town Police issued a decision to launch a criminal case against those who had obstructed traffic, causing serious traffic congestion for about one kilometer (0.6 miles).
Despite the announcement many residents continued to gather at the Hai Ha commune beach to prevent construction work, although the police had summoned some people and forced them to pledge in writing not to gather at the construction site.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Raid, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: community monitored, harassed for protesting
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 23, 2023
- Event Description
Dozens of residents from a fishing area in north-central Vietnam this week have protested the building of a port project, despite police launching a criminal investigation of them for disturbing public order, demonstrators said.
On Wednesday, Thanh Hoa provincial authorities mobilized dozens of police officers to force protesting fisherfolk — mostly women — to leave the construction site where a dock is being built, one of the sources said. Though they stayed, police did not take any measures against them and left the area at noon.
About 300 residents of Hai Ha commune first took to the streets on the morning of Oct. 23 with banners and placards to show their opposition to the Long Son Container Port project, which they say will adversely affect their livelihoods and living environment.
“We don’t want the Long Son Container Port project because it is located in the coastal area we inherited from our ancestors, and it has been passed down from generation to generation,” said a villager on Wednesday who declined to be named out of fear of reprisal by authorities.
Fishing provides the only income to cover her family’s expenditures, including her children’s education expenses, she said.
“If the port is built, residents like us will be adversely affected by pollution, and there will be no places for our boats to anchor and no places for us to trade seafood,” she said.
Generating income
Long Son Ltd. Co. is investing more than US$30 million to build the 15-hectare (37-acre) project, which will have a 250-meter (820-foot) dock. It is expected to be operational in 2025.
The project will play a crucial role in the development of the first dedicated container port area at Nghi Son Port, according to state-run Vietnam News Agency. Once Dock No. 3 is built, it will serve as a dike against waves and winds and create a 10-hectare (33-foot) water area for local fishermen to safely anchor their boats.
The port is expected to generate revenue and jobs in Thanh Hoa province, including Hai Ha commune.
State media reported that Thanh Hoa provincial authorities conducted thorough studies and environmental assessments as well as consulted local people on the project. But the woman said representatives of the authorities only went around to people’s homes to try to persuade them not to oppose the project and its implementation.
The protest on Oct. 23 prompted Nghi Son town police to file charges against them for obstructing traffic and causing a kilometer-long (0.6 mile) vehicle backup.
Police at the scene took photos of the protesters, recorded videos and collected other information, some villagers involved in the demonstration said.
Police also issued an order requiring Hai Ha residents to adhere to the law and not to gather in groups to disrupt public order, incite others, or be enticed to obstruct the construction of Dock No. 3 of the Long Son Container Port project.
Threatened with arrest
Police threatened them with arrest for disrupting public order — which carries a sentence of up to seven years in prison — if they continued.
Hai Ha commune includes nearly 3,000 households with about 11,000 inhabitants, most of whom rely on fishing to make a living. The villagers say they fear that port officials will cut off their access to the waters where they fish and prohibit them from anchoring their boats.
Villagers ignored the police order and continued their protest on Tuesday and Wednesday, hoping to prevent the dock’s construction.
The woman quoted above said that the villagers are not afraid of going to jail because they don’t want to lose their home beach.
But if they have to relocate as a result of a loss of livelihoods, villagers will expect satisfactory compensation and a new living area with spaces to safely anchor their boats, she said.
“We staged a march and did not offend anyone or did not cause any harm,” she said. “None of us offended the police. We followed the traffic law, [and] we walked on the roadside and stayed in rows.”
The port will join four other industrial projects surrounding the 1,200-hectare (2,965-acre) commune. The others are a cement factory, a port for coal transportation in the north, a thermal power plant in the west, and a steel factory in the south.
Though the projects have created jobs for locals, they have also created serious environmental pollution, negatively affecting residents’ lives, a second woman said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community), Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 27, 2023
- Event Description
Human rights activist Tran Van Bang, also known as Tran Bang, has reportedly experienced a severe decline in health due to the harsh conditions of his detention at the Bo La Detention Center in Phu Giao District, Binh Duong Province.
Tran Bang, 62, was arrested on March 1, 2022, on charges of spreading "anti-state propaganda" under Article 117 of the Penal Code. In mid-May this year, he received a sentence of eight years in prison and three years of probation for his advocacy of democracy and human rights.
After an unsuccessful appeal in late August, he was transferred to Bo La Prison on Sept. 27, where he faced challenging conditions.
Two days after his transfer to Bo La, Tran Bang's family visited him to provide essential supplies and support. According to a family member's text message to Radio Free Asia (RFA) on Oct. 26, Bang described his living conditions, stating that he was held in a crowded room with 90 other individuals. The tight space, where each person had only 60 cm of width, made it difficult for him to sleep. Moreover, the need to keep the windows open throughout the night in the overcrowded room led to exposure to cold temperatures, resulting in a severe sore throat and sinusitis.
During a subsequent visit on Oct. 17, his family noticed a significant deterioration in Tran Bang's health. They observed that he had lost approximately 10 pounds and appeared visibly older.
Despite Bang's deteriorating health and multiple ailments, the prison authorities did not provide any medical treatment.
Efforts to verify the family's claims by contacting Bo La Prison were unsuccessful.
Tran Bang, a veteran of the border war with China in the early 1980s, is a dedicated human rights activist known for his efforts to protest China's encroachment on Vietnam's territorial waters in the East Sea. He is one of seven activists and freelance journalists convicted of disseminating "anti-state propaganda" in the early part of the year. The remaining individuals include Nguyen Lan Thang, a blogger for RFA, and music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc.
Before his trial and appeal, various international organizations, including Human Rights Watch, called for his immediate release, arguing that he was exercising his right to freedom of speech as stipulated in the Vietnamese Constitution and international human rights conventions that Vietnam has signed.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to health, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger sentenced to 8-year jail term (Update)
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 31, 2023
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam on Tuesday sentenced a Facebook user to three and a half years in prison for his live-streamed videos that were critical of the government, state media reported.
Le Thach Giang, 66, of the southern coastal province of Ninh Thuan, was found guilty of violating Article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code for “abusing democratic freedoms to violate the State’s interests, legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”
Rights groups have said that Article 331 is a vaguely written law that is often used by the government to silence dissenting voices and repress the people.
According to the indictment, between Aug. 29 and Nov. 25, 2022, Giang had livestreamed several videos containing information about local authorities in Ninh Thuan on his Facebook account, which was titled “The Brutal Authorities.” He also criticized the Communist Party of Vietnam and late president and revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh.
The videos were allegedly unverified, slanderous and offensive to government agencies and defamatory to the Communist Party of Vietnam and the late president.
State media also said that Giang had been previously sentenced to another three and a half years for “intentionally damaging assets” and “disrupting public order,” but did not specify what these charges were for or when he was sentenced.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 9, 2023
- Event Description
Two Vietnamese prisoners of conscience, Trinh Ba Phuong and Phan Cong Hai, faced physical assault and shackling after protesting against the harsh treatment and human rights violations in An Diem Prison in Quang Nam Province. This distressing revelation was conveyed to Radio Free Asia (RFA) by Phuong's younger sister, Trinh Thu Thao, on Oct. 13, immediately after the family visit.
The incident happened on Sept. 9, 2023, around 8 a.m., when Phuong and others staged a peaceful protest, displaying a banner denouncing human rights violations at the prison center. Prison guards swiftly intervened, forcibly seizing the banners and violently disciplining the protestors.
Phuong and Hai, both part of the peaceful demonstration, endured harsh punishment. They were shackled for ten days. Phuong later wrote a petition to protest the disciplinary action he faced and sent it to the People’s Procuracy Office of Quang Nam Province. However, his petition did not receive any response.
The two political prisoners also held another peaceful protest on Sept. 2, 2023, to protest against China's aggressive actions in the South China Sea. They received a different response - the authorities confiscated the banners without resorting to violence or discipline.
This distressing episode highlighted the need for immediate attention and action to ensure all prisoners are treated fairly, particularly those unjustly detained for their beliefs and advocacy for human rights and democracy in Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Land rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger is handed down 5-year jail term over Facebook posts critical of the Government, Vietnam: detained land defenders sentenced to long-term imprisonment, their family members prevented from attending the hearing (Update)
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 31, 2023
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam have released four independent Protestants who were detained for five days after inviting President Vo Van Thuong to observe one of their religious services.
Y Nuer Buon Dap, Y Thinh Nie, Y Cung Nie and his son Y Salemon Eban returned home on Saturday.
The first three were arrested on Oct. 31 and taken to the headquarters of Cu M'gar District Police. Another man, Y Phuc Nie, was arrested the same day, but he was released on Nov. 2.
Y Salemon Eban was arrested on Nov. 3 while his mother, H Tuyen Eban was interrogated by district police on Nov. 2.
“The police forced us to work all day, from 7:30 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. before going to bed, but we were not beaten. We were well fed during the days of our arrest," one of the arrested men told Radio Free Asia, asking to remain anonymous for legal reasons.
He said the police questioned them about their views on religious freedom and civil society.
Before releasing the Protestants, the police told them to stop practicing religion independently and not to study civil society, saying its aim was to oppose the government.
They were also told not to participate in the Aug. 22 International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence Based on Religion or Belief and the Dec. 10 International Human Rights Day.
“We cannot accept restrictions on the exercise of freedom of religion and freedom of movement . We will continue to practice religion in our family,” said one of the Protestants.
“What 's wrong with studying civil society? We study according to Vietnamese law and international law and have no intention of opposing the government.”
RFA Vietnamese called Cu M'gar District Police to verify the information, but the person who answered asked the reporter to go to the agency's headquarters and speak to the person in charge.
Many Montagnard families in Dak Lak and some provinces in the Central Highlands follow Protestantism but are not in a state-approved religious organization.
They have no leaders, no organizational structure, everyone in the group has equal rights and equality with each other. Pastors are just trusted representatives of their group.
Since the beginning of 2023, independent Protestant groups have sent four invitations to local authorities and President Vo Van Thuong to attend religious activities to prove that they have no intention of opposing state-approved religions or the government.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 14, 2023
- Event Description
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc’s lawyer was not allowed to see him during his family’s visit to him on Oct. 3. The family said that Thuc’s health has worsened and that he looked gaunt and fatigued. They said further that he reported that he was not allowed to have his monthly call to his family in September because prison officials did not want him to “complain and accuse” them of wrongdoings. Thuc and his fellow inmates have stopped eating prison food to demand fairer food rationing for the entire unit A. Thuc has not been able to buy food at the canteen since Sept. 14, and he’s had to ask his cellmates to buy food for him. He’s no longer given hot water to make ramen, so he has to use cold water. Thuc has resorted to picking and eating wild vegetation to supplement his diet. The prison authorities have confiscated Thuc’s razor and nail clipper without any explanation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Access to justice, Right to food, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 5, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities recently prevented Ms. Ngo Thi Oanh Phuong from leaving the country. She is widely known on social networks through her Facebook account named Phuong Ngo because she often speaks out against many social issues and has enthusiastically fought against negativity for many years.
According to VOA's own source, Tan Son Nhat International Airport Border Gate Police did not let Ms. Phuong leave the country early on the morning of October 5 after she had a boarding pass to fly from Ho Chi Minh City to Ho Chi Minh City. Narita airport of the Japanese capital.
Two representatives of the border police and a representative of Japan Airlines made a record of "temporary exit" for Ms. Phuong, the source said. The minutes that VOA saw read that she was not allowed to leave Vietnam "for national defense and security reasons" based on an article in the law on the entry and exit of Vietnamese citizens issued in 2019. 2019.
The minutes did not say in more detail why Ms. Phuong was not allowed to leave the country. VOA tried to contact Ms. Phuong and the relevant police agency to learn more but could not connect.
Ms. Phuong, 42 years old, permanently residing in Ho Chi Minh City, has been famous on social networks for many years due to her active criticism, fight against injustice and many volunteer activities, of which she especially stands out. combat road toll booths located in unreasonable locations and provide relief to those in need due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to VOA's research, Article No. 36 of Vietnam's 2019 law on entry and exit sets out regulations on 9 cases of temporary exit, including "people whom the authorities have grounds to believe that the Their exit affects national defense and security" stated in section 9.
Other cases temporarily banned from leaving the country are suspects and defendants; People involved in prison sentences are on probation; person with civil court obligations ; person who must fulfill tax obligations, etc.
Before the case of Ms. Ngo Thi Oanh Phuong, the Vietnamese government banned many other activists, activists, dissidents and critics from leaving the country such as Dr. Nguyen Quang A and lawyer Vo An Don. , Cao Dai follower Nguyen Xuan Mai, Protestant follower Doctor Eban, priest Truong Hoang Vu.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 28, 2023
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam’s Gia Lai province sentenced a Christian to eight years in prison and three years probation for “undermining the unity policy” under Article 116 of the criminal code.
The Gia Lai online newspaper said that Rian Thih’s trial on Sept. 28 lasted for several hours and the defendant, also known as Ama Philip, “honestly testified and admitted the crime.” The newspaper did not specify whether he had a defense lawyer.
Vietnam often uses the allegation of undermining the solidarity policy to suppress activists for religious freedom in ethnic minority communities in the Central Highlands or the northern mountainous areas, according to an activist on religious freedom speaking to Radio Free Asia on condition of anonymity for security reasons.
“The targets of repression are religious leaders of unregistered independent religious groups, often in contact with civil society organizations abroad or international human rights organizations to report violations of religious freedom in the country,” the activist said.
“Such people are often persecuted under Article 116 with heavy sentences of up to 20 years in prison, or at least convicted under Article 331 – abusing democratic freedoms – with a sentence of four to five years in prison.”
The activist said in the Central Highlands there are many Protestant groups registered with the state and with legal status. Many of them have committed actions that, according to the activist, “caused division between ethnicities and between religions” but they were not charged with undermining the unity policy.
Vu Quoc Dung, executive director of the human rights organization VETO! The Human Rights Defenders Network, based in Germany, told RFA via text:
“In some previous cases of ethnic minorities engaging in religious activities that we know well, the fact that they were convicted of ‘undermining the policy of national unity’ only shows that they follow independent religious organizations and refuse to join a state-recognized organization. In a few other cases, the government accused the victims of abandoning tradition or not respecting local customs.
“Accusing them of undermining the policy of national unity violates the right to freedom of religious practice under Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the right to observe and practice their own religion of minority groups according to Article 27 of the ICCPR, to which Vietnam is a party.”
Rlan Thih, 43, was arrested on Dec. 19, 2022. According to the indictment, from 2008 until his arrest, Rlan Thih was directed by FULRO (the United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races) exiles abroad to secretly persuade ethnic minorities in Ia Glai commune to join a meeting group that was a variation of “Dega Protestantism,” with a plot to establish a “separate state for ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands.”
The Vietnamese government says that Christians who belong to unregistered house churches outside the control of the official Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam are “Dega Protestants,” which authorities allege is not a legitimate religious group but a cover for a Montagnard independence movement.
Montagnards are a mainly Christian indigenous minority from the Central Highland provinces who are pressing for religious freedom and land rights. The government now claims there are no Montagnards in the Central Highlands.
The Gia Lai newspaper said that Rlan Thih participated in violent protests in Gia Lai in 2001 and 2004 and “remained stubborn, refusing to stop trying to sabotage the party and state, affecting national unity and local security” but did not specify what these acts were.
Rlan Thih is one of many religious freedom activists in the Central Highlands who was arrested recently.
In April, authorities in Dak Lak arrested preacher Y Krec Ba of the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ on charges of “undermining the unity policy.” A month later, Nay Y Blang was arrested on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms.”
According to RFA statistics, there are currently nearly 60 ethnic minorities imprisoned on charges of “undermining the solidarity policy” with sentences ranging from four to 20 years.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist, Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 22, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 27, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnamese human rights lawyer Vo An Don and his family were stopped by police in Ho Chi Minh City this week from boarding a flight to New York, where they had hoped to apply for political asylum in the US, the well-known rights lawyer told RFA on Wednesday.
Don and other family members were barred from leaving Vietnam by police at Tan Son Nhat Airport at around 9:42 p.m. on Sept. 27, Don said, calling the action taken against him by authorities arbitrary and vindictive.
Don added that airport police told him he would need to contact immigration authorities in his home province of Phu Yen, on Vietnam’s south-central coast, for an explanation of the order barring his travel overseas.
He and his family were now on their way back to Phu Yen, Don said.
“I’ll work with the Phu Yen police tomorrow to find out why my departure was temporarily suspended,” Don said, saying that airport police had cited “security reasons” for blocking his departure in accordance with Article 36 of the Law on Entry and Exit for Vietnamese citizens.
According to Vietnamese law, citizens of the country have the right to travel domestically and overseas, Don said. “I’ll take legal action against them and file a request for compensation if they fail to give legitimate reasons for what they did,” he added.
“In the past, I used to work as a defense lawyer for ordinary, common people,” said Don, whose license to practice law was revoked in 2017 after he successfully defended the right to benefits of the surviving family members of a person who died in police custody.
“Since then I have only stayed at home and worked as a farmer. I have not been involved in any other cases or broken the law, and there is therefore no reason to say that I have been a threat to national security,” he said.
Don said he and his family had decided to seek asylum in the US because they were suffering harassment by Phu Yen authorities and economic hardship since he could no longer work as a lawyer.
The Washington-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) had secured advance funding for the family’s airfare, which was returned to the IOM when the family could no longer fly.
Don had taken his children out of school and given away many of his family’s belongings before trying to leave, and now has to buy many household appliances again, he said. He hopes his children’s schools will now allow them to return to class, he added.
'Prestige of the Party'
Requests for comment sent to the US Embassy, IOM offices in Vietnam and the Vietnam Immigration Department received no responses this week.
A Sept. 28 article in the Ministry of Public Security’s Public Security Newsletter said however that Don during his work as a lawyer had “damaged the prestige” of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party and government by posting stories on social media and speaking to members of the foreign press.
Speaking to RFA, Truong Minh Tam — a Vietnamese lawyer and human rights activist now living in Illinois — said that Phu Yen police had abused their authority by ordering the suspension of Don’s right to travel abroad.
“According to Article 37 of the Law on Exit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens, only the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Public Security have that authority,” Tam said.
Also speaking to RFA, Vietnamese musician and political observer Tuan Khanh noted that Don had successfully brought a suit in 2014 against five Phu Yen police officers who caused the death of a citizen, Ngo Thanh Kieu, held in their custody.
This had likely made Don a target for provincial authorities’ revenge, Khanh said.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch said that the Vietnamese government's efforts to block Don's travel to the U.S. are yet another example of how it restricts the freedom of movement of activists based on what he called "vague claims" of national security.
"The reality is Hanoi doesn’t want Vo An Don traveling overseas where he could speak freely about the litany of harassment, discrimination and abuse he’s suffered because of his choices to represent politically sensitive clients in Vietnam’s kangaroo courts,” Robertson said.
“Vietnam has forced Vo An Don to run a gauntlet of constant abuses, including harassment, threats, and legal retaliation ... This travel ban against Vo An Don and his family shows how the Vietnam government is prepared to use every dirty, abusive trick to silence the very few lawyers left in the country who dare stand up for the principle that everyone deserves legal representation.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 6, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 28, 2023
- Event Description
A leading Vietnamese climate activist has been jailed for tax evasion, the latest environmentalist put behind bars by the country’s communist government.
A court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Hoang Thi Minh Hong to three years in prison for dodging $275,000 in taxes related to her environmental campaign group Change, her lawyer, Nguyen Van Tu, said.
The 50-year-old is at least the fifth environmental campaigner to be jailed on tax evasion charges in the last two years as Vietnam’s authoritarian government steps up a crackdown on activists.
Her husband, Hoang Vinh Nam, said he was “disappointed” at the verdict.
“The sentence given to Hong today was too heavy,” he said. “I think it was unfair to Hong. The defence lawyer did his best but his arguments were not considered properly.”
State media said the charges related to revenue generated by Change from 2012 to 2022. Hong admitted the charges and along with her family paid the state 3.5bn dong ($145,000) in return for leniency, state media said.
Hong founded Change to mobilise Vietnamese, particularly young people, to take action on environmental issues including climate change, the illegal wildlife trade and pollution. But she abruptly shut down the group last year after four environmental and human rights activists were jailed for tax evasion.
“This conviction is a total fraud, nobody should be fooled by it,” said Ben Swanton, the co-director of The 88 Project, which advocates for human rights in Vietnam. “This is yet another example of the law being weaponised to persecute climate activists who are fighting to save the planet.”
Earlier this month Hanoi police detained the director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition, an independent energy policy thinktank.
Ngo Thi To Nhien, who has worked with the EU, World Bank and UN, was reportedly working on the implementation plan for Vietnam’s Just Energy Transition Partnership, a $15bn G7-funded project to help wean Vietnam off fossil fuels.
No official information on Nhien’s accusation has been made public.
Hong has been recognised internationally for her work: she joined the Obama Foundation Scholars program in New York in 2018 and was listed by Forbes among the 50 most influential Vietnamese women in 2019.
When she was detained in May, the UN’s human rights body was among many international groups to voice concern, warning of the “chilling effect” of tax cases against civil society groups.
Among the four green activists jailed last year was Nguy Thi Khanh, a globally recognised climate and energy campaigner who won the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018. She spent nearly a year in jail before she was released last month.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, NGO staff, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: environmental rights defender arrested for 'tax evasion', along with husband and two staff members
- Date added
- Oct 6, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 26, 2023
- Event Description
In an appeal that only lasted two hours, the High People’s Court in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province on Tuesday upheld an eight-year prison sentence for music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc, his wife Le Thi Ha told Radio Free Asia.
The 61-year-old instructor at Dak Lak College of Pedagogy was convicted on June 6 this year of "making, storing, spreading or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
He was prosecuted under the penal code’s controversial Article 117, which rights groups say is frequently used to suppress free speech.
Police arrested him on Sept. 8 last year after he posted on Facebook in support of activist Bui Tuan Lam, known as “Onion Bae.”
His wife was also questioned about songs he sang and posted on social media, including one by a former political prisoner and another with lyrics about the problems faced by Vietnam under the Communist Party.
Speaking to RFA Vietnamese on Tuesday Le Thi Ha called the appeal a sham.
"There is nothing different from the first-instance hearing,” she said.
“The examiners of the province’s Department of Information and Communication continued to be absent while the court panel did not respect the defenses of my husband and his lawyers."
Ha said her husband planned to appeal to a higher court.
Under Vietnamese law, Phuoc has the right to appeal to the Supreme People's Court. However, in most political cases, the decision of the regional high court is usually the final word.
Over the past 10 years Phuoc campaigned against corruption and for better protection for civil and political rights. He signed pro-democracy petitions and called for changes to Vietnam’s constitution, which grants the Communist Party a monopoly on power.
“Dang Dang Phuoc shouldn’t be in prison for simply calling for better treatment and justice for the poor and vulnerable Vietnamese, and demanding the government provide better social services and a cleaner environment for all,” said Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson, ahead of the appeal.
“If the Vietnamese government cared at all about the welfare of the people, they would be listening to principled activists like Dang Dang Phuoc, not imprisoning him.”
According to RFA statistics, Phuoc is the 11th activist convicted this year and the sixth person convicted of "propaganda against the state" under Article 117.
Many countries have called on Vietnam to amend or remove Article 117 from the penal code to be compatible with international human rights conventions that Vietnam has signed.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger arrested on catch-all charges, Vietnam: blogger sentenced to eight years in prison over anti-corruption posts (Update)
- Date added
- Oct 6, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 29, 2023
- Event Description
A 60-year old Vietnamese activist was sentenced to six years in prison for making a short drunken tirade video that cursed the Communist Party and revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, the country’s first leader, his lawyer told Radio Free Asia.
The Hanoi People’s Court handed down the punishment Friday to Nguyen Minh Son, saying that the video he made on Dec. 31, 2021, was “anti-state propaganda.”
In the live-streamed video, Son stood outside the same court, reacting the trial of activist and citizen journalist Le Trong Hung, who that day had gotten five years for violating Article 117, a vaguely-written law that is frequently used by authorities to stifle peaceful critics of the country’s one-party communist government.
Almost 10 months later, Son found himself under arrest under the same charge.
His lawyer, Ngo Anh Tuan, said that Son was drunk at the time and admitted that he had acknowledged making mistakes.
“Mr. Son admitted all his acts, saying that he had made mistakes,” Tuan told RFA Vietnamese. “He was accused of making a video clip, only one clip, which he live-streamed and disseminated online.”
Tuan said the jail term was too harsh considering that his client had only made one video.
He said that he had tried to help lower the penalty for his client by requesting the judging panel to look at his case from another angle, but his request was rejected.
“I presented my analysis and judgment, recommending that his act be handled in a more appropriate way, and it could be an administrative penalty,” Tuan said.
Pleading for mercy
Son had been an active participant in many demonstrations in Hanoi between 2011 and 2018 over issues ranging from China’s claims to territories in the South China Sea, to the Hanoi city government cutting down ancient trees located downtown. He also frequently expressed his views on Vietnam’s social issues using his Facebook account.
According to Son’s friend, his arrest on Sept. 28, 2022, was surprising because so much time had passed since he had been involved in any protests.
When Son was allowed to say a few words at the end of the trial, he apologized, expressing his regret and requesting for a penalty mitigation, Tuan said, adding that he was not sure whether Son would make an appeal or not.
Son’s wife Nguyen Thi Phuoc told RFA that she was prevented from attending the trial. Security guards would not allow her to enter the courtroom until nearly noon after the trial had ended, she said. She only saw her husband the moment the police were escorting him to leave the courtroom.
No freedom of speech
Vietnam is a one-party Communist state that clamps down harshly on those who criticize the government.
In another similar case, police on Friday in the southern province of Binh Duong detained Tran Dac Than on charges of using his social media accounts to create posts and share articles that “abused democratic freedoms to violate the state’s interests or the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals,” in violation of Article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code.
Rights groups have said that Article 331, like Article 117, is often employed by the government to silence dissenting voices and repress the people.
According to state media reports that cited the police, the government had summoned Than to warn him about similar acts in 2013.
Vietnam has arrested at least 18 people and convicted nine for violating Article 331 since January this year, according to RFA’s statistics.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 6, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 15, 2023
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam arrested the director of an independent energy policy think-tank, in its latest crackdown on experts from the field of environment and ecology in recent years.
Ngo Thi To Nhien, director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, was arrested for allegedly appropriating internal documents relating to state-owned firm Electricity of Vietnam, according to the state media reports.
She was detained on 20 September, spokesperson for the ministry of public security To An Xo, confirmed on Monday.
The official denied that the grounds for arresting Ms Nhien were related to “environmental activism”.
Earlier reports claimed that the think-tank’s top official was detained on 15 September.
“The security investigation agency of Hanoi city police issued an arrest warrant to Ngo Thi To Nhien,” Mr Xo said at a press conference late on Saturday.
If charged, Ms Nhien faced up to five years in prison, according to Vietnam’s criminal code.
According to a rights group, she was detained without any official confirmation.
Ms Nhien is a prominent researcher in Vietnam and has worked with a number of international organisations, including the World Bank, the European Union, the United Nations and the Asian Development Bank. She was reportedly working on an implementation plan for the country’s just energy transition partnership (JETP) at the time of her arrest.
The $15bn project will push Vietnam to wean off fossil fuels and is funded by the G7.
While the immediate reasons for her arrests are not clear, Vietnam is one of the few remaining communist single-party states that tolerate no dissent, including on environmental issues.
Human rights advocacy group The 88 Project have claimed that she has been arrested for “unknown reasons”.
In 2022, Human Rights Watch said that more than 170 activists had been put under house arrest, blocked from travelling or in some cases assaulted by agents of the Vietnamese government in a little-noticed campaign to silence its critics.
Ms Nhien’s arrest comes just days after a Vietnamese climate activist was sentenced to three years in prison on charges of tax fraud.
Hoang Thi Minh Hong, 50, who headed the environmental advocacy group Change, which works on environment and climate issues, was also fined 100 million Vietnamese dong ($4,100) by a court in Ho Chi Minh City, the state-owned Viet Nam News reported.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 2, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 8, 2023
- Event Description
Le Thi Thap, the wife of Luu Van Vinh, told Project 88 that she was summoned by police from Binh Tan District in HCMC to appear for questioning on Sept. 8.. When she appeared, she was advised to persuade her husband to plead guilty in order for him to be released early. Then they asked her whether any representatives from the U.S. consulate had visited her husband and if she had signed any petition letter to the president of the United States. She answered that since her husband was in jail, they should know whether or not anyone had visited him. They also told her that if her family had a desire to emigrate to the United States, they would help her fill out the paperwork. She just told them to give her the forms. After that, she was allowed to go home safely. Vinh was arrested in 2016 and is serving a 15-year sentence for “attempted subversion” for belonging to the group Vietnam National Self-Determination Coalition.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 22, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 6, 2023
- Event Description
Prisoner of conscience Bui Tuan Lam, known as ‘Onion Bae,’ is being punished after unsuccessfully appealing his five year sentence, his wife told Radio Free Asia.
Lam was convicted of spreading ‘propaganda against the state’ and his sentence was upheld in an appeal last month.
His wife, Le Thanh Lam, told RFA Vietnamese that when she visited Lam last week, detention center officials told her all family meetings must be supervised and would therefore take time to arrange.
However, following multiple calls to arrange a visit, his wife was told family visits had been suspended because Lam was being disciplined.
“I asked them why my husband was disciplined, how long he would be disciplined and when my family would be able to see him again,” she said.
“They did not provide any more information.”
RFA called a police officer named Phong at the Da Nang detention center where Lam is being held. He refused to answer any questions.
“I’m very worried and confused,” his wife said.
“I don’t know whether he will be shackled and what the punishment will be like.
This is the second disciplinary action since the trial. In just a few months he was disciplined twice [and made to wear] leg shackles.”
Ms Lam said the family had no information about her husband’s health because he was denied access to lawyers before his appeal.
Lawyer Le Dinh Viet told her that during the appeal hearing the court denied him any form of communication with his client, even eye contact.
Lam is one of dozens of activists imprisoned on charges of ‘anti-state propaganda’ in recent years. Few of the other prisoners have been disciplined and denied family visits.
Lam, 39, campaigned for human rights in Vietnam at the U.N. headquarters in Geneva in 2014. He is a member of the No-U movement, which challenges China’s ‘Nine Dash Line’ territorial claims in the South China Sea.
He earned the nickname ‘Onion Bae’ after posting a video mocking Minister of Public Security To Lam, who ate a US$1,800 steak at a restaurant owned by celebrity chef ‘Salt Bae.’
In Lam’s video, which went viral, he copies the chef’s gesture of dramatically sprinkling salt, instead sprinkling spring onions on a bowl of noodles.
Before his trial and appeal, Human Rights Watch called for all charges to be dropped and Lam’s immediate release.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 22, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 12, 2023
- Event Description
Detained Vietnamese blogger and YouTuber Duong Van Thai is still in prison almost three weeks after his temporary detention was supposed to have expired, his family told Radio Free Asia.
Thai, 41, was living in Thailand when he disappeared on April 13 in what many believe was an abduction.
Vietnam has neither confirmed nor denied that he was abducted and taken back to Vietnam, but shortly after his disappearance, authorities announced that they had apprehended him for trying to sneak into the country illegally.
They did not confirm to his family that he was under arrest on official charges until July, when they sent a letter saying he was being held in a detention center in Hanoi, that he was charged with “anti-state propaganda,” and that the temporary detention would end on Aug. 12.
According to Vietnamese law, the maximum temporary detention time, which applies to extremely serious offenses, is four months. In complex cases that require more time, this period can be extended, but only if the investigating agency sends a written request to the judicial authorities.
Thai’s 70-year-old mother, Duong Thi Lu, told RFA Vietnamese that she tried to visit her son in the detention center, but she was not allowed to meet him.
“I’ve been there twice,” she said. “On my first trip, because I went there on a Saturday, they did not receive me. The next time was on a Friday. They received me at the front gate and allowed me to send in some supplies but did not let me in.”
She said that the detention center staff told her she would not be allowed to see her son until the investigation ends. She also said she intends to return next week to give him more supplies.
Lu also said that because of her advanced age, she was not capable nor alert enough to hire a defense lawyer for her son, and she plans to rely on support from her son’s friends.
RFA made repeated phone calls to the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security via the two official telephone numbers posted on its website but no one answered.
Critical posts
Duong Van Thai had fled to Thailand in late 2018 or early 2019, fearing political persecution for his many posts and videos that criticized the Vietnamese government and leaders of the Communist Party on Facebook and YouTube.
He had been granted refugee status by the United Nations refugee agency’s office in Bangkok. He was interviewed to resettle in a third country right before his disappearance near his rental home in central Thailand’s Pathum Thani province.
Organizations such as Human Rights Watch, Reporters Without Borders, and the Committee to Protect Journalists have accused Vietnam’s security agents of kidnapping Duong Van Thai and bringing him back to Vietnam in a manner similar to how they abducted RFA-affiliated blogger Truong Duy Nhat in Bangkok in 2019 or former oil company CEO Trinh Xuan Thanh in Berlin in 2017.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger in refuge abducted and forced to return to Vietnam, Vietnam: blogger officially charged for distributing anti-state propaganda (Update)
- Date added
- Sep 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 28, 2023
- Event Description
Ahead of Bui Tuan Lam’s appeal trial scheduled for Aug. 30, his family told Project 88 that security police have posted guards around their home since Aug. 28 and have been taking pictures and videos of their movements and activities.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 13, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 31, 2023
- Event Description
Political prisoner Dang Dinh Bach has been assaulted by policemen after telling his family he’d been threatened by other inmates, according to fellow inmate Tran Huynh Duy Thuc who was visited by his family this week.
Bach and Thuc both called their families last Thursday to say people dressed as prisoners had entered their cells, threatening them. Thuc said the inmates who entered his cell had a knife.
On Tuesday, Thuc’s family visited him at Prison No.6 in Nghe An province.
Thuc asked his family to record the names and numbers of 7-8 policemen standing around them, saying they were “those who oppressed and made it difficult for him in the camp,” Thuc’s younger brother Tran Huynh Duy Tan told Radio Free Asia.
“Thuc waited until the end of the visit to say the last word to his family, because he knew that when he said this, he would be stopped,” Tan said.
“In the last sentence, shouting loudly to the family, he said, ‘the day Bach called his family on August 31, he was severely assaulted by police officers.’”
The family had previously sent an urgent request for help to Tran Ba Toan -- head of Prison No. 6 – and the People’s Procuracy of Nghe An Province to request immediate implementation of measures to protect life and ensure the safety of the four political prisoners who had been threatened.
After finishing their visit Tuesday, Thuc’s relatives requested to meet Toan to discuss the case but were told he was on a business trip.
Bach suffered a head injury
Dang Dinh Bach is a lawyer and director of the environmental group, the Center for Legal Studies & Policy for Sustainable Development.
He was arrested in July 2021 and later sentenced to five years in prison for tax evasion.
His wife, Tran Phuong Thao, met with him on Tuesday. Thao said her husband was prevented from bringing a notebook to record their conversation.
“Bach showed me his hand. I saw three cuts on the wrist and hand, each about 2-3 centimeters,” she said.
“I asked him what's wrong? Bach said that I have to understand there are many things he cannot say, but he believes I can understand what is going on in here.”
She said Bachh told her he had a bruise on the back of his neck about 7 cm wide and still has a headache, but the staff refused to examine it.
“On August 31, right after the call home, he was hit in the head from behind,” she said.
RFA’s reporter tried to call Prison No. 6 to verify the information, but nobody answered.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 12, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 25, 2023
- Event Description
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc told his family in a short phone call that men armed with knives entered his cell. Thuc said his belongings and physical health were under threat. He was supposed to be allowed a 10-minute phone call but the line was abruptly cut after only three minutes. However, in that short span, Thuc was able to give his sister the names of two prison officials who presumably are responsible for his well being: Phạm Văn Luyến (#559-846) and Nguyễn Văn Hiệu (#569-921).
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: imprisoned HRD had his daily necessities and medical equipment confiscated, Vietnam: imprisoned HRD mistreated, still deprived of daily necessities
- Date added
- Sep 12, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 30, 2023
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam on Wednesday upheld the five and a half year prison sentence for activist Bui Tuan Lam, known as “Onion Bae,” his wife Le Than Lam told Radio Free Asia.
On May 25, Bui was convicted of propaganda under Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code, after being found guilty of criticizing the government online.
Le told RFA Vietnamese she was not allowed to attend Wednesday’s three-hour hearing at the Higher People’s Court in Danang. but his lawyer Le Dinh Viet was permitted to represent him there.
However, the lawyer was not allowed to meet his client on Tuesday at the detention center where Bui is being held so they were unable to prepare for the appeal.
Le Than Lam said hundreds of policemen in uniform and plain clothes were deployed outside the court, filming her and others who had gathered there to wait for the outcome. She told RFA everyone stayed calm when the appeal was rejected, so the police had no reason to arrest them.
Bui, 39, ran a beef noodle stall in Danang. He achieved notoriety in 2021 after posting an online video mimicking the Turkish celebrity chef Nusret Gökçe, known as “Salt Bae.”
The video, which went viral on social media, was seen as poking fun at To Lam, Vietnam’s minister of public security. To was caught on film being hand-fed a GBP1,450 (U.S.$1,830) gold-encrusted steak by Salt Bae at his London restaurant.
In Bui’s video clip, he dramatically sprinkles spring onions into a bowl of soup, mimicking the signature move of the celebrity chef.
Bui was summoned by Danang police for questioning and arrested and charged in September 2022.
Danang People’s Procuracy claimed Bui posted articles on Facebook and YouTube, including content that was “distorting, defaming people’s government” and “fabricating and causing confusion among people.”
Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code criminalizes “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” It is frequently used by authorities to restrict freedom of expression and opinions deemed critical of the government.
On Tuesday, a court upheld the eight-year jail sentence of democracy activist Tran Van Bang, who was also convicted under Article 117.
He is among six activists and journalists who have been convicted on charges of anti-state propaganda by the Vietnamese government since January.
Vietnam has convicted at least 60 people under Article 117, according to human rights groups.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Access to justice, Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: pro-democracy defender sentenced to five years and six months in irregular trial, his wife vilified and detained
- Date added
- Sep 12, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 29, 2023
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam on Tuesday upheld the eight-year jail sentence of democracy activist Tran Van Bang for anti-state propaganda during a brief hearing in which authorities dismissed the arguments of the defense and “read the old verdict,” according to family members.
Bang’s conviction is the latest in Hanoi’s ongoing campaign to silence bloggers and activists. Vietnam has convicted at least 60 such people for “making, storing and disseminating materials against the State” under the same Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, according to rights groups.
He is among six activists and journalists who have been convicted on charges of anti-state propaganda by the Vietnamese government since January.
The Superior People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday sided with the court of first instance, which in May sentenced Bang, 62, to eight years in prison and three years probation.
The decision prompted Western governments and international NGOs to call for his release, saying he was denied his right to freedom of speech.
One of Bang’s siblings told RFA Vietnamese that Bang and his defense lawyer presented their argument for his innocence, saying his posts to social media were his own views and not intended to oppose the government.
“However, [at the end] the Procuracy’s representative read the old verdict and immediately made a conclusion, saying that they did not accept the arguments of either the defense lawyer or Tran Bang,” said the sibling, who spoke on condition of anonymity citing fear of reprisal.
Authorities only allowed family members to view the proceedings on a closed circuit camera feed broadcast to a nearby room. Diplomatic representatives from foreign governments were also permitted to view the feed on Tuesday, after being barred from Bang’s last trial.
Bang’s sibling told RFA his family was surprised by how quickly Tuesday’s proceedings took place and said Bang was not allowed to make a closing statement.
“The judge read out the decision, saying my brother no longer had the right to appeal, and then tasked the police to execute the judgment.” they said. “Right after that, they took my brother away. Our family quickly ran out [of the room] to see him but couldn’t make it in time.”
Repeated calls by RFA to the Superior People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City for comment on the decision went unanswered Tuesday.
Problematic posts
Tran Van Bang, better known as Tran Bang, is a war veteran who fought during the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War. He had regularly participated in demonstrations against China for its controversial claims over territories in the South China Sea.
He was arrested in March 2022 for what was initially determined to be 31 Facebook posts between March 2016 and August 2021.
After a subsequent investigation, authorities found that he wrote 39 problematic posts between three Facebook accounts that that were seen as “distorting, defaming and speaking badly of the people’s government; providing false information, causing confusion among the people; and expressing hate and discontent towards the authorities, Party, State, and country’s leaders,” the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported at the time, citing the indictment.
Prior to Tuesday’s hearing, Bang’s defense lawyer Tran Dinh Dung told RFA that his client had been suffering from a tumor in his groin that had not been determined benign or malignant, and that an operation to remove the growth had been delayed by red tape at his detention center. The state of Bang’s health situation was not immediately clear.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger sentenced to 8-year jail term (Update)
- Date added
- Sep 12, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 23, 2023
- Event Description
An activist who has organized numerous petition drives in coastal Ha Tinh province has been arrested under Vietnam’s Article 331, the statute commonly used by authorities to silence those speaking out for human rights.
Hoang Van Luan, 35, was arrested on Wednesday and charged with “abusing democratic freedoms,” according to a statement issued by Ky Anh district police to state media.
At least 15 people across Vietnam have been arrested this year and charged under Article 331, according to a Radio Free Asia tally. The statute has been widely criticized by international communities as being vague.
The arrests under Article 331 are a part of Vietnam’s efforts in recent years to stifle political dissent. Activists are also commonly charged with distributing propaganda against the state under Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code.
Since 2018, Luan has led petition drives for 18 groups on issues presented to officials at the village, district and provincial levels, as well as at central government offices in Hanoi, Ky Anh police said.
The petitions have included the names of 981 people, police said.
In 2019, police in Hanoi’s Ha Dong district imposed an administration penalty with a warning against Luan, saying his group of petitioners were disrupting social order.
This week, the official People’s Police Newspaper ran a photo of Luan and other petitioners who urged authorities to complete a promised water supply project to improve the lives of residents in the Vung Ang Economic Zone in Ky Anh district.
The Vung Ang zone was the site of a devastating toxic waste spill in 2016. The spill by Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group’s steel plant killed an estimated 115 tons of fish and left fishermen jobless in four coastal provinces, including Ha Tinh.
Luan has also organized petitions in the province that have nothing to do with his family interests, such as the North-South Highway, Ky Anh police said on Wednesday. The petitions have led to delays in land clearance for the project, police said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 8, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 16, 2023
- Event Description
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc’s family visited him on August 16 but was told he refused to meet them. They left the food and supplies they brought for him, including medication he had requested, with prison officials. After they had left, they were called to return and take everything back because he refused to accept the items after finding out that necessity items like medicine were crossed off the list by the warden. The family believe this was an act of protest against prison officials and his way of signaling that he’s still being mistreated. Currently one of the longest serving political prisoners in Vietnam, Thuc is 14 years into his 16-year sentence.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to property
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 5, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 15, 2023
- Event Description
Relatives of a stand-up comedian said he was detained by police in Ho Chi Minh City, beaten and then fined for videos about social issues that he posted to his popular YouTube account six years ago.
Police arrested Nguyen Phuc Gia Huy on Tuesday and later fined him 7.5 million Vietnamese dong (about US$315) for videos that authorities said carried untruthful content. The content of those videos wasn’t disclosed.
He was also ordered to remove the false information from YouTube, according to the Tuoi Tre newspaper.
Huy, 41, is a stand-up comedian who participated in the “Vietnam’s Got Talent” TV show and has a YouTube channel – where he is known as Cucumber – that has nearly 900,000 subscribers.
His videos have focused on sensitive issues in society, such as border crossings and the recent attacks on local government facilities in Dak Lak province.
"Cucumber was abducted at around 10 a.m. on August 15 while eating alone,” a family member told Radio Free Asia. “Security forces took him away and then brought him to the station for questioning without giving any documents."
The family member added that he was beaten during his interrogation and wasn’t released until 11 p.m. the same day.
Previously, Huy was summoned to a police station in 2016 to discuss a video he posted that said, “Freedom of speech is different from personal humiliation.” Huy declared in the video that “in Vietnam, there is no freedom of speech.”
Huy’s relative noted that in 2022 he sued the Nhan Dan newspaper in what is considered the first lawsuit filed by an individual against a media outlet aligned with Vietnam’s Communist Party Central Committee.
Huy won the lawsuit against Nhan Dan, which agreed to remove articles critical of him. The relative questioned whether this week’s incident with police was related to the lawsuit.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Abduction/Kidnapping, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 25, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 8, 2023
- Event Description
Ms. Tran Phuong Thao is the spouse of the aforementioned environmental human rights defender, and a woman human rights defender in her own right. Since her husband was arrested in June of 2021, she has been a steadfast advocate for the release of Mr. Dang Dinh Bach and has engaged with UN human rights mechanisms in pursuit of this. Furthermore, in her husband’s absence, Ms. Thao has also played a role in assuming some of work that her husband was engaged in before his incarceration. She has taken up the position of director of the LPSD Group Joint Stock Company, a private business that operates independently of LPSD. Ms. Tran Phuong has reportedly been subjected to administrative and judicial harassment. According to the information received: On 18 January 2023, Ms. Tran Phuong Thao received a phone call from a female civil servant who was contacting her on behalf of the General Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement of Hanoi city. She requested Ms. Tran Phuong Thao to pay them VND 1,381,093,134 ($58,237), a sum corresponding to the amount that her husband, Bach, is alleged to have evaded. The officer informed Ms. Thao that if the money was not repaid, then the department would confiscate property belonging to the family in compensation for this. The call from the officer is reported to have caused Ms. Thao a great deal of stress. In an effort to pay back the amount demanded of her, Ms. Thao contacted her husband’s family, to ask him to help her to sell the family car so that she could repay the money. On 7 March 2023, however, Ms. Thao was subsequently contacted by the same person from the Department of Civil Justice Enforcement informing her of the department’s intention to repossess the family car in question, as well as other property belonging to Mr. Bach’s family, to satisfy the sum that Mr. Bach allegedly owes. She also informed Ms. Thao that she was aware Ms. Thao had tried to receive help in selling her husband’s car, although this was private information not publicly known. Furthermore, when Ms. Thao visited Mr. Bach in prison on 17 March 2023, Mr. Bach told her that an officer from the same department had visited him in prison and had informed him that his bank account had been seized. Additionally, on 8 February 2023, Ms. Thao was once again reportedly subjected to administrative harassment. On this occasion, the Dong Da District Tax Department sent a letter to the Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center (LPSD) Group Joint Stock Company, of which Ms. Thao is now the director, alleging that Mr. Bach had incorrectly declared his personal income tax for the year of 2020. As a penalty for this reported breach in protocol, Ms. Thao was instructed to pay a fine on behalf of the company, amounting to VND 25,000,000 ($1,054). The woman human rights defender was also summoned to report to the tax office. Over the two weeks that followed this incident, another officer from the district tax department called Ms. Thao many times, threatening to refer the matter to the police if the instructions of the letter were not adhered to. Following this, on 10 March 2023, Ms. Thao received another letter which again summoned her to appear before the tax department, Thao complied with this and attended the department on 13 March 2023 where, upon her arrival, she submitted a written response in person. In this letter, she explained that Mr. Bach was unable to pay the fine, owing to the fact that he is still in prison, on account of which his bank accounts have been frozen. She expressed that, should the department wish to pursue this further, they should contact her husband to discuss the matter with him instead, stressing that she was not involved in the tax declarations for the year in question. Ms. Thao has otherwise remarked that, since her husband’s arrest, she has been left unable to manage certain financial matters in relation to their home.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Reprisal as Result of Communication
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to property
- HRD
- Family of HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: environmental lawyer sentenced over alleged tax evasion (Udpate), Vietnam: spouse of HRD-turned WHRD faces administrative harassment
- Date added
- Aug 23, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 18, 2023
- Event Description
Ms. Tran Phuong Thao is the spouse of the aforementioned environmental human rights defender, and a woman human rights defender in her own right. Since her husband was arrested in June of 2021, she has been a steadfast advocate for the release of Mr. Dang Dinh Bach and has engaged with UN human rights mechanisms in pursuit of this. Furthermore, in her husband’s absence, Ms. Thao has also played a role in assuming some of work that her husband was engaged in before his incarceration. She has taken up the position of director of the LPSD Group Joint Stock Company, a private business that operates independently of LPSD. Ms. Tran Phuong has reportedly been subjected to administrative and judicial harassment. According to the information received: On 18 January 2023, Ms. Tran Phuong Thao received a phone call from a female civil servant who was contacting her on behalf of the General Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement of Hanoi city. She requested Ms. Tran Phuong Thao to pay them VND 1,381,093,134 ($58,237), a sum corresponding to the amount that her husband, Bach, is alleged to have evaded. The officer informed Ms. Thao that if the money was not repaid, then the department would confiscate property belonging to the family in compensation for this. The call from the officer is reported to have caused Ms. Thao a great deal of stress. In an effort to pay back the amount demanded of her, Ms. Thao contacted her husband’s family, to ask him to help her to sell the family car so that she could repay the money. On 7 March 2023, however, Ms. Thao was subsequently contacted by the same person from the Department of Civil Justice Enforcement informing her of the department’s intention to repossess the family car in question, as well as other property belonging to Mr. Bach’s family, to satisfy the sum that Mr. Bach allegedly owes. She also informed Ms. Thao that she was aware Ms. Thao had tried to receive help in selling her husband’s car, although this was private information not publicly known. Furthermore, when Ms. Thao visited Mr. Bach in prison on 17 March 2023, Mr. Bach told her that an officer from the same department had visited him in prison and had informed him that his bank account had been seized. Additionally, on 8 February 2023, Ms. Thao was once again reportedly subjected to administrative harassment. On this occasion, the Dong Da District Tax Department sent a letter to the Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center (LPSD) Group Joint Stock Company, of which Ms. Thao is now the director, alleging that Mr. Bach had incorrectly declared his personal income tax for the year of 2020. As a penalty for this reported breach in protocol, Ms. Thao was instructed to pay a fine on behalf of the company, amounting to VND 25,000,000 ($1,054). The woman human rights defender was also summoned to report to the tax office. Over the two weeks that followed this incident, another officer from the district tax department called Ms. Thao many times, threatening to refer the matter to the police if the instructions of the letter were not adhered to. Following this, on 10 March 2023, Ms. Thao received another letter which again summoned her to appear before the tax department, Thao complied with this and attended the department on 13 March 2023 where, upon her arrival, she submitted a written response in person. In this letter, she explained that Mr. Bach was unable to pay the fine, owing to the fact that he is still in prison, on account of which his bank accounts have been frozen. She expressed that, should the department wish to pursue this further, they should contact her husband to discuss the matter with him instead, stressing that she was not involved in the tax declarations for the year in question. Ms. Thao has otherwise remarked that, since her husband’s arrest, she has been left unable to manage certain financial matters in relation to their home.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats, Reprisal as Result of Communication
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to property
- HRD
- Family of HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 23, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 13, 2023
- Event Description
Phan Tat Thanh’s family told Project 88 that the police asked him and his brother to come to the police station on July 5 to sign paperwork regarding a traffic accident involving Thanh’s brother. When they arrived, however, both men were detained. Thanh’s brother was later released, but Thanh was kept there for a week against his will. Thanh then managed to escape. Afterwards, his brother and mother reported that they faced threats and intimidation from the police. Thanh was re-apprehended on July 13. On July 15, the police went to search his house without a warrant. His family was told verbally that he was being charged with disseminating “anti-state propaganda” but no warrant was presented.”
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: social media activist arrested by the police
- Date added
- Aug 13, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 5, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the state police, officially charged Duong Van Thai, a Vietnamese blogger who lived in exile in Thailand, with “distributing anti-State propaganda,” a purported violation of Article 117 in the Penal Code. According to an announcement letter dated July 5 that was sent to Duong Thi Lu, the mother of Thai, the police also extended the detention of the Vietnamese blogger until August 12. The letter said he was detained at MPS Detention Center B14 in Thanh Tri District, Hanoi City.
Lu said the police letter was delivered to her home on July 14, three months after state-sponsored agents allegedly kidnaped Thai.
Duong Van Thai, 41, owned a Youtube channel called “Thái Văn Đường” and specialized in reporting on infighting within the Vietnamese Communist Party. All videos and live streams published on the channel disappeared shortly after he went missing. Thai had been a political refugee in Thailand since early 2019 and was granted refugee status by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok in the same year.
On April 13, he was reported missing after leaving his home in Pathum Thani Province, Thailand. Three days later, on April 16, the Ha Tinh Provincial Police in Vietnam said they found a man named Duong Van Thai who “illegally crossed the border to enter Vietnam from Laos.” Vietnamese activists and those close to Thai believed he had been kidnapped by Vietnamese security agents in Bangkok and forcibly transported back to Vietnam.
The alleged abduction of Duong Van Thai worried Vietnamese dissidents and human rights activists living in Thailand, who feared that Vietnam’s security apparatus has become increasingly bold in its repression of foreign-based critics.
In a Facebook posting on July 20, attorney Dang Dinh Manh, a human rights lawyer in the United States, said that the Vietnamese police inadvertently admitted their operations to kidnap Duong Van Thai in their announcement of indicting him.
Manh wrote that according to Vietnam’s criminal procedure law, the limit for the first temporary detention is four months. This coincides with the unconfirmed information that Thai was kidnapped on April 13 in Thailand, while his temporary custody will conclude on August 12. The attorney believes that the Vietnamese police planned the abduction of the blogger in Thailand’s territory in advance.
Moreover, Manh added that the police security investigation agency officially charged Duong Van Thai with violating Article 117 of the Penal Code instead of punishing him for an illegal border crossing, which the Ha Tinh Police initially alleged.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 13, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 31, 2023
- Event Description
Three members of Vietnam’s Khmer Krom minority group who are suspected of distributing books about indigenous peoples’ rights were arrested on Monday in the Mekong Delta region, authorities told local media.
One of the three men was To Hoang Chuong of Tra Vinh province. Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese Service reported last month that he was beaten by local policemen in June while visiting a friend in neighboring Soc Trang province.
On June 25, the U.S.-based Union of Khmers Kampuchea Krom issued a statement condemning the Soc Trang Provincial Police for the “brutal and inhuman treatment” of Chuong.
The other two men arrested on Monday were Danh Minh Quang of Soc Trang province and Thach Cuong of Tra Vinh province.
Police in both provinces told local media that local residents reported that the men had been passing out copies of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states that indigenous peoples have the right to maintain and develop their political, economic and social systems or institutions.
The nearly 1.3-million strong Khmer Krom live in a part of Vietnam that was once southeastern Cambodia. They have faced serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly and movement.
The three men have been charged with “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the Penal Code, a statute used by Vietnamese authorities to silence those speaking out for human rights.
Homes surrounded
Additionally, Soc Trang provincial authorities arrested two other Khmer Krom activists on Monday and surrounded the home of another two activists, one of the activists told RFA’s Khmer Service.
The siege of the two homes was an attempt by plainclothes police to intimidate, Lim Vong told RFA Khmer.
“I appeal to the United Nations to help stop Vietnamese authorities from excessively abusing the rights of the Khmer Krom people. I have done nothing wrong in Vietnam,” he said.
“I only distributed the United Nations’ textbooks about human rights and the rights to self-determination,” he told RFA. “I neither demand back the territory of Kampuchea Krom nor demand the separation of the Khmer Krom from Vietnam.”
Some activists have also been harassed recently by police for wearing T-shirts that show the Khmer Kampuchea Krom flag, according to Son Chumchoun, secretary general of the Phnom Penh-based Khmer Kampuchea Krom Association for Human Rights and Development.
The Vietnamese government has banned its human rights publications and has tightly controlled the practice of Theravada Buddhism by the group, which sees the religion as a foundation of their distinct culture and ethnic identity.
Last year, seven special U.N. rapporteurs sent a 16-page letter to Vietnam’s government about the country’s alleged failure to recognize the right to self-determination of the Khmer Krom.
- Impact of Event
- 7
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Indigenous peoples' rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 11, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 2, 2023
- Event Description
A former religious prisoner of conscience in Vietnam has been arrested on an anti-state charge related to his social media activity, just two years after his release from prison following a conviction for “disturbing public order,” local media reported.
Nguyen Hoang Nam, a member of a dissident Hoa Hao Buddhist Church in An Giang province, is accused of posting documents, images, videos and live broadcasts that oppose authorities and undermine the policy of religious and national unity, according to Vietnamese state media, which cited government investigators.
Nam is charged under Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code, a vaguely written set of rules that rights groups say is Hanoi’s favorite tool for silencing dissenting bloggers and journalists.
The church’s deputy chief secretary, Nguyen Ngoc Tan, told Radio Free Asia that he was shocked by the arrest.
“I don’t see those videos (against the government), but only videos of Hoang Nam doing social charity work.” he said, referring to Nam’s Facebook account.
Nam and his family cook free meals for poor people about twice a month, according to church member Vo Van Buu, who added that Nam also sometimes reposts articles on Facebook written by people who criticize the government.
Previous arrest
Nam was arrested in 2017 on the “disturbing public order” charge while traveling to the house of another church member to join in worship services, sources told RFA at the time. Nam was sentenced the following year to a four-year prison term and was released in 2021.
Vietnam’s government officially recognizes the Hoa Hao religion, which has some 2 million followers across the country, but imposes harsh controls on dissenting Hoa Hao groups – including the sect in An Giang – that do not follow the state-sanctioned branch.
Rights groups say that An Giang authorities routinely harass followers of the unapproved groups, prohibiting public readings of the Hoa Hao founder’s writings and discouraging worshipers from visiting Hoa Hao pagodas in An Giang and other provinces.
Online newspaper Vietnam Plus reported on Friday that An Giang police coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security’s Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control in arresting Nam in Chau Doc city on July 24.
Authorities searched his home and seized seven mobile phones, two USB sticks, a laptop, 307 pages of documents and 10 videos allegedly containing “propaganda against the Party and the state,” Vietnam Plus reported.
The arrest is another attack by the Vietnamese government on freedom of speech, as well as freedom of religion and belief, according to Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
“By arresting Nguyen Hoang Nam, the government shows how it is doubling down on its campaign to silence outspoken advocates of religious freedom,” he told RFA in an email. “The previous accusations and prosecution of Nguyen Hoang Nam are bogus, and so is this latest arrest.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 11, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 18, 2023
- Event Description
Thong Nhat district court, Dong Nai province, sentenced Mr Vuong to 5 years jail in a hearing on 18 April 2023, for abuse democratic freedoms.
He had no legal representation, his family was not notified of the hearing.
He was arrested on 3 Jan 2023. One day after, Thong Nhat district police gave his family a document titled 'Notification about the temporary detention' of Mr Vuong, stating he would be detained for 2 months, but didn't provide the reason.
'That was the only document our family received from local authorities about Vuong's situation', one of Mr Vuong's relatives told RFA Viet 7 Aug, on condition of anonymity.
'At beginning of May [2023], police at temporary detention centre B5, Dong Nai province, rang our family and informed that Vuong was jailed there, and we could visit him,' this relative said.
When they visited him, Mr Vuong told them he had been sentenced to 5 years jail for abuse democratic freedoms in a hearing without legal representation on 18 April.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 11, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 31, 2023
- Event Description
Facebooker Le Xuan Dieu for two consecutive days was beaten and interrogated by Ho Chi Minh City police for articles criticizing the regime on his personal page.
A relative of Mr. Dieu said that officers from the Security Investigation Agency - Ho Chi Minh City Police are investigating him about two Facebook accounts, Dieu Le and Deo Lu, which are believed to be his.
This person told Radio Free Asia (RFA) on the morning of August 2 on condition of anonymity for security reasons:
Mr. Dieu was taken to the headquarters of the City's Investigation Security Agency on the morning of July 31 by the police after refusing to go to the police station after being summoned three times to work on social media posts. Facebook association.
Four policemen burst into the house and escorted him away without a warrant. The police did not search his house ."
This person said that on the first day, Mr. Dieu was kept at the police station all day and was only able to return home late in the evening, with a dilapidated body and many bruises on his face. The results of medical examination and radiograph showed that he had multiple soft tissue injuries and fractured rib number 4.
During the interrogation of Facebook posts on July 31, Dieu was beaten every 30 minutes by 7-8 policemen, relatives said.
Mr. Dieu, 46, was forced to go to the police station in the morning and afternoon of August 1 to work with the same content, but he was no longer beaten as on the first day.
He was only allowed to return home late in the afternoon, the police did not make any further appointments. Now his phone, social media accounts, and even his bank account have been controlled by security.
Relatives said that now Mr. Dieu was in pain all over his body and had to stay at home to recuperate.
The reporter called Mr. Dieu directly to ask about the case, but he refused to answer the interview because he was very tired after working with the police for two days.
The reporter also called the hotline of the Ho Chi Minh City Police to ask about this case, but the person on the phone refused to provide information, asking the reporter to come to the agency to work with the staff or the leadership of the city police.
Mr. Dieu is one of the active dissidents in Ho Chi Minh City and Vietnam. He used to participate in a number of protests against China's infringement on Vietnam's sovereignty over sea and islands in the East Sea.
On Facebook Dieu Le and Deo Lu have many posts criticizing the regime on issues such as human rights violations, systemic corruption, economic mismanagement, ubiquitous environmental pollution, and sovereignty. Many leaders including Ho Chi Minh, the founder of the regime, were also alluded to in many articles.
In recent times, Vietnamese security forces have stepped up online repression. Two activists Phan Tat Thanh and Duong Tuan Ngoc were recently arrested and prosecuted for "conducting propaganda against the state" after many days of being interrogated by the police. Mr. Thanh is said to be the former admin of the Diary of Patriotism and Mr. Ngoc has many articles and videos criticizing the regime and leader Ho Chi Minh on Facebook and Youtube.
On July 31, three Khmer activists, Danh Minh Quang in Soc Trang and Thach Cuong and To Hoang Chuong in Tra Vinh were arrested for allegedly "abusing democratic freedoms" for their rights-claiming activities. local person.
Since the beginning of this year, at least 12 people have been arrested and prosecuted and seven have been sentenced to between five and eight years in prison for either of these crimes, according to RFA statistics.
Many activists in Hanoi told RFA that they were called by city security to work and asked not to write or share articles with "sensitive" content or participate in civic activities, including peaceful protest.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Surveillance , Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to privacy
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 10, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 20, 2023
- Event Description
Officer of Prison No. 6 (Thanh Chuong, Nghe An) confiscated the belongings of prisoner of conscience (TNLT) Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, he suspected that he was persecuted for speaking out for justice for himself.
Mr. Thuc, a businessman and information technology engineer is serving the 14th year of a 16-year prison sentence for "activities aimed at overthrowing the government," having his personal medical equipment confiscated by prison guards. after he wrote a response to the Supreme People's Court on Document No. 253 of the same agency .
In this document, the Supreme People's Court affirmed that Mr. Thuc was convicted under Clause 1 of Article 79 of the Criminal Code 1999 "in the case of completed crime, not in the case of preparation to commit a crime under Clause 3 of Article 109. 2015 Penal Code."
Therefore, he is not subject to favorable terms as prescribed in Resolution No. 41 of 2017 of the National Assembly to consider exempting the remaining penalty.
Tran Huynh Duy Tan said his family received information from his brother in an unusual call on July 30. He told Radio Free Asia (RFA) about his brother's recent situation in prison.
" Last July 20, the prison (supervisor) they entered his cell and they took all the things that are very necessary for his daily life such as reading lights, blood pressure monitors, glucose meters . blood vessels, and battery-operated fans .
Those are the things that he desperately needs in the weather (as hot as today-PV) as well as a health check in his current condition i. They asked me to go check it out but I haven't returned it for a whole week . "
According to Mr. Thuc narrated to his family, on July 22, people from the Security Department entered the cell to check all remaining personal belongings. He attributed this to his response to Document 253, and asserted that " this is certainly retaliation for him fighting for that sentence."
The prison also did not allow Mr. Thuc to continue sending letters home as usual.
Reporters on July 31 called Prison No. 6 to verify the information provided by Mr. Thuc's family, but no one answered the phone.
According to the family of this famous prisoner of conscience, he will refuse to visit his family from next month to protest the actions of the warden and prison guards of Detention Center No. Foreign diplomatic missions in Vietnam knew about his discrimination, and he also wanted to meet with the international diplomatic representative to talk about his case.
If not, he will deny the right to call home, the family said. Mr. Thuc also stated that he did not wear the prison uniform provided by the prison, according to the regulations that prisoners would have to wear every time they met their relatives.
Thuc is one of many prisoners of conscience who have attracted the attention of many Western national governments and international human rights organizations since his arrest in 2009.
He went on hunger strike several times in the prison to protest his inhuman treatment and demand his release.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to property
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 10, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 5, 2023
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City have arrested activist Phan Tat Thanh, accusing him for criticizing the government’s response to “Chinese aggression” in the South China Sea, his father told Radio Free Asia.
Thanh, 37, also known as “Black Aaron,” often posted online about the contentious area in the sea where Hanoi, Beijing and others have competing territorial claims.
Netizens told Thanh’s father, who requested anonymity for security reasons, that Thanh had gone missing on July 5.
The police issued a prosecution document on July 13, and on July 15 they searched his home and copied data from his computer.
In 2010, Thanh staged a protest in front of China’s Embassy in Bangkok because anti-China demonstrations in Vietnam by that time were being suppressed.
In addition to anti-China posts, Thanh had written posts and comments about human rights violations, environmental pollution, systematic corruption, and issues of major concern in Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 9, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 26, 2023
- Event Description
A court in Hanoi on July 26 held a trial for Nguyen Son Lo, former director of the Institute of Technology Research and Development (SENA), sentencing him to five years in prison on the combined charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 and “abusing authoritative position and power while on official duty” under Article 356. Vietnam’s state media released the news on the same day of his arrest.
Lo, 75, who ran the independent think tank SENA, received three years of imprisonment for allegedly violating Article 331 and another two years under Article 356. He was arrested on February 2 this year, six months after the police investigation agency charged him under Article 331.
State media reported that SENA was formerly named the Institute of Engineering Research and Urban Development under the management of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA). Lo has been the director of this think tank since it was first established in 1992.
According to state media, the Vietnam People’s Procuracy accused the SENA director of having distributed five documents, consisting of more than 1,000 pages, and three complaints containing content that “infringes upon the interests of the state and the legitimate rights of other organizations and individuals.” Lo is alleged to have composed the documents, designed their cover pages, and then emailed them to the staff of SENA to be printed and sent by post to 529 people. The court did not declare the content of these documents.
The judging panel also announced that the SENA Institute had rented a state-owned building for its headquarters. But since 2005, the Institute has allegedly not paid the rent and not declared the usage of this facility to the government. The panel deemed Lo’s rental of this building illegal. It alleged that the rent “violated the administrative management regulation on housing and land, thus obstructing the state’s right to manage, arrange, and lease this facility.” Nguyen Son Lo’s purported illegal rental of this building led to the alleged violation of the law on “abusing authoritative position and power while on official duty.”
It was reported that in the court, Lo admitted to the alleged activities but said that he did not consider it a violation of the law. Other employees of the SENA Institute were not prosecuted because they “did not know that the documents assigned to them contained illegal content,” according to the investigation agency.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Academic
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 9, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 13, 2023
- Event Description
Police of Ba Ria - Vung Tau province requested TMV Thich Vinh Phuoc, abbot of Phuoc Buu temple (Phuoc Thuan village, Xuyen Moc district), not to post articles critical of local authorities and other social issues on Facebook.
The request was given to the abbot in a working session on 13 July at the district police office. Three times the police issued their invitation to the abbot to turn up for working sessions with them, 'about saying things that show sign of violating the law on cyberspace'.
TMV Thich Vinh Phuoc, of the independent Unified Buddhist Church, told RFA Viet on 14 July:
'In the working session, [the police of Ba Ria Vung Tau province and Xuyen Moc district] gave me a document which looks like a written pledge that they wanted me to [agree to], that from now on, I won't write articles and post them on Facebook to criticise this and that. They said I must use my time for religious worshipping, I shouldn't speak up on social issues that affect the nation...'
As a member of Vietnam Interfaith Council - which advocates for religious freedom, TMV Thich Vinh Phuoc said he refused the police request and will continue to exercise his freedom of expression on social media.
'I have the rights as a citizen, I have the right to express by views on absolutely anything, writing of Facebook is my human right.' He said.
He said, like Thien Quang pagoda, Phuoc Buu Temple has also been subject to authorities' harassment, the temple has not been allowed to build a number of construction for worshipping purposes.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
Case shared via email with FORUM-ASIA.
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 21, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 10, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities have detained a former health teacher Duong Tuan Ngoc for posts he made on social media about education, health, and social issues that criticized the government, police reports and family members said.
Ngoc, 38, was once a nutrition teacher in the southern province of Lam Dong. The Lam Dong police summoned him on July 10, and he was detained the next day, his wife Bui Thanh Diem Ngoc, told Radio Free Asia’s Vietnamese Service.
The police said the detention is for an investigation on charges of anti-state propaganda in connection with videos he posted to Facebook and YouTube.
The exact law he is charged with violating is the vaguely written Article 117, which Amnesty International has described as being “commonly used to suppress legitimate dissent in Vietnam” and “a favored tool of the authorities to arbitrarily imprison journalists, bloggers and others who express views that do not align with the interests of the Communist Party of Vietnam.”
So far this year, at least six other activists, independent journalists and Facebook users have been arrested under Article 117 with prison terms ranging from five years and six months to eight years in prison, according to RFA statistics.
Mrs. Ngoc said her husband was called in on July 10 when police received an anonymous accusation that Mr. Ngoc was selling drug-related products on his Facebook account. At the police station, Mr. Ngoc was asked to admit that an offending account belonged to him.
“He said that he did not do anything wrong,” Mrs. Ngoc said. “The next day, we were asked to appear at the police station again without any stated reason.”
On their second visit, the husband and wife were put in separate rooms for interrogation. Later that night, police searched their house and confiscated phones, laptops, computers and cameras.
Mrs. Ngoc said that she was allowed to keep three of her own phones, and was let go after two days of interrogation, during which she was asked if she had helped her husband edit his online posts.
She has not seen her husband since the 11th, nor has she been allowed to send him clothes or anything else he might need. On Sunday, she received the written police notice of her husband’s emergency detention.
Long list of accusations
Signed by Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thai Thanh on July 15, the notice accused Ngoc of a litany of alleged crimes, including attacking socialism, distorting history, denying revolutionary achievements, slandering the socialist regime, defaming national founder Ho Chi Minh and infringing upon the lawful rights and interests of the state – all in violation of Article 117.
However, the police did not specify which social media posts or videos broke the law, she said.
RFA attempted to contact the Lam Dong police for an explanation, but the person who answered the phone said responses to inquiries could only be given in person.
Mr. Ngoc’s most recent Facebook post, on July 10, praised a lifestyle close to nature in Vietnam’s countryside. His personal page has more than 45,000 followers and has an introductory description declaring, “I have rights as a citizen. You have rights as citizens. Citizens are the rightful owners of the country.”
His YouTube account “Freelance Education” was established in July 2019, and he has around 34,000 followers and hundreds of videos about health, medicine, and life in the countryside.
Ngoc’s wife said that the couple had previously lived in Ho Chi Minh City, southern Vietnam’s economic hub, but they recently moved to Lam Ha in March 2022.
They both graduated from Ho Chi Minh University of Economics and hold master’s degrees.
Mr. Ngoc taught college students online. He has made more than 684 videos and posted thousands of articles on medicine, health, education, economy, and many other social issues.
Prior to Mr. Ngoc’s detention, the couple sold a variety of organic and medicinal agricultural products. Since moving to Lam Ha, they have focused on gardening and producing organic goods, and selling them on social media.
Authorities targeted Mr. Ngoc because he was a champion of raising awareness of human values, an activist from Ho Chi Minh City told RFA on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
“The teacher aims at human values, truth and liberal education in the clips he makes,” the activist said. “I feel that he only wants to contribute to the community with a correct view about the country's situation. Besides that, I don't see any sense in the charges they put in the detention notice.”
The activist said that in Ngoc’s videos, he never mentioned any specific part of the government or any named person, so the charges don’t make sense.
Le Quoc Quan, a former prisoner of conscience-turned-lawyer, told RFA that she has been following Ngoc’s videos for a long time.
“I am very impressed and have sympathy for Mr. Duong Tuan Ngoc because I think his presentations on social issues are very interesting, humorous, and very true,” she said. “After all, I find that Duong Tuan Ngoc is a talented person, and what he reflects is true and humorous. He deserves to be applauded instead of being arrested.”
Quan said what Ngoc said was true, even if it was sometimes sarcastic and humorous.
She described application of Article 117 as “a net dredging up everything so that anyone can be attributed with slander or libel.”
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 21, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 7, 2023
- Event Description
An online news site operated by a Vietnamese NGO will be suspended for three months as of Friday in accordance with a government decision as the publication focuses on “overcoming and thoroughly correcting shortcomings” to implement a government press directive.
The Ministry of Information and Communications concluded in an inspection report that Zing News, also known as Zing News Online Knowledge magazine, had to stop its online service, though the publication did not cite a specific reason in a notice to its readers on Thursday.
The site, which covers economic, culture and political news in Vietnam, is run by the Vietnam Publishing Association, an entity that does not receive funding from the government or the Vietnamese Communist Party, but still must obey its orders.
Zing’s announcement said it would focus on implementing a prime ministerial decision issued on April 3, 2019, for a master plan on press development and management nationwide through 2025.
The government’s plan states that “the press is a means of information, a tool for propaganda, and a weapon” that is “important ideological fuel” for the party and the state. It also calls for continuous efforts to complete legislation for the government’s management and organization of the media and to eliminate the “overlapping situation” by reducing the number of newspapers.
Though Zing did not state what the shortcomings are, it said it would continue to innovate content to ensure the implementation of the principles and purposes specified in its license and to promote an identity of “prestige information, impressive images” that better serves readers.
Vietnam ranks near the bottom of Reporters Without Borders’ 2023 Press Freedom Index – 178 out of 180 nations – for quashing dissent, controlling the public’s access to social media and prosecuting journalists on contentious charges, such as “distributing anti-state propaganda” and “abusing democratic freedoms.”
As of May 2022, Vietnam had 815 news outlets, including 138 newspapers and 677 magazines, of which 29 operate only in electronic format, according to the Ministry of Information and Communications.
To implement the government’s plan, the online Tri Tri online newspaper (Zing.vn) of the Vietnam Publishing Association converted to an e-magazine model on April 1, 2020.
In 2022, the government suspended publication of two other websites for three months, Vietnam Law newspaper and the e-magazine Vietnam Business and Border Trade Journal.
The ministry determined that Vietnam Law Newspaper had 13 violations and was fined 325 million dong (US$13,720). The other publication, operated under the auspices of the Vietnam Association of Border Traders, was fined 70 million dong (US$2,960) for an administrative violation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Media freedom, Freedom of expression Online, Right to work
- HRD
- Media Worker, NGO
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 18, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 7, 2023
- Event Description
A court in Hanoi on July 7 sentenced Phan Thi Huong Thuy, a lawyer who was a former member of the Hanoi Bar Association, to 12 months in prison on allegations of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of the State and individuals” under Article 331 of the Penal Code.
Thuy, 64, was prosecuted in September 2022 for allegedly publishing three articles on her social media that allegedly defamed Nguyen Van Chien, the former Chairman of the Hanoi Bar Association and former Vice President of the Vietnam Bar Federation. Thuy told RFA that the prosecution resulted from her earlier accusation that Chien did not have a university degree. Chien, a former Vietnam National Assembly member, considered it an insult.
However, Thuy again stated that she did not intend to insult Chien and that her purpose was to ensure that those elected to the Executive Board of the Hanoi Bar Association must meet the required criteria for a university degree. In October 2020, Chien sent an application to the Internal Political Security Department of the Ministry of Public Security, requesting that they investigate whether Thuy was the owner of the Facebook account “Huong Thuy Phan” where the defaming articles were published.
The authorities later determined that between September 15, 2020, and October 2, 2020, Thuy used the “Huong Thuy Phan” Facebook account to publish eight articles defaming Chien. In addition, Thuy was also ordered to compensate Nguyen Van Chien 9 million dong and pay a court fee of 200,000 dong. According to state media, the defendant, lawyer Phan Thi Huong Thuy, and the victim, lawyer Nguyen Van Chien, were absent during the trial.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 17, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 1, 2023
- Event Description
Vu Thi Kim Hoang, the wife of Nguyen Thai Hung, a Vietnamese Youtube user, will serve her two-and-a-half-year prison sentence starting on June 1. She was found guilty of "abusing democratic freedoms" under Article 331 of the Penal Code, according to her interview with VOA Vietnamese on May 30. Last November, a court in Dong Nai sentenced Hung, 53, to four years and Hoang, 45, to two and a half years in prison.
Nguyen Thai Hung owned a Youtube channel called “Nói bằng thực TV” (Telling by Truth Television), where he often live-streamed and hosted talk shows discussing social and economic issues in Vietnam. The channel was reportedly established in 2020, gaining nearly 40,000 subscribers. The couple was arrested in January 2021 under Article 331, although Hoang did not directly participate in the live streaming. She was later released on bail.
Hoang publicly announced on her personal Facebook page, Kim Vu, on May 30 that she would be sent to the Tan Phu Detention Center in Dong Nai Province on June 1. Hoang told VOA News that she would be transferred to the B5 Camp of Dong Nai Provincial Prison. “[I] always hope that Vietnam will have freedom of speech,” she added. “That's the priority my husband and I hope for.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Family of HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 17, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 3, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnam on Monday sentenced activist Phan Son Tung to six years in prison for advocating the formation of an opposition to the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, his lawyer told Radio Free Asia.
Tung, 39, was arrested in August 2022 on anti-state propaganda charges for calling for the formation of the Prosperous Vietnam Party, which would work toward eliminating inequality in political power by removing communist party leadership.
Also related to his charges were his demand for citizens to have the freedom to establish associations and political organizations, and his social media content, which authorities said was “anti-state.”
According to the indictment, Phan Son Tung created and managed three YouTube channels, namely “For a prosperous Vietnam,” Phan Son Tung and Son Tung TV, and a Facebook page under the name David Phan. He had posted around 1,000 video clips on these channels, generating more than 148 million views with 530,000 followers.
The indictment also accused him of creating and disseminating 16 video clips with fabricated and confusion-creating content, six of which contained information promoting psychological warfare. Another 17 pieces of content distorted, slandered or insulted the prestige of organizations or the honor and dignity of individuals.
The indictment also acknowledged that he had been remorseful, cooperative and sincere in his confessions, and had paid a fine of 27 million dong (US$1,149), the total revenue generated from advertising income and from selling merchandise emblazoned with the words “For a Prosperous Vietnam.”
‘Full of social evils’
According to a Facebook post by attorney Le Van Luan, Tung used to work on the Project Management Board of Vietel Real Estate Firm but then moved out to establish his own company.
It was then that he learned that Vietnam is a society “full of social evils,” and he began to advocate for a stronger Vietnam with a “clean government” that is free of corruption, with each person playing their role.
During Monday’s trial, which began at 8:30 a.m. and ended at noon, Tung acknowledged every action he was accused of. But he maintained that none of those were crimes, his lawyer Ngo Anh Tuan told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
"He reaffirmed that his acts were not unlawful and the defense lawyers also proved this,” Tuan said. “However, the prosecutors still stuck with their viewpoint.”
Tuan said he was expecting a shorter sentence because during the trial the prosecution did not demonstrate how his actions deserved a greater sentence. But because he had multiple violations, the judge decided to hand down the minimum sentence proposed by the prosecution, said Tuan.
Tung has become the sixth activist charged with “anti-state” propaganda under Article 117 since January 2023.
Amnesty International has described the law as a means to suppress legitimate dissent and “a favored tool of the authorities to arbitrarily imprison journalists, bloggers and others who express views that do not align with the interests of the communist party.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 16, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 15, 2023
- Event Description
Nguyen Lan Thang has chosen to not appeal his conviction for “anti-state propaganda” and has begun serving his five-year sentence, according to his wife. Le Bich Vuong went to visit her husband at the pre-trial detention center on June 15 only to learn that he had been transferred to Thanh Hoa Prison No. 5 earlier that morning. She said Thang decided not to appeal in order to “lessen the pressure on the family” and because “appeals never change the result but only lengthen the time he has to suffer the terrible conditions” at the detention center. Thang also told her that he viewed his prison term as “a long trip away from home about equal to the time he spent in college.”
His wife, Mrs Le Bich Vuong, told RFA Viet 20 June:
'On 15 June I went to Hoa Lo prison (temporary detention centre no. 1, Hanoi) as part of a regular timetable, to send in supplies for him, only then I was told he has been sent to prison 5 (Thanh Hoa province) that morning.'
The fact that he has been sent to prison to serve his 6 years sentence means he has waived his right to appeal. Mrs Vuong said her husband had explained to her his decision:
'First, to reduce the pressure that his family and people outside is subject to; second, appeals in [sensitive] cases like his don't change anything, while conditions in the temporary detention centre is appalling.'
Mrs Vuong added, as Mr Thang didn't plead guilty [for anti-state propaganda under sec 117], he had no hope his sentence will be reduced on appeal. So he accepts the punishment, seeing his imprisonment as a long journey or a new course of study, of similar duration as his past university course.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger indicted after investigation is completed (Update), Vietnam: blogger sentenced to 6 years on anti-state propaganda (Update)
- Date added
- Jul 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 28, 2023
- Event Description
The Investigative Police Agency of Ninh Thuan Province on June 28 arrested a social media user in Phan Rang - Thap Cham City and charged him with “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State” under Article 331 of the Penal Code, state-run media reported.
Le Thach Giang, 66, was accused by the police of setting up an account on a social network called Bọn cường quyền (The Despots) from August 2022 to host live streams and publish articles regarding coercion and confiscation of lands by local authorities. The police also claimed that Giang had called on local people to read websites containing “toxic content” and that he had shared unverified information to distort and defame the Communist Party.
Article 331 is a controversial legal provision in Vietnam’s Penal Code due to its vague and broad definitions. Multiple petitions have been filed to urge the Vietnamese government to abolish this law. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), Vietnam has arrested at least 10 people this year for their alleged violation of Article 331.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 13, 2023
- Event Description
Dung participated in protests in Hanoi, including demonstrations against China’s occupation of the Paracel Islands – an island group in the South China Sea also claimed by Vietnam – and protests against the Taiwan-owned Formosa Company for polluting the coastline of four central Vietnamese provinces in 2016.
Public protests even over perceived harm to Vietnam’s interests are considered threats to its political stability and are routinely suppressed by the police.
“Truong Van Dung has experienced years of government harassment and intimidation, including police interrogations, house arrest, a travel ban and physical assaults,” said Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson ahead of the appeal.
He accused Hanoi of “inexorably adding peaceful activists to the growing list of more than 150 Vietnamese political prisoners,” thereby violating human rights laws and betraying its duty to protect people’s rights as a member of the U.N. Human Rights Council.
“Every time the authorities throw an activist like Truong Van Dung behind bars, respect for human rights in Vietnam takes a hard knock,” Robertson said.
“Donors and international trade partners should be clear that if Vietnam wants growing trade and investment, its leaders need to recognize that people speaking their minds are part of the solution that strengthens, not weakens, the country.”
Truong Van Dung was arrested at the end of May 2022 and held incommunicado for nine months before his trial.
Amnesty International joined calls for Vietnamese authorities to drop all charges against him and spoke out against the country’s judicial system.
“The Vietnamese authorities are yet again misusing the criminal justice system to suppress dissent. Arrested for giving interviews to foreign media, Truong Van Dung should have never been put in prison in the first place,” Amnesty’s Deputy Regional Director of Campaigns Ming Yu Hah said.
Amnesty said Dung’s appeal came as Vietnam cracked down on a growing number of people whose views differ from that of the government, and against independent civil society organizations.
“The unfair charges and inhumane prison conditions [show] the Vietnamese authorities’ willingness to systematically silence dissent in direct violation of international human rights law,” Hah said, calling Vietnam’s ratification of the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment and its their seat on the UN Human Rights Council “no more than empty gestures.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Land rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: land rights defender sentenced to 6-years imprisonment under repressive law (Update)
- Date added
- Jul 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 23, 2023
- Event Description
The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation (KKF) vehemently condemns the brutal and inhumane treatment inflicted upon Khmer-Krom activist Mr. To Hoang Chuong by the police of Soc Trang province. This reprehensible incident took place on June 23, 2023, when Mr. Chuong and his fellow activists from Tra Vinh province visited Mr. Lam Vong, who had endured arrest, detention, and torture by the Soc Trang police before his release on June 20, following 33 hours of unjust captivity.
During their visit to Mr. Vong, they proceeded to meet with another Khmer-Krom activist, Mr. Danh Minh Quang. However, on their way to Mr. Quang's residence, their vehicle was forcefully halted by the police, who subsequently apprehended them and took them into custody at the local police station. Around 1 pm, Mr. To Hoang Chuong was explicitly targeted by the police, triggering a series of regrettable events.
Upon entering the interrogation room, Mr. To Hoang Chuong was immediately subjected to physical abuse. Without any provocation or questioning, one of the officers ruthlessly struck him with a direct blow to his forehead, resulting in significant swelling and excruciating pain. The subsequent interrogation involved multiple officers asking him various questions regarding his advocacy work. Each time Mr. Chuong maintained his innocence and asserted that the distribution of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was not a criminal act, he was met with further violence and menacing threats. He was forced to sign the confession to be released at 6:30 pm after five and half hours of facing interrogation and torture.
This incident starkly illustrates the flagrant use of torture and intimidation by the Vietnamese authorities against individuals advocating for the rights of the Khmer-Krom, the indigenous peoples of the Mekong Delta. Such actions unequivocally violate Vietnam's obligations under the UN Convention against Torture, a treaty that the country has ratified.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Torture, Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Indigenous peoples' rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 7, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 12, 2023
- Event Description
Three lawyers Nguyen Van Mien, Dao Kim Lan and Dang Dinh Manh defending the defendants in the Bong Lai Pure House case are being tracked by the Long An Provincial Public Security Bureau.
On the morning of June 12, the Investigation Police Agency of Long An Province Police said that this unit has just decided to search for three lawyers, Nguyen Van Mien (57 years old), Dao Kim Lan (56 years old), Dang Dinh Manh (Korea). 55 years old, same in HCMC). These three people participated in the defense of Mr. Le Tung Van and other defendants in the case that occurred in Tinh That Bong Lai.
According to the police of Long An province, based on the notice of the Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention (Ministry of Public Security), this unit has had 3 summons to deal with crime reports. but all 3 were absent, no reason for absence was announced.
The police of the ward where the lawyers live said that they were not present in the locality and had not yet determined their temporary residence.
Accordingly, three lawyers are suspected of spreading acts of dissemination on the internet through clips, images, words and articles showing signs of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the rights and interests of the State. legitimate interests of organizations and individuals.
According to the allegation, the group of people living in Tinh That Bong Lai was directed by Mr. Le Tung Van to post articles and clips on social networks Facebook and Youtube, containing false, fabricated and distorted information. This is to propagate and incite to offend the reputation of the Duc Hoa District Police, to offend Buddhism.
The evidence in the case is 5 clips that have been publicly posted on 2 Youtube channels created, managed and used by a group of people in Tinh That Bong Lai.
On November 3, 2022, the appellate court sentenced the defendants in Bong Lai Tinh That to the first-instance judgment. Accordingly, defendant Le Tung Van (90 years old), who played the role of mastermind, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. The remaining 5 defendants received 3-4 years in prison.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 19, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 3, 2023
- Event Description
A day ahead of his trial on Tuesday, the wife of a music lecturer arrested in early September on charges of "conducting anti-state propaganda” said he is innocent and called for his release.
Dang Dang Phuoc, 60, an instructor at Dak Lak Pedagogical College in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, often writes on Facebook about educational issues, human rights violations, corrupt officials and social injustice.
Police arrested him on Sept. 8 and charged him with "making, storing, spreading or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” He faces up to 12 years in prison.
His case has drawn international attention, including from Human Rights Watch, which also urged Vietnam’s government to release him Monday.
In a statement, the rights group slammed authorities for targeting those who highlight corruption in the Southeast Asian nation, despite claims that they are working to eradicate graft.
Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service, Phuoc’s wife Le Thi Ha said that her husband’s arrest had caused her family to lose its “primary pillar” and left them in a state of shock.
“In Vietnam, whomever [the authorities] arrest, when the arrests take place, and how many years in prison the arrestees are sentenced to ... all are in their hands,” she said. “However, to me, my husband is innocent. My wish is that my husband be released unconditionally.”
Anti-corruption advocate
During the past decade, Phuoc has campaigned against corruption and advocated for better protections for civil and political rights. He has signed several pro-democracy petitions and called for changes to Vietnam’s constitution, which grants the Communist Party a monopoly on power.
After Phuoc’s arrest, police summoned Ha for interrogation at least twice and threatened to have her fired if she shared information about his case on social media.
According to an indictment obtained by RFA, the Dak Lak Provincial Police’s Investigation Security Agency examined a recent recording of Phuoc’s and found it to “slander the government in order to reduce people's trust in management and administration of the government and the state.”
On Monday, Ha said that her family and close friends plan to attend his trial on Tuesday, but questioned whether the court will allow it.
“Although the authorities said the trial would be open to the public, there are many precedents in Vietnam that show that even family members were not allowed to attend trials for political dissidents and activists,” she said. “I don’t know how my husband’s trial will go.”
Home under surveillance
In the meantime, she said, police have kept a close watch on her household, sending plainclothes officers to document the activities of her family members over the weekend.
“Their people are still stationed at the road leading to my house,” she told RFA. “Being aware of many previous cases in which family members of prisoners of conscience received invitations but were still prevented from attending the related trials, I have left my home to increase the chance of being able to attend my husband’s trial.”
On Monday, Phuoc’s defense lawyers met with him and said that he has been “well-treated” in detention, describing him as “optimistic, positive, healthy, and showing no signs of depression or psychological crisis at all.”
“Of course he admitted to the act, but as for the crime, he said he was exercising his right to speak the truth,” lawyer Le Van Luan said. “For tomorrow, he prepared the content of his defense. Basically, the defense is strong, covering the entirety of his case.”
In a statement on Monday, Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia Director Phil Robertson echoed Ha’s call to set Phuoc free.
“The Vietnam government makes use of its abusive and overly broad laws to prosecute people who call for reforms,” said Robertson. “The authorities should immediately drop the charges against Dang Dang Phuoc and other activists who play a critical role in rooting out the malfeasance and corruption that the government claims to oppose.”
He slammed the government for its contempt for freedom of expression, noting that it is extended “even to activists who sing a few songs criticizing them.”
“The European Union, which concluded a free trade agreement with Vietnam containing human rights conditionality, and other trade partners, should call out the government for its unrelenting rights violations,” he said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 13, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 6, 2023
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam’s Dak Lak province has sentenced music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc to eight years in prison and four years of probation for allegedly "conducting anti-state propaganda,” his wife and one of his lawyers told RFA Tuesday.
The 60-year-old instructor at Dak Lak Pedagogical College in Vietnam’s Central Highland, frequently posted on Facebook about educational issues, human rights violations, corrupt officials and social injustice.
Police arrested him on Sept. 8 last year, and charged him with "making, storing, spreading or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” which carries a maximum 12-year prison term. Even though Phuoc didn’t receive the maximum sentence, lawyer Le Van Luan said the court should have been more lenient towards his client.
"With the circumstances of the case, that sentence is too heavy compared to what Mr. Phuoc did," he said.
Phuoc’s case has drawn international attention, including from Human Rights Watch, who's deputy Asia director Phil Robertson described the sentence as “outrageous and unacceptable.”
“What it reveals is the Vietnamese government’s total intolerance for ordinary citizens pointing out corruption, speaking out against injustice, and calling for accountability by local officials,” he said on hearing the verdict.
“Those were precisely the things that Dang Dang Phuoc did in Dak Lak, and now the government claims such whistle-blowing actions are propaganda against the state.”
During the past decade, Phuoc has campaigned against corruption and advocated for better protections for civil and political rights. He has signed several pro-democracy petitions and called for changes to Vietnam’s constitution, which grants the Communist Party a monopoly on power.
“This unjust prison sentence reveals General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s anti-corruption campaign is a sham game that is really more about holding on to power, and marginalizing political rivals, but does not care to address the Communist Party of Vietnam’s widespread malfeasance in its ranks,” said Robertson, comparing Trong with China’s authoritarian leader Xi Jinping.
Police kept a close watch on Phuoc’s wife, Le Thi Ha, ahead of the trial, warning her she would lose her job if she talked about the case on social media.
She was allowed to attend the trial, along with Phuoc’s four lawyers.
Ha told RFA her husband plans to appeal the verdict.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger arrested on catch-all charges
- Date added
- Jun 13, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 26, 2023
- Event Description
Last week, Facebook users observed that Save Tam Dao, a fan page, was missing from the platform for a period of two days. On May 28, 2023, the page reappeared, confirming that it had indeed been shut down during those two days. Its administrators do not know the reasons behind the sudden suspension.
Save Tam Dao is a fan page dedicated to an environmental protection organization in Vietnam. The page serves as a platform for sharing updates on the unlawful activities of large corporations that harm the country's natural resources. Unfortunately, the volunteers associated with this organization have been subjected to harassment and even physical abuse by unidentified individuals. Moreover, the fan page on social media, particularly Facebook, faces frequent instances of online abuse. Furthermore, it is sometimes deactivated without prior notice to its administrators.
Many unregistered civil society groups like Save Tam Dao routinely experience this treatment on Facebook.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Online Attack and Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom, Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Unknown
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Unknown
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 6, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 31, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnam has arrested well-known environmentalist Hoang Thi Minh Hong for tax evasion, a government official said Thursday in the latest example of the Vietnamese government’s routine use of financial charges to imprison green activists.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ deputy spokesperson Nguyen Duc Thang confirmed on Thursday to reporters that Hong, her husband, and two staff members were arrested the day before.
Hoang Thi Minh Hong is known for her activities in the fight against climate change, including bringing the Earth Hour initiative from Australia to Vietnam.
She is also famous for being the first Vietnamese woman to set foot in Antarctica in 1997, and in 2019, she was listed by Forbes magazine as one of the 50 most influential women in Vietnam.
Hong is the founder and executive director of CHANGE – a non-profit organization with the mission of inspiring the community and raising environmental awareness with the aim of protecting nature and wild animals, combating climate change, and promoting sustainable development.
Based on her activism, climateheroes.org included her in their 2015 “Climate Heroes” list. Four years later, in 2019, she was voted among the Top 5 Ambassadors of Inspiration at the 2019 WeChoice Awards and was named the Green Warrior of the Year at the Elle Style Awards.
Hoang Thi Minh Hong is the fifth activist in Vietnam to have been arrested on the charge of tax evasion.
International organizations and foreign governments have criticized Vietnam for targeting and detaining environmental activists and urged the Southeast Asian nation to release those who had been arrested on tax evasion charges.
Hong’s arrest came a week after a U.N. working group of independent human rights experts called on Vietnam to immediately release a detained climate activist serving a five-year prison term for tax evasion, saying he had been arrested arbitrarily and tried unfairly.
Lawyer and environmentalist Dang Dinh Bach, 44, who had campaigned to reduce Vietnam’s reliance on coal was arrested June 2021 and then sentenced to five years in jail.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Family of HRD, NGO staff, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 2, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 18, 2023
- Event Description
On May 18, police in Phu Yen Province arrested Nay Y Blang for “abusing democratic freedoms.” Blang, an ethnic minority Protestant from Ea Lam village, met with a representative from the U.S. Consulate in August last year. The following month, he was scheduled to meet a group of U.S. State Department officials in charge of religious issues. According to RFA, the meeting never took place because Blang was detained by police at a bus station in Tuy Hoa Province. From then until the time of his arrest, Blang and his family have been continually harassed by local police, who accused him of spreading falsehoods about religious repression.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Reprisal as Result of Communication
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Freedom of Religion and Belief, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 30, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 25, 2023
- Event Description
A court in the central Vietnamese city of Danang sentenced activist Bui Tuan Lam – known as “Onion Bae” – to five years and six months in prison Thursday, along with four years of probation, one of his lawyers Le Dinh Viet told RFA.
He was convicted of propaganda under Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code, which carries a minimum sentence of five years and a maximum of 12, after being found guilty of criticizing the government online.
Bui, 39, who ran a beef noodle stall in Danang, achieved notoriety in 2021 after posting an online video mimicking the Turkish chef Nusret Gökçe, known as “Salt Bae.”
The video was widely seen as a mockery of Vietnam’s minister of public security, To Lam, who was caught on film being hand-fed one of Salt Bae’s gold-encrusted steaks by the chef at his London restaurant at a cost of 1,450 pounds (U.S.$1,790).
The minister was in the U.K. as part of a Vietnamese government delegation which attended the COP26 climate change conference in Scotland.
Critics wondered how the official could afford the extravagant meal on a monthly salary of $660.
In Bui’s video clip, he calls himself “Onion Bae” and dramatically sprinkles spring onions into a bowl of soup, mimicking the signature move of the celebrity chef.
Bui was later summoned by Danang police for questioning and arrested and charged in September 2022.
Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code criminalizes “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” It is frequently used by authorities to restrict freedom of expression and opinions deemed critical of the government.
According to Danang People’s Procuracy’s indictment, Bui posted 19 articles on his Facebook account and 25 videos and articles on his YouTube account from April 17, 2020, to July 26, 2022. The articles and videos included content that it claimed were “distorting, defaming people’s government” and “fabricating and causing confusion among people.”
“The Vietnamese authorities deem just about anything as ‘propaganda against the state’ to crack down on activists and dissidents,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch ahead of the verdict.
“The Vietnamese government should abolish rights-abusing article 117 of the penal code and stop prosecuting Bui Tuan Lam and others for criticizing the Vietnamese Communist Party.”
Bui is a seasoned activist, spending many years speaking out against China’s territorial claims in parts of the South China Sea claimed by Vietnam and also campaigning to protect the environment. He received threats from the Danang police after providing food to local people during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
After his “Onion Bae” video went viral the police ordered him to close his noodle stall, which he did for a short while ahead of his arrest.
“The authorities have hounded him for his posts and videos, showing the length that Vietnamese authorities can go to deny people the enjoyment of their right to freedom of expression, no matter how benign, satirical or light-hearted,” said Amnesty International Interim Deputy Regional Director for Research Montse Ferrer before the verdict was handed down.
“Satire is not a crime,” she added.
Authorities prevented Bui Tuan Lam’s lawyers from meeting with him ahead of the trial, claiming last month that he refused representation. After his wife Le Than Lam demanded to meet with Bui to find out the truth the People’s Procuracy of Danang issued a notice allowing lawyers to represent him.
The court approved Le Dinh Viet’s registration to be Bui Tuan Lam’s lawyer for the trial. But when Viet went to Danang Police’s detention facility where Bui Tuan Lam was being held, he said staff didn’t allow him to see his client, claiming the judge hadn’t had time to review the investigation report.
Lawyers Le Dinh Viet and Ngo Anh Tuan were allowed to represent Bui in court on Thursday but the latter was removed from the court after requesting a fair debate between defense lawyers and prosecutors, Le Dinh Viet told RFA.
“Today's trial I feel is similar to the political cases that I have been involved in. Law enforcement itself was not sufficiently exercised during the hearing of the case,” he said, criticizing the so-called “expert conclusions” given by members of Danang’s Department of Information and Communication during Thursday’s trial.
“Those assessment conclusions have many violations, including violations of expertise authority, violations of the roles of experts, even some which violate the basic principles of the law on judicial expertise."
"In my opinion, given the circumstances and developments of today's trial, the issuance of the judgment does not guarantee the objectivity nor guarantee the legal rights of defendant Bui Tuan Lam."
Bui pleaded “not guilty” plea, saying he exercised the right to freedom of expression. His lawyers said he would appeal the verdict.
Bui’s wife and family were not allowed to attend the trial. Le Dinh Viet said they had been detained by the police.
Mrs Le Thanh Lam's account of what happened to her post trial, Vietnam Times 28 May https://vietnamthoibao.org/vntb-phien-toa-xu-bui-tuan-lam-qua-kinh-khung/
Mr Lam was sentenced to 5 years 6 months jail, plus 4 years probation for anti-state propaganda. Many believe this was Police Minister To Lam's revenge on him, for his video post imitating celebrated chef Salt Bae, who was filmed feeding Mr To Lam a piece of gold-encrusted steak.
Mr Tuan Lam's trial ended at around 12pm 25 May. His wife, Le Thanh Lam, told BBC Viet 26 May, what happened after:
After the sentencing, two prison vans arrived to transport Mr Lam. Mrs Lam and her family were not allowed to attend the trial. After waiting for over 5 hours outside, family members ran after the vans, hoping to see Mr Lam.
We cried 'Bui Tuan Lam is innocent'. Right after that, a policeman kept me in a neck hold. Many members of the police also lunged at me, brutally dragged me away like a pig, manhandled me, pushed me into their vehicle. [Photo showed Mrs Lam's large scrapes on both knees.]
I saw by two brothers-in-law being repeatedly bashed amidst the cry of a ward police: 'Bash these two louts, till they die!'
I asked them, why they treated me that way. A policeman said, 'I did it! So what!' My two brothers-in-law were also taken away forcefully to Hoa Cuong Bac, Hai Chau area. They were released at around 2pm, but I was still detained.
The police forced her to hand over her mobile phone and signed a document acknowledging having to pay a fine, for taking photos at the court precinct.
During her detention, nasty insults and sinister statements about her husband and her children were thrown at her.
I told them, my phone is my private possession which must not be violated. At that, many more police rushed into the room to intimidate me and behave forcefully against me. Some who had monitored my family since the morning, now saying they were ordinary citizens who witnessed I had filmed and taken photos of the court precinct.
A policeman swore to no one in particular: 'Not sticking to selling noodles to feed the kids, doing silly things instead.' I asked him: 'You're talking about whom?' He pointed his index finger at me: 'I talked about you, silly cow.' More policemen came into the room. One insulted me: 'Silly cow, don't you have any shame... You think you are something special... What a disgrace...'
Another one threatened me: 'You and your kids, just wait to see if you will be able to live in peace.'
A group of men threatened a mother with 3 young kids. They must be very proud of themselves???
The policewomen body searched me, including private and sensitive areas, to check for recording and electronic devices. They checked everything in my possession, including my lipstick, my cards...
At that time, I realised I was no longer considered a human being, I couldn't believe what was happening to me.
I have never been insulted and physically violated in such an immoral way. Not having my password, they wetted my phone.
The family's hope to at least see Mr Lam's face was destroyed.
They didn't spare even a tiny space so we could see his face, in a trial that was supposed to be open.
What made them feel so afraid of a patriotic man in white T-shirt, wearing a rosary around his neck?
State media reported on Mr Lam's trial using his old photos. Photos inside and outside the court on the day of the trial 25 May were totally absent.
--
Defence lawyer Mr Ngo Anh Tuan evicted from court room
Lawyers Messrs Ngo Anh Tuan and Le Dinh Viet represented Mr Lam. During the trial, Mr Tuan asked the prosecutor side to clarify their points of argument. A judge - who was not the chief judge - told him not to repeat what he had previously said.
Mr Tuan told him, according to the law, he could continue to present his argument. However this judge ordered him to leave the court chamber, even though he didn't raise his voice or behave in an aggressive manner.
Nevertheless, he agreed to leave the court room, 'not wanting to make the court's atmosphere any heavier'.
Mr Tuan then went to a room in the court building to sit down. Here, a group of people who didn't introduce their names came to work with him.
'They filmed and prepared a report not reflecting what really happened. Without my colleague Le Dinh Viet as my witness, I won't have any chance to prove my innocence... I have participated in many political cases, but I had never been evicted from the court room in such an unjust and absurd way like today.
'It seems for some people, they can do whatever they like with political prisoners, same with their lawyers... The idea that [political prisoners are a sub-class] led them to behave outside their authority.'
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment, Vilification, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to protect reputation
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: pro-democracy defender denied meeting with his lawyer (Update), Vietnam: pro-democracy defender, his brothers arrested after house raid
- Date added
- May 25, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 28, 2023
- Event Description
In a letter, Tran Phuong Thao provides an update on her husband Dang Dinh Bach‘s conditions in prison and the ongoing harassment of their family, including forcible seizure of their assets and potentially their home. Bach is currently on a partial hunger strike to protest his unjust imprisonment and has vowed to begin a full hunger strike to the death starting on June 24, the second anniversary of his arrest. An NGO leader and climate activist, Bach is currently serving five years in prison on charges of tax evasion, which we have argued are politically-motivated.
--
At 9 am on April 28, my husband called home to talk to me and his parents. When I asked about his health, my husband said he was still on a hunger strike. Since starting his hunger strike on March 17, he has lost 4kg. His weight then was 50kg (he has lost more than 10kg since he was arrested). At about 10 am on the same day, when I was out of the house, suddenly a group of four people came to my house, without an appointment. At that time, only Bach’s parents were at home to witness. They said that the people were from the Hanoi Civil Judgment Enforcement Bureau and the police in the area where I live. They listed all valuable assets in the house and forced my father to sign the list; my family could not view or keep any documents.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to property
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 19, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 12, 2023
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Friday sentenced war veteran and democracy activist Tran Van Bang to eight years in prison and three years probation for Facebook posts that were deemed to be anti-state propaganda in a trial that lasted less than three hours.
Tran Van Bang, better known as Tran Bang, is a 62-year-old war veteran who fought during the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War. He had regularly participated in demonstrations against China for its controversial claims over territories in the South China Sea.
He was arrested in March 2022 for what was initially determined to be 31 Facebook posts between March 2016 and August 2021.
After a subsequent investigation, authorities found that he wrote 39 problematic posts between three Facebook accounts that that were seen as “distorting, defaming and speaking badly of the people’s government; providing false information, causing confusion among the people; and expressing hate and discontent towards the authorities, Party, State, and country’s leaders,” the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported, citing the indictment.
The posts were in violation of article 117 of the penal code, a vague law that the government has often used to silence dissent.
It was the latest conviction in Hanoi’s ongoing campaign to silence bloggers and activists. Vietnam has convicted at least 60 such people under the same article and sentenced them between four and 15 years in prison, and 13 others to between four and 12 years under the older article 88, because it was the law when the alleged crime occurred, New York-based Human Rights Watch reported.
During Friday’s trial, Bang claimed that his Facebook accounts had been hacked and he hadn’t used them in a very long time.
But the Procuracy rejected the explanation, and used the posts on the accounts to convict him.
Tran Dinh Dung, Bang’s defense lawyer, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service following the trial that freedom of speech is guaranteed in Article 25 of Vietnam’s constitution, and Article 117 does not explain anti-state propaganda.
“The current law fails to clarify what freedom of speech is and what anti-state propaganda is,” said Dung. “In addition, there are some electronic documents and evidence missing, so I requested that the file of the case should be returned to the procuracy and a verdict should only be made when everything was clarified.”
Closed trial
Two diplomats, from the U.S. and France, were barred from attending the proceedings. They were made to wait in the courtyard until the trial’s conclusion.
Family members, meanwhile, were allowed only to watch the proceedings on a television screen from another room in the courthouse.
Bang’s brother, who declined to be named, told RFA that the audio of the broadcast was cut several times when the defense lawyer was speaking and was turned very low when Bang spoke in his own defense.
“The lawyer requested an additional investigation as some assessments of the investigator about the Facebook stories, which were the ground for accusations, were wrong,” Bang’s brother said.
“The lawyer also said that the accusation grounds were just the investigator’s viewpoint, and with another viewpoint, other people may find my brother innocent.”
According to Dung, his client will appeal the verdict. He told the judging panel that Bang was suffering from a serious health issue as he had a tumor in the groin area, which had not been determined benign or malignant. The verdict noted this information but also said that it needed to wait for the opinion of Bang’s detention center clinics, Dung said.
“On May 10, I had a working session with the detention center, and they told me that their clinic had recommended removing the tumor,” said Dung, adding that red tape is preventing the operation. “If the tumor is malignant, i.e. cancer, it would be a very serious health issue.”
Human Rights Watch on Thursday issued a media release calling on the Vietnamese government to drop all charges against Bang and immediately release him.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: ailing blogger arrested, Vietnam: blogger investigation extended despite deteriorating health (Update)
- Date added
- May 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Event Description
Ticket in hand, Vietnamese scholar Nguyen Quang A stepped up to the immigration counter at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport.
He planned to catch a flight to Thailand, and continue onward to the European Union, where he had planned to tour several countries.
But he was stopped by police and prevented from boarding the plane.
“I told them that it was no problem and asked them to create a record about the incident, explaining why I was banned from traveling abroad,” the former director of the now-dissolved Institute of Development Studies told Radio Free Asia.
A’s grounding is one of hundreds of documented cases of the Vietnamese government preventing social activists, political dissidents or religious freedom activists from leaving the country.
The incident report did not explain exactly why A was stopped at the airport, only saying it was on the request of the Ministry of Public Security’s Immigration Department and “related to security issues,” per Clause 9, Article 36 of Vietnam’s 2019 Law on Entry and Exit of Vietnamese Citizens.
The report said he could inquire with the department for more information.
Prior to receiving the incident report, A had been approached by two police officers from the Ministry of Public Security, he said.
“[They] told me that the Hanoi police summoned me in late 2021 and that issue hasn’t been resolved,” said A. “I told them that I had no idea about [any summons], and that they should know more about it because they are from the same ministry. I never received any notices or summons.”
A also said he was not aware that he was in any legal trouble prior to trying to leave the country.
The police later returned his passport and gave him a copy of the record, but they tore his boarding pass, making it impossible to request a refund from Vietnam Airlines.
The police returned his passport and gave him a copy of the incident record. However, they tore his boarding pass, making it impossible for him to request Vietnam Airlines for a refund.
“I don’t understand why they did that,” he said. “I could ask for a refund if it was still intact. In fact, I wasn’t even in the boarding area yet.”
A said he would consider asking the Immigration Department to clearly explain the reason his exit was denied, but said an inquiry might be in vain, because the laws are so vague that they could say whatever they want.
RFA attempted to contact the Immigration Department for an explanation but telephone calls and emails went unanswered.
Targeting scholars, lawyers and activists
A said he was deeply concerned about the human rights situation in Vietnam because several scholars like himself have been arrested, and the attorneys representing them have been harassed.
In 2022, the Vietnamese government arrested two senior scholars: Hoang Ngoc Giao, the director of the Institute for Policies, Law and Development under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations for “tax evasion,” and Nguyen Son, former director of the SENA Institute of Technology Research and Development for “abusing democratic freedoms.”
Over the past few months, the police summoned the five attorneys defending Peng Lei Buddhist Church members for alleged violations of Article 331 of the Penal Code – an article widely criticized by international communities as being vague and used to stifle dissenting voices.
In October 2018, A participated in a human rights hearing at the EU Parliament, just before the regional bloc ratified the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement. At the hearing, he requested the EU to pressure Vietnam to sign three international labor conventions, including Convention 87 which gives workers the freedom of association and to organize into independent trade unions.
Monday’s incident was not the first time he had been stopped at Noi Bai Airport.
On Sept. 1, 2015, police at the airport took him into temporary custody after a trip to the United States, where he had participated in talks about the role of civil society in the democratization of Vietnam. He had also taken part in a summer conference in Berlin with other Vietnamese intellectuals that year.
According to a February 2022 report by New York-based Human Rights Watch, Vietnamese authorities systematically prevented more than 170 activists, bloggers, dissidents, and their families from traveling within Vietnam or overseas. Their tactics included stopping them at airports or border gates, rejecting their applications for a passport or other travel papers.
Nguyen Quang A is a human rights defender and a prominent member of Vietnamese civil society. In 2007, he co-founded the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), an independent, non-profit think-tank, since closed, that frequently questioned the government's policies. In 2013, he co-founded the Civil Society Forum in response to Decree 72, a party document that limits online expression. The forum has, among other activities, organised protests against environmental damage and promoted the participation of independent candidates for Parliament elections. Lately, Nguyen Quang A has been extremely vocal regarding the 2016 Formosa spill, an industrial disaster which caused tens of thousands of fishermen to lose their source of livelihood.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Restrictions on Movement, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 3, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Event Description
The defense lawyer for ‘Onion Leaf Bae,” an activist whose online video mimicked a Turkish chef in apparent mockery of a senior government official, said he was kept from seeing his client this week.
Bui Tuan Lam, who runs a beef noodle stall in Danang, achieved some notoriety in 2021 when a video that went viral showing him imitating the Turkish chef known as Salt Bae.
The video was widely seen as a mockery of Vietnam’s minister of public security, To Lam, who was caught on film being hand-fed one of Salt Bae’s gold-encrusted steaks – by the chef himself – at a cost of 1,450 pounds (U.S.$1,975).
Critics wondered how the official could afford the extravagant meal on a monthly salary of $660.
In Bui’s video clip, he refers to himself as “Onion Leaf Bae” and dramatically sprinkles spring onions into a bowl of soup at his noodle stand, mimicking the signature move of the celebrity chef.
Bui was later summoned by Danang police for questioning and was arrested in September 2022. He has since been charged for violating Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code, frequently used by authorities to restrict freedom of expression and opinions deemed critical of the government.
The Danang People’s Court on Monday approved Le Dinh Viet’s registration to be Bui Tuan Lam’s lawyer for the upcoming first-instance trial.
Viet said he then went to Danang Police’s detention facility where Bui Tuan Lam was being held, but staff didn’t allow him to see his client, saying the judge hadn’t had time to review the recently completed investigation report.
Monitoring meetings?
He said he was told to “advise the court of the timing” of any proposed meetings with the defendant in the future so that the court could arrange for the meeting to be monitored.
The 2015 Criminal Procedure Code and the 2015 Law on Temporary Custody and Detention doesn’t have any provisions requiring prosecuting agencies to monitor meetings between defense lawyers and their clients, Viet said.
But an interagency circular from 2018 and another circular issued in 2019 by the Ministry of Public Security said prosecuting agencies can assign staff members to supervise meetings between defense lawyers and their clients if needed, he said.
Over the past 10 years of professional practice, Viet has participated in four cases related to national security. Bui’s case was the first time he was prevented from seeing a client, he said.
According to Danang People’s Procuracy’s indictment, Bui posted 19 articles on his Facebook account and 25 videos and articles on his YouTube account from April 17, 2020, to July 26, 2022. The articles and videos included content “distorting, defaming people’s government” and “fabricating and causing confusion among people.”
The link to the Facebook account alleged in the indictment to have contained the 19 articles no longer functions. There are only three videos currently on the YouTube channel allegedly used by the activist – all three were posted recently. The channel doesn’t contain the videos and posts listed in the indictment.
If convicted, Bui could receive a prison term of five to 12 years.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 2, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 29, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnamese police have been harassing a former prisoner of conscience released from jail in December 2022 after serving most of a five-year sentence on charges of distributing materials against the state and participating in protests against the government.
Nguyen Thi Ngoc Suong, 55, told Radio Free Asia on Friday, that the harassment began after she attended the appeals trial of activists Nguyen Thai Hung and his spouse, Vu Thi Kim Hoang, at the People’s Court in the southern province of Dong Nai on March 29. Authorities asked her to leave the courtroom.
On Friday, Dinh Quan district police summoned her and warned her not to attend other trials. They also said policemen would check on her often.
“Recently, the police have watched me very closely,” Suong told Radio Free Asia after she met with police. “They came to see me right after I returned home [from the trial]. They said I was not allowed to do this.”
At the end of the meeting, a police officer told her: “I’ll visit you every couple of days.”
Suong said she did not remember the officer’s name because he was not wearing a name badge.
When RFA contacted Dinh Quan district police to verify the information, a staffer asked for the name of the officer for verification.
Suong, who said her health has been deteriorating since her release, was convicted in May 2019 under Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code. The article, which criminalizes “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items” against the state. Violators can be sentenced to from five to 20 years in prison.
Suong was freed last Dec. 13 in poor health, 10 months before her jail term ended.
Health issues while detained
While in prison, Suong had several physical ailments, including liver and kidney swelling, elevated liver enzymes, a bacterial infection in her stomach and thyroid issues.
The only treatment she received was the medicine that prison officials gave to all inmates to treat various diseases.
“When I took them, my condition got worse,” Suong said. “I remember one time I could not speak because my body was swollen from top to toe, including my mouth and tongue.”
Suong said she believes her health deteriorated because she had been subjected to forced labor at Dong Nai police’s B5 temporary detention facility where she was held during the investigation period, and later at An Phuoc Prison, where she was held after an appeals trial. She produced votive paper offerings without protective gear.
Suong also said she had not been paid for her labor, though Vietnamese law stipulates that inmates should receive some compensation for labor they perform in jail.
While she was at the temporary detention facility from October 2018 to early December 2019, Suong's family had to bribe staffers so they could get supplies to her, though she never received them after the payments were made, she said.
When Suong had a medical check after she was released, her doctor said she was very weak and it would be difficult for her to improve her physical condition because she took too much pain reliever in previous years.
RFA could not reach officials at Dong Nai police or An Phuoc Prison for comment.
Arrested and charged in 2018
Suong was arrested along with activist Vu Thi Dung in October 2018, and they were both brought to court in the same case for using different Facebook accounts to watch videos and read articles containing anti-state content.
They both allegedly called for protests against draft laws on the creation of new special economic zones and cybersecurity, and were said to have incited locals people to take to the streets.
The indictment also said that Dung had produced anti-state leaflets and asked Suong to distribute them at four different places in Dinh Quan town of Dong Nai province.
Dung was sentenced to six years in prison and will complete her jail term this month.
Suong received the Tran Van Ba Award for 2021-2022 along with four other Vietnamese activists — Nguyen Thuy Hanh, Huynh Thuc Vy, Vo An Don and Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh.
Named for a Vietnamese dissident and freedom fighter executed in 1985 on charges of treason and intent to overthrow the government, the award is given annually to Vietnamese in Vietnam in recognition of their courageous action for freedom, democracy, justice and independence for their country.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Restrictions on Movement, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 1, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 30, 2023
- Event Description
Nguyen Thi Hue, mother of political prisoner Huynh Duc Thanh Binh, was summoned by Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) police on March 30 to “discuss issues related to public order and security.” On her Facebook page, Hue said she was perplexed because she had gone into seclusion since her son’s conviction and rarely appeared online or in public, focusing most of her time and energy on practicing Buddhism. Binh was convicted in 2019 on subversion charges and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 1, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 25, 2023
- Event Description
On 25 April, Mr Ta Mien Linh, born in 1945, of Vung Tau city, was prosecuted for 'abuse democratic freedoms' under sec 331 of the penal code, in relation to incidents in 2022, in Bac Giang province (North Vietnam).
Bac Giang police issued the prosecution order.
Mr Linh reportedly travelled from Vung Tau (South Vietnam) to Bac Giang from April to Aug 2022 to provide support for a group of residents of Chu Nguyen neighbourhood, Voi town, Lang Giang, Bac Giang province. They had contacted Mr Linh for legal advice, after their land had been forcefully confiscated by authorities. On Youtube, Mr Linh had accused Bac Giang officials of colluding with private businesses to confiscate the land of the people here at cheap prince, subdivided, then resold at much higher price, infringing the law.
Local officials said Mr Linh had engaged in illegal activities and he was not a real lawyer.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 1, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 21, 2023
- Event Description
Swinging batons and bashing villagers, Vietnamese police dispersed dozens of members of the Ede ethnic group who were attempting to interfere with a drainage project they fear will discharge wastewater into a lake they depend on, sources told Radio Free Asia.
Three villagers were hospitalized and 12 were arrested, they said.
“They hit us, injuring seven people of whom three had to be hospitalized due to the injuries on their heads, mouths, ears and shoulders,” said a protester who requested anonymity for security reasons.
Ea M’ta lake in the southern province of Dak Lak will be the endpoint of a rainwater drainage system project proposed by the province’s Cu Kuin district, the provincial and district governments said.
But residents living nearby fear that in addition to rainwater, the project could also divert wastewater into the lake, which could harm the environment and flood surrounding areas.
Though a local government task force reviewed the project and said that no major damage to the ecosystem or to water resources would result from it, the protesters do not trust the review, they said.
The clash with the police, armed with batons and shields, occurred on Thursday and Friday.
A video filmed by a witness shows several dozen police officers confronting a similar number of residents, mostly women, carrying the Vietnamese flag. They were mostly speaking in the Ede language, but at times they also spoke Vietnamese.
“We are determined to stop the District People’s Committee from discharging wastewater into the lake,” someone in the video said. “We can sacrifice our lives for this.We will resolutely protect [the lake].”
The protester who spoke with RFA said that the police shoved down a woman who was two months pregnant, and broke the shoulder of another protester who passed out shortly afterwards.
Police also knocked down a man and kicked his head repeatedly until his ears and mouth began to bleed.
The three people who were hospitalized returned to their homes on Monday, according to the source. Those who were arrested were all released after signing a paper pledging that they would not return to the protest or face prison.
Radio Free Asia attempted to contact Bui Hong Quy, chief of staff of Dak Lak provincial People's Committee and the Cu Kuin district People's Committee to verify the source’s account, but received no response.
According to state media, the drainage system project with a total investment of nearly 36.7 billion dong (U.S.$1.53 million) was approved by Dak Lak People's Committee in 2019. The nearly 4 kilometer (2.5 mile) drainage canal would begin at the Cu Kuin District Military Command and terminate at the lake.
The Dak Lak People’s Committee’s task force reviewed the project’s impacts on the environment, safety, and living conditions. The review indicated that the project would not negatively affect the environment, land, climate, and water sources serving residents living in the surrounding areas, state media said.
Residents living near the lake, however, said the review did not reflect reality.
Y Quynh Buon Dap, a human rights and religious activist who lives in Thailand as a refugee, said residents were worried because the survey was not thorough and did not include areas that could be affected by the project in the future.
On April 20, authorities stated that they were determined to complete the final component of the project, and that all activities that would prevent its implementation would be seen as unlawful.
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 26, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 20, 2023
- Impact of Event
- 12
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community), Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 25, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 20, 2023
- Event Description
On 20 April, two women, Mrs Thai Thi Be (67 years old, of Phuc Trach village, Huong Khe district, Ha Tinh province) and Mrs Hoang Thi Son (65 years old, also Huong Khe district resident), were detained and subject to criminal proceedings for abuse democratic freedoms under sec 331 of the penal code.
State media Cong An Ha Tinh (Ha Tinh police) 21 April reported on their arrests but did not mention the reason of the arrests.
RFA Viet reported that Mrs Be posted on their social media accounts and Youtube, that Party leaders of Phuc Trach village abused their power, used their power to appropriate public land worth 3 billion dong.
On her youtube channel 5 months ago, Mrs Be introduced herself as someone who 'is always loyal to the Party, who always follows the example set by President Ho Chi Minh, Party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong...', and 'had to tell the truth' about land-related wrongdoings by local Party officials even though many of her comrades told her to shut up or she might be jailed. She said she had full evidence and had taken legal action against those officials. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSrQ9qMbtV0
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Environmental rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 25, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 7, 2023
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam have sent a second summons to at least two lawyers who defended a Buddhist organization in a case last year, asking the lawyers once again to appear for questioning regarding their public discussion of the case.
Dang Dinh Manh is one of five lawyers who defended six members of the Peng Lei Buddhist House, who were found guilty in July 2022 and sentenced to a combined 23 years and six months for incest and fraud, in violation of Article 331 of the country’s criminal code: abusing democratic freedoms.
While providing legal support to Peng Lei Buddhist Church's members, Manh and the other four lawyers, Ngo Thi Hoang Anh, Dao Kim Lan, Nguyen Van Mieng, and Trinh Vinh Phuc used the YouTube account Nhật ký Luật sư (Lawyer's Diary) to post information about the case, making it a common place for their statements. The account no longer has any video content.
The public discussion of the case could also be a violation of Article 331, so authorities in the southern province of Long An issued a summons to the five lawyers on March 6 that required them to report to the police for questioning on March 21.
Only Trinh Vinh Phuc and Ngo Thi Hoang Anh attended the meeting as requested. So far, neither has disclosed the contents of their meeting.
On Friday, authorities sent a second summons to Manh. According to a copy of the second summons obtained by Radio Free Asia, Manh must report to police on Wednesday.
At least one of the other lawyers was summoned a second time, one of the lawyers told RFA on condition of anonymity for safety reasons. The unnamed lawyer did not disclose who else had received a second summons. Phuc confirmed that he did not receive a second summons.
RFA attempted to contact the inspector in charge of the case, Hoang Hung, but he did not answer phone calls.
‘Stalinist double-speak’
Article 331 is a violation of international human rights standards, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service Monday.
“Given how repressive the government has become, it’s not surprising the authorities are using this article to violate yet another right, which is the right to legal representation and a free and fair trial,” Robertson said. “Hanoi deserves global condemnation for going after the few remaining defense lawyers left in the country working on human rights cases, but really what this shows is what a total and absolute joke the Vietnam judiciary has become.”
He said the Vietnamese government is abusing the article for its own aims.
“The idea that the exercise of ‘democratic freedoms’ should be used to criminalize defense lawyers like Dang Dinh Manh … shows the Stalinist double-speak that the Vietnam government and Communist Party are engaged in,” he said. “This kind of trial shows clearly that justice is dead in Vietnam under the current single-party, rights-repressing government.”
Player and Referee
On Feb. 8, Lan, one of the lawyers, sent a petition to Vietnam’s leaders and several agencies expressing his concerns over the decision to let the Long An provincial police participate in the probe of the case against the lawyers.
Before the first-instance trial for the six Peng Lei members, the lawyers had sent an 11-page report/petition to various agencies to denounce “signs of seriously violating criminal procedures and judicial activities” in the case.
Apart from his concern over the objectivity of the investigation, Lan also said that because he resides and works in Ho Chi Minh City – where he used Facebook and YouTube channels to post information about the Peng Lei case – Ho Chi Minh City’s police should be the authorized agency to investigate whether he had violated Article 331.
One week later, the Vietnam Bar Federation and the Ministry of Public Security responded to Lan’s petition. However, the Ministry of Public Security’s Inspectorate transferred these responses to Long An’s authorities to handle.
On condition of anonymity, one of the five defense lawyers said the fact that central-level agencies’ failure to timely respond to Lan’s petition showed their negligence to the wrongdoings of prosecuting agencies and the necessity to protect citizens’ legitimate interests.
Another defense lawyer, who also wished to remain anonymous for safety reasons, also raised questions about the objectivity of assigning Long An Provincial Police to handle the case as this would enable the police “to be both a player and the referee.” He said the Supreme People’s Procuracy should be the agency in charge of the case to ensure objectivity.
Ha Huy Son, a lawyer from the Hanoi Bar Association, however, told RFA that the Long An police were assigned the case against the lawyers in accordance with the law.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to work
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Viet Nam: lawyers accused following investigation (Update), Vietnam: lawyers investigated for revealing procedural irregularities, Vietnam: Vietnamese Human Rights Attorneys Attacked Three Days Before Appeal Hearing of 15 Peaceful Protesters in Dong Nai
- Date added
- Apr 25, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 29, 2023
- Event Description
A Vietnamese man who livestreamed YouTube videos deemed critical of the government and leaders and his spouse lost their appeals trial on Wednesday for prison sentences they received for “abusing democratic freedoms.”
In November 2022, a court in Dong Nai province sentenced Nguyen Thai Hung, 50, to a four-year term and his wife, Vu Thi Kim Hoang, 45, to two-and-a-half years for running the “Telling the Truth TV” YouTube channel.
It had nearly 40,000 followers and earned allegedly “illegal profits” of more than 384 million dong, or U.S.$15,500, from advertisements.
Dong Nai police arrested the couple in January 2022, though they released Hoang in late April.
Authorities said Hung livestreamed 21 videos on his YouTube channel from June 2020 until his arrest, during which he spoke badly of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the state, distorted socioeconomic development policies and slandered senior party and government leaders.
At their earlier trial, in Tan Phu District, police presented evidence from material they said that the pair broadcast on the social media platform addressing a deadly January 2020 police raid over a land dispute in northern Vietnam’s Dong Tam village.
The couple also broadcast content regarding the management of prisoners and Vietnam’s communist regime and the legal system.
The videos, which generated 19,000-56,000 views each, are no longer available for viewing on YouTube.
The communist country tightly curbs freedom of expression and enforces stringent controls over online content.
Though the couple did not have legal representation at the first trial, for the appeals trial, Hung was represented by attorney Nguyen Van Mieng, and Hoang by attorney Ngo Thi Hoang Anh.
'Unfair' outcome
Speaking to Radio Free Asia after the trial, Hoang, who maintains that she had no part in the making or production of the videos, said the outcome was unfair.
“Mr. Hung only exercised his freedom of speech and wanted to make society better, not to oppose or ruin the state,” she said. “The defense attorney had great arguments, stressing that Vietnam has signed international conventions on human rights.”
Hoang also complained about the upholding of her own sentence on the basis that she supported Hung by taking care of him, providing him with accommodations and letting him use her laptop computer and bank account.
Hoang’s elder sister, Vu Giang Tien, who had attended the trial, told RFA that attorney Nguyen Van Mieng’s arguments were strong.
“He said there was not enough evidence to convict [Hung] and that Article 25 of the Constitution states that we [citizens] have freedom of speech following international conventions,” Tien said.
“Despite whatever the lawyer said, the judging panel still had their own way and made their own decision.”
After the trial ended, authorities took Hung back to Dong Nai police’s detention facility and allowed Hoang to return home to wait for the court’s decision on judgment implementation.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger, his wife house raided, arrested while broadcasting, Vietnam: couple imprisoned on vague charges after trial without lawyer(Update)
- Date added
- Apr 24, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 8, 2023
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam’s Central Highlands province of Dak Lak on April 8 arrested former prisoner of conscience Y Krec Buonya and charged him with “Sabotaging implementation of solidarity policies” under Article 116 of the country’s Criminal Code for his religious activities.
According to the state-controlled media, Mr. Y Krec Buonya, 45 years old, is considered the leader of the unregistered religious sect named Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ co-established by Pastor Aga who is residing in the US.
The sect is an anti-state group consisting of members of the former Fulro group (United Front for the Liberation of Oppressed Races) which is said to had worked for an independent state of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands, said the state media.
Citing information from police, the electronic Dak Lak of the province’s People’s Committee and Party’s Committee, the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ is working for undermining the people solidarity policy of the state and calling for inciting violence with the goal to establish an autonomous state.
Mr. Y Krec Buonya, who was imprisoned eight years in the past, lives in Knia 2 village, Ea Bar commune, Buon Don district. He was said to receive instruction from Pastor Aga to organize regular training courses in writing human rights violation reports and dealing with police forces. He is also said to be the main factor inciting others.
The news outlet said the province’s police also conducted a house search of his family and confiscated a lot of documentation and important evidence without saying in detail.
After arresting him, he was taken to the provincial Temporary detention center for further investigation, the outlet said. He faces imprisonment of up to 15 years if convicted, according to Vietnam’s law.
Accordingly, the Dak Lak province’s police will arrest other members of the sect in a bid to eliminate it. It is worth noting that authorities in the Central Highlands totally abolished independent Christian sects named Ha Mon and Dega Protestant Churches by 2020.
According to Pastor Aga from North Caroline (US), on April 8, police in Dak Lak also detained eight other members of the sect and released five of them after short interrogation. The remaining three are still under detention but have not been charged.
Since late 2022, authorities in Dak Lak have intensified suppression against the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ, striving not to allow its members to gather for religious meetings, especially on the Christmas celebration. Police detained many members in the different districts for a short time for interrogation and forced them to denounce their religion, blocked them from going out of their residences or confiscated their vehicles.
In late February, a delegation of the US General Consulate in Ho Chi Minh City took a tour in the Central Highlands to meet with Mr. Y Krec Buonya and other members of the sect, however, the delegation was blocked by the local authorities from entering their houses.
Vietnam says the regime respects the right to freedom of religion and belief, however, it requires all religious groups to register with the local authorities.
Dozens of clerks and members of unregistered religious groups in mountainous regions have been imprisoned with lengthy sentences on the allegations of “undermining great solidarity” or “sabotaging implementation of solidarity policies” and “abusing democratic freedom” in the Criminal Code.
The arrest of Y Krec Buonya was made one week prior to the visit of US Secretary Antony Blinken to Hanoi.
On Dec. 2, the U.S. State Department included Vietnam in the group of countries on its Special Watch List for religious freedom. The department said there are not enough violations of religious freedom to label Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) which is the highest level of censure for countries that violate religious freedom. However, it said it would monitor the government closely and add it to the CPC if there was no improvement.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 20, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 12, 2023
- Event Description
The Hanoi People’s Court on Wednesday sentenced prominent political activist and blogger Nguyen Lan Thang to six years in prison and two years of probation – the latest conviction in a continuing crack down on dissenting voices in the one-party communist country.
Thang, a long-time contributor of blog posts on politics and society to RFA’s Vietnamese service, was arrested in July 2022 and charged with spreading anti-state propaganda. He is one of four jailed Radio Free Asia contributors in Vietnam.
Only four defense lawyers and Thang’s wife, Le Bich Vuong, were allowed inside the courtroom for the trial. Vuong told RFA that he didn’t admit to the charge of opposing the State during the five-hour long proceeding.
Thang was accused of “making, storing, spreading or propagating anti-state information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” The charge against him came under Article 117 of Vietnam’s criminal code, which is often used by authorities to suppress free speech on social media.
“All of my family members were very sad, as we all believe in his innocence,” Le Bich Vuong told RFA. “What he did was for the betterment of society.”
RFA President Bay Fang said the conviction was “a miscarriage of justice and an assault on free expression in Vietnam” and called for his immediate release and for all charges to be dropped.
“The outrageous harassment he has endured and his sentencing to six years in prison demonstrate the extent to which Vietnamese authorities will go to silence independent journalists and voices,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Security tightened during trial- Many of Thang’s relatives, friends and activists weren’t allowed near the court. Some political dissidents and family members of prisoners of conscience were under tight house watch or were followed by local security forces if they left home during the trial.
Thang originally feared the case would be held in a closed courtroom and petitioned last month for an open trial.
The 48-year-old has written several articles on freedom, democracy and human rights on the RFA Vietnamese blog since late 2013. He has also taken part in protests defending Vietnam’s sovereignty in disputed areas of the South China Sea and worked to help people affected by floods and storms in the country’s Central Highlands.
In April 2022, he wrote for RFA about news reports that Russian ships had been turning off their locator systems to evade being tracked for illegal oil sales. He recalled that during the Iraq War, tycoons from a certain “socialist-oriented market economy” had repainted oil ships to buy sanctioned Iraqi oil at a discount and “became very very rich.”
The indictment said that Thang allegedly “stored” several books with anti-State content, including “Politics for Commoners” and “Non-violent Resistance,” both written by human rights activist and journalist Pham Doan Trang, who is serving a nine-year jail term on the same charge of “propagandizing against the State.”
Trang also allegedly participated in many roundtable discussions by BBC, which contained contents thought to have sabotaged or smeared the Vietnamese government. He was also said to have published 12 videos distorting the communist regime on Facebook and YouTube platforms.
“Nguyen Lan Thang shared his perspectives and opinions online with a sense of responsibility and duty, but never with malice or disrespect,” Bay Fang said. “Nevertheless he is among four RFA contributors in Vietnam who have been ensnared by the government in an effort to censor and purge.”
Vuong said Thang hadn’t made a decision on whether he would submit an appeal. That decision would be made in the next two weeks, she said.
Could have faced 12 years imprisonment- The government held a closed trial to avoid embarrassment and because officials knew that Thang was innocent – and that his family has made many contributions to Vietnam’s communist regime, said Hieu Ba Linh and independent journalist who lives in Germany.
Thang is from a well-known academic family in Hanoi, and his grandfather wrote a popular Vietnamese dictionary. Under Article 117, he could have faced up to 12 years in prison.
“Apparently, the sentence of six-year imprisonment for Mr. Thang was pretty light,” Hieu Ba Linh said. “However, for a patriot like Mr. Thang, a day in prison is still a day of injustice and unfairness.”
His parents told RFA ahead of the trial that Thang “has never done anything wrong to his family, country and his own conscience.”
Earlier this week, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issued statements calling on the Vietnamese government to drop the charges and immediately release Thang.
On Wednesday, the deputy Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch said the verdict showed once again that there is no justice or respect for human rights in Vietnam.
“Vietnam is systematically dismantling and imprisoning the network of political activists and NGO leaders who dare exercise their rights to demand reforms and improvements in the country,” Phil Robertson said.
“The Vietnamese people will be the ultimate losers in this game as the party apparatchiks take advantage of the purge of whistleblowers to redouble the crony corruption of the ruling party,” he said.
According to the CPJ, Vietnam has detained 21 journalists for their professional activities as of Dec. 1, 2022.
Before the trial, Vuong told RFA that her husband had “only exercised a citizen’s freedom of expression, press freedom, and responsibilities for protecting national sovereignty, environment, and human rights and fighting against injustice in society.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: another blogger arrested on anti-state propaganda, Vietnam: Anti- tollbooth fraud (ATF) Protestors Brutally Beaten, Arrested in Hanoi, Vietnam: blogger indicted after investigation is completed (Update)
- Date added
- Apr 20, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 13, 2023
- Event Description
A prominent YouTuber, Duong Van Thai was reportedly abducted in Bangkok on orders from the Vietnamese government and forcibly returned to Vietnam. The incident is believed to have occurred around April 14, 2023 — the same day that US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, arrived in Hanoi.
Duong Van Thai (who publishes under the name Thai Van Duong) was granted political refugee status by the United Nations as he sought safety in Thailand. The Vietnamese authorities had threatened to prosecute him due to videos posted on social media that revealed sensitive information about power struggles within the Communist Party.
In 2018, Duong Van Thai fled to Thailand and applied for refugee status, waiting to be relocated to a third country under the UN Refugee Resettlement program. In a statement released on April 16, Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security claimed that Duong Van Thai was arrested for illegally re-entering the country. Fellow activists and Vietnamese asylum seekers in Thailand dispute the official account of the arrest, arguing that Duong Van Thai would not have voluntarily returned to Vietnam, given the risks of persecution and imprisonment he would face.
In December 2017, Vietnamese intelligence agents abducted Trinh Xuan Thanh in Berlin. Thanh was a former Vietnamese government official who fled to Germany where he sought asylum. In February 2019, Vietnamese security abducted blogger Truong Duy Nhat in Bangkok where he was under asylum process; Truong Duy Nhat was subsequently sentenced to 10 years for “defrauding the public.”
In recent years, hundreds of Vietnamese activists and persecuted Christians have fled to Thailand. Many of them are waiting for resettlement in a third country. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees needs to grant protection to these asylum seekers and accelerate procedures to bring them out of reach of the Vietnamese security forces.
The international community needs to investigate the cases of Duong Van Thai and Truong Duy Nhat and bring to justice the people responsible for transnational repression.
On April 13, Thai, an independent journalist who posts political commentary on YouTube and has about 119,000 followers, went missing in Bangkok, Thailand, according to multiple news reports.
He had lived in Thailand as a refugee since 2020 and visited the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ office hours before his disappearance, according to those reports and Nguyen Van Hai, a colleague familiar with Thai’s situation and CPJ’s 2013 International Press Freedom Award winner, who communicated with CPJ via email.
On April 16, Vietnamese state media reported that Thai had been arrested while allegedly trying to enter Vietnam and was being held by police in the Huong Son district of central Ha Tinh province.
“Vietnamese authorities must immediately release journalist Duong Van Thai and disclose the exact details of his detention,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnam has a history of targeting journalists living in exile. Thai authorities should thoroughly and transparently investigate the circumstances of his disappearance in Bangkok, and ensure that members of the press are not targeted for their work.”
Those Vietnamese state media reports alleged that Thai was arrested while attempting to illegally enter Vietnam on April 14. CPJ called and emailed Thai after his arrest was announced but did not receive any replies.
On his YouTube channel, Thai recently aired commentary critical of Vietnam’s industrial policy, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, and the country’s finance minister.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Abduction/Kidnapping, Deportation, Surveillance , Transnational repression
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Suspected state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 19, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 28, 2023
- Event Description
A land rights activist accused of giving interviews to foreign media and storing illegally printed books was sentenced to six years in prison for “conducting anti-state propaganda.”
Only Truong Van Dung’s wife was allowed to attend the half-day trial as a witness. Many activists in Hanoi told Radio Free Asia that they had been forced to stay at home or were prevented from getting near the court.
According to his indictment, Dung gave interviews to U.S.-based Saigon Dallas Radio between 2015 and 2022 that distorted and smeared Vietnam’s government, propagated fabricated information and caused confusion among the people. The interviews and video clips were posted on social media.
The Hanoi People’s Procuracy also accused Dung of storing copies of two books: “Popular Politics” by human rights activist Pham Doan Trang and “Life of People Behind Bars” by former prisoner of conscience Pham Thanh Nghien. The books were allegedly printed and distributed illegally.
Dung, 65, was convicted under Article 88 of Vietnam’s 1999 penal code, a controversial law used to target dissidents that rights groups say is one of several wielded to stifle voices of dissent in the one-party communist state.
‘Latest in a long line’ His wife, Nghiem Thi Hop, told RFA that defense lawyers argued that he did not conduct the interviews as alleged in the indictment. But prosecutors said the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications concluded that it was Dung who spoke to the program.
She said police used physical violence against Dung during interrogations.
Dung has participated in protests in Hanoi, including demonstrations against China’s occupation of the Paracel Islands — an island group in the South China Sea also claimed by Vietnam — and protests against the Taiwan-owned Formosa Company for polluting the coastline of four central Vietnamese provinces of Vietnam in 2016.
Public protests even over perceived harm to Vietnam’s interests are considered threats to its political stability and are routinely suppressed by the police.
Before the trial, Human Rights Watch called on Vietnam to drop all charges against Dung. The organization’s deputy Asia director, Phil Robertson, said in a statement on Monday that Dung was “the latest in a long line of human rights defenders silenced by the Vietnamese government for protesting against human rights violations and advocating for reforms.”
At least 11 activists have been detained for investigation on Article 88 charges while they await a scheduled date for their trial.
Sentence in case tied to U.S.-based organization- In a separate case, an appeals court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld sentences for two people accused of being members of the Provisional Government of Vietnam – a U.S.-based opposition group described by Vietnamese authorities as a terrorist organization.
Nguyen Van Nghia, 48, and Duong Thi Be, 41, were sentenced to seven years and five years in prison, respectively, according to the online edition of the People’s Newspaper.
Both were charged with “carrying out activities to overthrow the people’s government” under Article 109 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code. They were first sentenced in October by Kien Giang province’s court.
Based in Orange County, California, the Provisional Government of Vietnam was founded in 1991 by former soldiers and refugees loyal to the U.S.-backed government of South Vietnam that was overthrown and absorbed by North Vietnam in 1975. The group now refers to itself as the Third Republic of Vietnam, according to its website.
According to the indictment, Nghia visited the homepage of the Provisional Government of Vietnam in 2014. He also participated in a “referendum” in 2018 to elect Vietnamese-American citizen Dao Minh Quan, who leads the organization, as president of the Third Republic of Vietnam.
More than 60 arrests since 2017- Nghia was also said to have recruited many people to join the organization, and at the end of October 2021, he registered Be, his girlfriend, to be a member of the organization. He also allegedly called on government and military officers in Vietnam to join the organization.
Later in 2021, he was assigned to be the official spokesman for the organization in Vietnam.
According to RFA statistics, at least 60 people in Vietnam have been convicted for being members of Dao Minh Quan’s organization since 2017. They were all charged with “carrying out activities against the state,” and many were accused of committing violent and terrorist acts, including making petrol bombs and burning airport garages.
However, some people, including Tran Van Luong, who was sentenced to five years in 2017 and released last year, have told RFA that they were not a member of the organization.
According to Luong, police arrested him only because he had been dissatisfied with the Vietnamese government and had voiced his criticism on Facebook. Then they forced him to make statements that he had contacted Dao Minh Quan’s organization.
A leader from the organization told RFA that it would take action to help the arrestees in Vietnam. The official did not disclose what would be done.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Land rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Hanoi-based Activist Kidnapped after Refusing Police Summoning, Vietnam: One Activist Beaten, Two Detained while Many Others under House Arrest on 30th Anniversary of Gac Ma Loss to China, Vietnam: Three Hanoi-based Activists Held in Police Station for Hours, One Beaten After Holding Peaceful Mini-demonstration, Vietnam: Two Activists Beaten by Plainclothes Agents on Paracell Commemoration, Vietnam: vocal defender arrested once again on repressive law
- Date added
- Mar 30, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 28, 2023
- Event Description
Bleeding and apparently afflicted with uterine fibroids, Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Nguyen Thi Tam has been suffering in prison without adequate medical care, her family told Radio Free Asia.
Human rights groups have blamed her condition on horrible prison conditions and demanded her immediate release.
Tam is serving a 6-year sentence at Gia Trung Prison in the southern central province of Gia Lai for “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” in violation of Article 117 of the penal code – a law frequently used by authorities to quiet dissent.
During a phone call on Mar. 3, Tam told her daughter Nguyen Thi Mai that she was suffering from severe bleeding and declining health and had to be sent to the Gia Lai provincial hospital on Feb. 28. She made the 50-kilometer (31-mile) journey in a box truck with no medical personnel on hand.
"My mother said that she felt exhausted and weak as many parts of the road were bumpy while she was bleeding a lot. However, the driver refused to stop,” Mai told RFA’s Vietnamese Service. “The doctor concluded that my mother had uterine fibroids, but she was not allowed to stay at the hospital for monitoring or proper treatment."
Tam was sent back to the prison on the same day, and she is now receiving treatment at the prison’s clinic, but the condition has left her weak to the point that she cannot even walk without the help of others.
Dong Tam commune dispute
Authorities arrested Tam and three others in June 2020 for expressing their opinions on social media about a land dispute at the Dong Tam commune that turned violent when authorities raided the commune in January of that year, leading to the deaths of three protesters and a village leader.
Tam has served prison sentences twice before in 2008 and 2014.
Conditions at the prison are difficult, Mai said. She said Tam told her that she was ordered to participate in cleaning the prison, but given no specific goal or target like other inmates, and she was “allowed” to grow vegetables for her own consumption.
Failure to participate in the prison labor would result in constant confinement in her cell and she would be denied opportunities to move around or communicate with other inmates.
Additionally, the prison’s water is unclean, so inmates are forced to buy bottled water from the prison canteen for a 500,000 dong fee (more than US$20).
RFA attempted to contact the Gia Trung Prison to verify the information but no one answered the phone.
The London-based Amnesty International told RFA that the prison’s failure to provide proper medical treatment to Nguyen Thi Tam has made her ongoing medical problems worse.
Joe Freedman, the media manager for Amnesty International’s Southeast Asia Office, said in an email that three other prisoners of conscience had passed away because of poor or late medical treatment in Vietnamese prisons.
"Amnesty International is calling on the Vietnamese authorities to urgently provide adequate health care to Nguyen Thi Tam and to immediately and unconditionally release her and other activists imprisoned for peacefully exercising their human rights," he said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to health
- HRD
- Land rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 18, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 3, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities have barred relatives and legal counsel from meeting with a detained Facebook user under investigation for posting “illegal content,” prompting criticism from an international rights group, which called the move “a clear rights violation.”
Late last month, police in southern Vietnam’s Can Tho city arrested activist Le Minh The, 60, for posts on his Facebook page they allege were in violation of a vaguely worded law routinely used to suppress independent bloggers and journalists.
The was charged with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the State’s interests and legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” under Article 331, state media reported at the time.
On Friday, The’s younger sister, Le Thi Binh, told RFA Vietnamese that guards at the Long Tuyen Detention Center had refused her family the right to see him, although they agreed to let them deposit money for him to buy food and other necessities, as well as deliver him some meals.
“On [Wednesday], I went to the detention center to see my brother The and send him some food,” she said. “However, the detention center’s staff said I could not see him while he is under investigation. I called the investigation team, but they did not answer.”
Binh, who completed a two-year jail term on the same charge in late 2022, said that the Binh Thuy District Police had yet to provide her family with any documents related to The’s arrest, including a report detailing a search of their home on Feb. 22.
RFA called Officer Ky, who is investigating The’s case, but he refused to confirm Binh’s claims and referred further inquiries to the Binh Thuy Police Department. A staff member at the Binh Thuy Police Department told RFA that a reporter would have to meet with senior officers in person for any information about the case.
State media reports detailing The’s arrest claimed he had posted “illegal content” on Facebook, but did not specify what post had violated the law. The last post on The’s Facebook account concerned U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine on Feb. 21, while other posts included content about Vietnam, a police summons for his sister, information about homegrown electric car maker VinFast, and a recent RFA article about a fortune teller-turned-priest.
“Looking at his livestreams and other content [on Facebook], I didn’t see anything against the State,” Binh told RFA, noting that most of the articles he shared were published by state media.
“He talked about some corrupt government officials who had already been arrested. He also livestreamed a video about polluted wastewater in his neighborhood.”
Prior sentence on same charges
The charges facing The are the same ones he was sentenced to two years in prison for in March 2019. He completed his jail term in July 2020, accounting for time spent in detention prior to his conviction.
Both The and his sister were refused visits from their families while they were under investigation for their earlier charges – a policy Hanoi Bar Association lawyer Ha Huy Son told RFA is only applicable to people accused of committing “offenses against national security,” which they were not.
Phil Robertson, deputy director for Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said there is “no acceptable reason” for authorities to prevent legal counsel and relatives from visiting The.
“Every time the authorities commit such a clear rights violation, it undermines Hanoi's claims to be providing free and fair trials to those it prosecutes in court,” he said in an emailed statement to RFA. “What's clear is that the police believe they enjoy impunity to do whatever they want, and that laws do not necessarily apply to them."
Robertson said the fact that The was arrested for expressing his opinions on his Facebook page demonstrates the Vietnamese government’s intolerance of dissent.
“Although freedom of speech is a universal human right and should not be criminalized, in Vietnam the authorities often harass, intimidate, and arrest anyone speaking up against government policy,” he said.
Anticipating another significant jail term for The, Robertson called on the international community to take action. “Foreign diplomats should be demanding that Hanoi stop these kinds of arrests, and immediately and unconditionally release Le Minh The,” he said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 18, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 6, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnamese police have summoned two attorneys defending members of a Buddhist house church in Long An province, accusing them of violating a law that is widely used to imprison dissidents.
Attorneys Dang Dinh Manh and Dao Kim Lan, two of five defense lawyers working on a case involving the Peng Lei Buddhist Church are accused of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Vietnamese authorities routinely use the statute to attack those speaking out in defense of human rights.
Freedom of religion is technically enshrined in Vietnam’s constitution, but it also allows authorities to override rights, including religious freedom, for purposes of national security, social order, social morality and community well-being. Authorities have been aggressive in crushing various religious groups.
The one-party Vietnamese government also is notorious for violations of human rights, including the prosecuting of rights attorneys and other defenders, and ignoring international obligations to promote and protect them.
According to the notices, police summoned the lawyers after the Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention under Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security issued an advisory that some of the defense attorneys involved in the case showed signs of violating Article 331.
The summons for Dang Dinh Manh, dated March 6, instructed him to meet with police investigators on March 21, 2023, while the summons for Dao Kim Lan, dated March 8, told him to meet with them on March 15.
Many state-media outlets, including Tien Phong, or The Pioneers, and Phap Luat TPHCM, or the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper, reported that police were investigating the two lawyers.
In February, three lawyers — Dang Dinh Manh, Dao Kim Lan and Ngo Thi Hoang Anh — were notified by Long An police that they had “carried out activities of disseminating videos, images, statements and stories with signs of abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interests and legitimate rights and interests of individuals and organizations,” according to state media reports.
RFA could not reach Ngo Thi Hoang Anh to confirm that she had received a summons. Dang Dinh Manh and Dao Kim Lan refused to comment.
‘Abusing democratic freedoms’
The three lawyers and two others — Nguyen Van Mieng and Trinh Vinh Phuc — have been providing legal support for six members of the house church, who in July 2022 were sentenced to a combined 23 years and six months in prison on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331.
Duc Hoa district police and Venerable Thich Nhat Tu, a Buddhist monk, were the plaintiffs in the case.
Before the first-instance trial, lawyers sent an 11-page petition to Vietnam’s president and the heads of the National Assembly, Ministry of Public Security, and People’s Supreme Procuracy, highlighting indications of the violation of criminal procedures and judicial activities.
The lawyers also raised concern about the objectivity of the investigation because Duc Hoa district police, a plaintiff, was part of the probe.
The petition also indicated that police forced a Peng Lei nun to submit to a gynecological examination, offending her honor and dignity because the action was unrelated to the case.
Even though the lawyers’ complaints had not been addressed, the Duc Hoa People’s Court moved ahead, putting the six church members on trial and sentencing them each to three to five years in prison.
Police investigator Huynh Hung, who is in charge of the case against the lawyers, declined to answer Radio Free Asia’s questions about the case.
Attorney Nguyen Van Dai, who now lives in Germany, told RFA on Monday that the responsible agencies should have quickly responded to the petition filed by the church’s lawyers instead of launching an investigation against them.
“This was a serious violation of freedom of speech and press freedom of lawyers in general and citizens in general,” he said. “They [the authorities] used available tools, including the police and the procuracy, to dismiss the lawyers from their profession. This was an act of vindictiveness by the authorities towards human rights lawyers.”
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to work
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 18, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 13, 2023
- Event Description
Mr Le Than, of Le Hieu Dang Club - members includes pro-democracy former high-ranked officials and former Party members - said his Club members planned to go to Bach Dang Wharf (HCMC) to light joss sticks, but only few whom the police didn't know managed to get there, other members were blocked from leaving their house as the local police guarded them since the early morning [of 13 Mar].
Dissident intellectual Dr Mac Van Trang and his wife - well known actress Kim Chi - were under guard at their home [in HCMC].
Mrs Duong Thi Tan, an activist from Saigon, said her home was under police guard for several days but she didn't know what the police's intention was.
In Hanoi, outspoken former teacher Mrs Tran Thi Thao told RFA, a local policeman and several plain clothes police stood guard near the bottom of the staircase of her apartment block and prevented her from going out.
An activist who preferred to remain anonymous said, at King Ly Thai To statue in Hanoi central, a number of police vehicles, district police, police and civilian guards were present but not as large in number as in previous years.
Poet Hoang Hung - of Independent Writers' League - opined that the regime determines to ban all independent activities showing signs that they are in any way organised, whether it's picking up rubbish or grow trees or reacting to China.
Mrs Tran Thi Thao opined that [this year], by allowing the state media to write about Gac Ma and name China as the culprit in the incident, the regime led by Party Chief Trong aims to mollify the people and deceive the West - pretending there is a shift in Vietnam's relations with China; however by suppressing dissidents and activists, the regime wants to prove to President Xi Jinping that those seen as anti-China are still subject to Vietnam's forceful treatment.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community), Woman
- Violation
- Restrictions on Movement, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 18, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 2, 2023
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam said they are investigating lawyers for the Peng Lei Buddhist Church, accusing them of violating the country’s penal code as part of their representation for the religious group.
Human rights lawyers Dang Dinh Manh, Ngo Thi Hoang Anh, and Dao Kim Lan are under investigation for potentially violating Article 331, according to Long An Provincial Police. The three are part of the team that worked on the Bong Lai Temple case, defending the 90-year-old monk Le Tung Van and his students.
The Police Department of Long An province, the police agency has announced on February 3, 2023 on the receipt of: crime reports from the Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention - Ministry of Public Security.
Contents include: Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention - Ministry of Public Security discovered a number of individuals, including Mr. Dang Dinh Manh (Ls. Manh Dang), Ms. Ngo Thi Hoang Anh (Ls. Mr. Ngo) and Mr. Dao Kim Lan (Ls. La Kim) had the act of spreading on the internet through videos, clips, pictures, words and articles with criminal signs of "abusing civil liberties". owner infringes upon the interests of the state and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals” according to Article 331 of the Penal Code 2015, as amended in 2017.”
It is known that all three lawyers are part of the group of lawyers defending Mr. Le Tung Van and his students in the case of Tinh That Bong Lai. Officials from the Ministry of Public Security said the lawyers could be charged under Article 311, which criminalizes ‘abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the State’ and is often used by authorities to target dissidents and opponents in Vietnam.
On Feb. 22, police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested Vo Van Dien, a YouTuber who had posted videos supporting Nguyen Phuong Hang, another Vietnamese netizen who was charged by authorities. Vo Van Dien was accused of “disturbing public order” with their videos. Both YouTubers had spoken about the Peng Lei Buddhist Church case on their channels.
Police in Vietnam’s Long An province have sent a notice to several lawyers involved in the Peng Lei case saying that they could be charged for their work.
One of the lawyers, Dao Kim Lan, told RFA that the notice “had something to do with our comments and complaints against Long An province’s judicial agencies.”
“Perhaps, they targeted our comments on how they had covered up crimes and showed signs of fabricating evidence,” he added.
Lawyers for the church had submitted a complaint claiming violations of due process for their clients to Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, but the ministry assigned the same police who were named in the complaint to investigate the allegations.
Dao Kim Lan also said that the lawyers were receiving threats, and were sent anonymous messages online saying they would be arrested.
“I am not sure whether it was an act of retaliation,” he added. The fact that the Long An police, who accused them of committing crimes, are investigating the case “makes us think that objectivity cannot be guaranteed.”
Lawyers are requesting that the ministry assign an independent entity to investigate, saying that the accused cannot investigate the accuser in a fair case.
Ngo Thi Hoang Anh, another one of the lawyers in the case, told RFA that at present, “ I cannot say anything as I need to do my best to protect my clients' interests.”
“For lawyers, being unable to best protect their clients is a shame, and I am very worried about having to quit or refuse to continue defending them. I hope everything will be clarified soon so I can keep practicing law.”
Another lawyer from Hanoi, speaking to RFA anonymously, said that charging the lawyers would send a chilling message to defense lawyers across the country.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 6, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 22, 2023
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam arrested activist Le Minh The for allegedly posting “illegal content” on his Facebook page, in violation of a vaguely worded law routinely used to suppress independent bloggers and journalists.
The was charged with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the State’s interests and legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” under Article 331, state media reported.
International human rights organizations have said Article 331 and other vaguely written and arbitrarily applied laws are tools for the government to silence dissenting voices and restrict freedom of speech.
The, born in 1963, completed a two-year jail term for the same charge in July 2020, the state media report said.
Authorities did not specify what the illegal content on his Facebook account was, but his most recent post was about U.S. President Joe Biden visiting Ukraine on Tuesday.
Other posts on the account were information, images, and videos about Vietnam, a police summons issued to Le Thi Binh – The’s younger sister, to discuss her livestream videos, Vietnam’s VinFast electric cars, and a recent RFA report about an ex-con former fortune-teller who was ordained as a Catholic priest under seemingly shady circumstances.
The indictment for The’s previous violation in 2019 said that he contacted and exchanged information “with inside and outside reactionary forces on social media platforms” in hopes of inciting them to join demonstrations and topple the Vietnamese government.
Mr The - 60 years old - completed his 2-year jail sentence in July 2020, for abuse democratic freedoms.
On 22 Feb 2023, Binh Thuy ward, Can Tho city, again arrested and prosecuted him for the same offence.
State media reported Mr The often published, shared articles with 'illegal content' on his Facebook for others to share and comment.
His last status on his Facebook dated 21 Feb, was the image of US President Biden visiting Ukraine.
Other articles on his Fb included information on Vietnam situation, recent police summon for his sister Ms Le Thi Binh - who completed her 2-year jail sentence for abuse democratic freedoms in Nov 2022, VinFast's electric vehicles, RFA's report on the recent ordination of Catholic priest Ho Huu Hoa - a bribery convict, who was suspected of being ordained by deceptive means.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Trial against Eight Members of Hiến Pháp Group Postponed, New Schedule Not Announced (Update)
- Date added
- Feb 27, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 17, 2023
- Event Description
Known dissidents prevented from going to public memorials to pay respect to Vietnamese civilians and soldiers killed by the Chinese during the war
RFA Viet 17 Feb https://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/news/vietnamnews/commemoration-of-sino-vietnam-war-prevented-by-security-forces-02172023075452.html
The police from two major cities HCMC and Hanoi continued to prevent citizens to pay respect to those killed by the Chinese during the war.
On 17 Feb, local authorities reportedly deployed the police, civilian guards, neighbourhood security personnel... to guard private residences of activists and blocked entry to public memorials of Vietnamese heroes [in the fight against Chinese invaders in history] such as King Ly Thai To memorial in Hanoi, General Tran Hung Dao memorial in Bach Dang wharf, HCMC.
Dissident poet Hoang Hung - a member of the independent writers' league Van Doan Doc Lap - told RFA Viet he and his wife tried to go to Bach Dang wharf on Fri 17 Feb.
... When we reached the gate of our apartment block, two policemen politely stopped us and said 'don't go anywhere today'.
They said 'we received order to stop you two from leaving. To pay respect [to those killed in the war] is the right thing to do, but [our superiors] are afraid some people take advantage of this activity to cause troubles, please understand, don't go anywhere today'.
Mr Hung's two brothers were fallen soldiers, one sacrificed his life in the war against the Chinese [in 1979], the other one in the war against Cambodia's Polpot [1978 - 1989].
Mr Le Than, president of Le Hieu Dang club - members include former Party officials / members turned democracy supporters - told RFA Viet he managed to come to Bach Dang wharf to pay respect at General Tran Hung Dao memorial, as he had left his house the previous day. On 17 Feb, in the morning, he came back and stood hidden at a location close to the memorial, waiting for friends to come as they had planned, but he didn't see anyone known to him who had managed to come close to the memorial.
He said the authorities allowed citizens to light joss sticks to pay respect [at the memorial], but wanted people categorised as "sensitive elements" such as poet Hoang Hung, Prof Mac Van Trang, himself, to stay home.
In Hanoi, on 17 Feb, Mrs Hoang Ha said she was under police guard.
'My house is still under police surveillance. Since last night [16 Feb], [the police] rang me and came to my place to check if I was home. This morning [17 Feb], people had been deployed [to my place] to guard me.'
Later, her daughter rode a motorbike with her sitting behind and managed to leave home without being stopped. She wasn't sure the police didn't find out or they knew but ignored them. However, when she returned home after going to Tay Tuu cemetery (Tu Liem district) to pay respect to fallen soldiers in the war - several thousands were laid to rest there - the police were still guarding her place.
Mr Le Hoang, an active member of No-U Hanoi (an anti-Chinese hegemony soccer club), told RFA Viet, since early morning [17 Feb], the local police already came to his place then left to go to a coffee shop for their morning coffee, after telling him, he 'could go to Tay Tuu cemetery to pay respect, but don't go to [Hoan Kiem] riverside, or we [the police] will stop you and cause you trouble'.
He said when he travelled past Ly Thai To memorial, he saw many police and civilian guards deployed there, ready to take action when the crowd was getting bigger.
Mr Le Than, Mr Le Hoang, Mrs Hoang Ha noted that the police's attitude towards them on this occasion was more easy going compared with previous years. Mr Le Hoang said, in previous years, many activists were detained or arrested on days of commemoration of the wars against the Chinese.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Restrictions on Movement, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
Case shared via email with FORUM-ASIA
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 20, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 14, 2023
- Event Description
Background
Dang Nhu Quynh is a well-known Facebooker who works and lives in Hanoi. Prior to arrest, he was running a Facebook account with more than 317,000 followers which focuses on social, political and economic issues in Vietnam. History of Activism
According to State media, in 2020, Dang Nhu Quynh was summoned by the Hanoi police for his Facebook posts discussing Covid issues in Vietnam.
Details of Imprisonment
On April 12, 2022, Dang Nhu Quynh was arrested for allegedly posting “unverified information" on his Facebook account. He was charged under Article 331 of the 2015 Criminal Code for “abusing democratic freedoms."
According To An Xo, a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security, Quynh was accused of using social media to post articles and “unverified information" about certain individuals and businesses in finance, the stock market, and real estate. Quynh's actions “negatively affected the state’s finance and stock market,” Xo said.
Prior to arrest, Dang Nhu Quynh had recently posted several articles about the cases of finance mogul Trinh Van Quyet, chairman of FLC Group who had been arrested for stock market manipulation, and Do Anh Dung, the chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Minh Group who was arrested for bond-issuance fraud. In the posts, Quynh predicted that the government would continue prosecuting persons and company leaders that are guilty of similar crimes.
October 2022:
On October 27, a Hanoi court sentenced Dang Nhu Quynh, a 42-year-old Facebooker with over 300,000 followers, to two years in prison for “abusing democratic freedoms.” Prosecutors said that on April 2 Quynh posted information about Do Anh Dung, chairman of the joint stock company Tan Hoang Minh, claiming that Dung was being criminally investigated. However, it was not until April 5 that Dung’s investigation was revealed by police. The state further alleged that Quynh later posted unsubstantiated news about an investigation against Nguyen Van Tuan, chairman of joint stock companies Gelex and Viglacera, causing the share prices for these companies to drop precipitously, and leading to a loss in capitalization of 11,000 billion dong (US $500 million). Quynh was ultimately not charged for his posts about Do Anh Dung since the latter was under investigation anyway. However, according to prosecutors, Quynh allegedly admitted in court that his posts on Nguyen Van Tuan were just speculation on his part and done only to gain likes.
43-year-old Mr Quynh, owner of a Fb account with over 300,000 followers, had his 2-year jail sentence upheld on 14 Feb , by Hanoi court.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 18, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 2, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has ordered the detention of the former director of the Southeast and North Asia Institute of Technology Research and Development following six months of house arrest.
According to a post on its website on Feb. 2, the ministry’s Security Investigation Agency arrested Nguyen Son Lo because he “showed signs of continuing to commit crimes.”
The ministry launched an investigation in July 2022, under the controversial Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code for "abusing freedom and democracy infringe upon the interests of the state, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals."
Human rights groups in Vietnam and around the world say 331 is used to silence and arbitrarily detain political activists.
The ministry said it had “issued an arrest warrant for the accused for temporary detention and a search warrant for the defendant's residence and workplace,” without saying what crimes Lo allegedly continued to commit.
The ministry has never given specifics on why Lo was being investigated, saying last July the Investigation Security Agency was “focusing on investigating, collecting documents, and consolidating evidence on the criminal acts of the accused and related individuals … according to the provisions of law."
Lo founded the think-tank, known as SENA, and wrote many books intended to offer advice to Vietnam’s leaders, with recommendations on politics, economy and culture.
Lo’s close friend Nguyen Khac Mai, director of the Hanoi-based Minh Triet Cultural Research Center, told RFA last year the Communist Party advised him not to send his books to provincial party secretaries or National Assembly deputies but send them internally to groups such as the Secretariat and the Politburo of the party’s Central Committee.
On July 4, 2022, the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations said it had decided to suspend the operations of the institute and take steps to abolish it, saying its establishment and operations violated regulations.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Academic
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 6, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Event Description
A former prisoner of conscience has been summoned by police in Vietnam after accusing them of taking nearly U.S.$11,000 from her during her arrest three years ago.
Le Thi Binh, 46, is a member of Vietnam’s Constitution Group, posting her views regularly on Facebook. She also joined protests against the draft Laws on Cybersecurity and Special Economic Zones in 2018.
She was released at the end of November after serving a two-year prison sentence allegedly “abusing democratic freedoms.”
Police in southern Vietnam’s Can Tho city brought her in for questioning Wednesday after a Facebook stream, during which Binh said officers took U.S. dollars and Vietnamese dong she was saving to renovate her home.
During the meeting, the police said that Binh's online talk on Jan. 22 contained sensitive content, affecting the reputation of state agencies, including the Binh Thuy district Police.
Binh told RFA when she was arrested on Dec. 22, 2022, police confiscated her handbag and wallet.
Binh said she told the police the money belonged to a friend who was traveling with her and assumed they would give it to the person, who was not arrested.
They later returned the handbag and wallet, which only had some small notes left in them.
"This money was definitely taken by Mr. Ky,” said Binh referring to Truong Ngoc Ky, the police officer investigating her case.
Binh said police also took money from her daughter’s wedding that was hidden in a photo album in her bedroom
Police used a hacksaw to open her door and forced her to sit on the bed while they ransacked her house, she said. The search report did not mention the missing money.
During Tuesday's meeting the police said they did not take money from her house and asked her if anyone had seen her hiding it.
Binh said state media lied when they reported on the police search, saying she had many documents with anti-state content. She said the only documents in her home were bank books and her children’s books. When she met the police, she asked them to explain where the newspapers got their information but they didn’t tell her.
In an interview with RFA Vietnamese following her release Binh talked about the harsh conditions at An Phuoc Prison camp in Binh Duong province. She said she was forced to do hard labor and fed with only two meals of rice and rotten fish a day.
Police questioned her about this during her interview and she confirmed the facts were correct.
RFA called the Binh Thuy District Police to verify Binh’s claims but the officer on duty asked the reporter to come to the office to get the information. RFA has not yet visited the Binh Thuy police department.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to property
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 5, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 17, 2023
- Event Description
Hanoi police said that they completed an investigation into the case of prominent blogger Nguyen Lan Thang, who was arrested in July, and recommended he be charged with spreading anti-state information.
Le Van Luan, one of Thang’s two defense lawyers, told RFA on Friday that they received a notice saying that “the investigation was completed by Jan. 17.” The lawyer added that both defense counsels have registered to represent Thang.
Born in 1975, Nguyen is a human rights activist who blogged for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. His wife, Le Bich Vuong, said that neither she nor his two lawyers have been able to speak with him or see him since his arrest on July 5.
“Our family hasn’t had any information about him and hasn’t been allowed to see him. Neither have his lawyers,” she said.
Police announced that they recommended Thang be charged with “creating, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials, items, and publications against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Vuong said her family was allowed each week to send him food and personal items purchased directly from the prison. She said she was very worried about his health as he has asthma. The detention center did not allow her to send him medicine.
Investigators also told her family that Thang had complained of bone pain and blurred vision.
Academic family
Nguyen Lan Thang is from a well-known academic family in Vietnam, and his grandfather wrote a popular Vietnamese dictionary.
Thang is both a writer and an activist, beginning in 2011 with protests against China’s maritime incursions in the South China Sea.
He was arrested in 2013, and in 2014 authorities forbade him from traveling to the United States to attend a World Press Freedom Day ceremony held by UNESCO.
He has contributed articles as an independent commentator to RFA’s Vietnamese Service since 2013 on topics such as freedom, democracy and human rights. He also actively posted on his personal Facebook page.
Blocked from lawyers
His wife, Vuong, said she was told by police that Thang could only be allowed visitors, including his lawyers, once the police investigation was complete because he is accused of a national security violation.
“It’s extremely unreasonable,” Vuong told RFA. “Article 117 is very vague … I don’t think he has done any harm to the country’s interests.”
Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia Division, said Thang faces a long prison term for simply expressing viewpoints on Facebook that the ruling Communist party doesn't like.
"Vietnam's campaign to censor critical views and put activists behind bars is not slowing down one iota despite the political unrest and official resignations at the top of the government,” Robertson said.
“Arresting people on ludicrous charges like ‘conducting anti-state propaganda’ is not a sign of strength but rather an indication of weakness,” he said, “and only goes to show just how politically paranoid Vietnam's ruling dictatorship really is about members of the public pointing out the regime's faults.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 5, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 25, 2022
- Event Description
The police in Dak Lak province detained religious freedom campaigner Y An Hdrue and a fellow worshiper as they tried to attend a Christmas service at the Evangelical Church of Christ.
The Protestant church is not one of the country’s approved religions and does not belong to the State-linked Vietnam Fatherland Front.
According to the Montagnard Stand for Justice Facebook page, early on Sunday morning, Y An Hdrue, 52, and fellow worshiper Y Pok Eban, 37, traveled to Cuor Knia 2 village in Buon Don district’s Ea Bar commune to attend a Christmas service at the invitation of the church.
The traffic police stopped them when they arrived, demanding to see their vehicle documents and driver's licenses.
Y An Hdrue is a former prisoner of conscience who served four years in prison for demanding religious freedom and fighting land grabs.
“Going to the gas station near Cuor Knia village, the traffic police and security forces stopped our motorbike and asked to check our papers,” he told RFA. “After checking our papers, they said they were fake."
Even though Y An Hdrue told them he had passed his driving test and been given a license by the police the two men were forced to go to Ea Bar commune’s police headquarters.
“They forced us into the commune. We were held from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. before we were allowed to go home,” he said.
During the 10 hours, a group of five to six plainclothes policemen took turns questioning the two men, Y An Hdrue said. The officers refused to give their names, positions and places of work.
The police confiscated the men’s phones and searched through the files on them. Y An Hdrue told RFA his phone contained the International Human Rights Law and Vietnam's Law on Religion and Belief as well as some documents reporting human rights violations in Vietnam that he had collected and sent to foreign human rights groups.
Before they were released the two were forced to sign confessions.
Y An Hdrue admitted to storing information about human rights violations in Vietnam on his phone. The police then returned their papers and ordered them to drive home, keeping their phones.
Speaking from the U.S., Pastor Aga of the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ told RFA followers in Dak Lak province had planned to celebrate Christmas at the house of Ea Bar commune vice president Y Kreek Bya.
He said members of the congregation told him the police warned them not to attend the service.
“The Provincial Police called to threaten them, saying that if they left their homes to go to Cuor Knia village where Y Kreek Bya was, they would be sent to prison, making them very scared and confused,” he said. “Some people still went and some had their phones and motorbikes confiscated.”
Pastor Aga said some followers hung a celebratory banner written in the Ede language at Y Kreek’s house but local authorities sent someone to take it down.
Even after harassment by the police and local authorities, he said many believers from Ea Bar commune still attended the Christmas service.
RFA called the police in Buon Don district and Dak Lak province several times to try to verify the information, but no one answered the phone.
The Vietnamese government has repeatedly accused the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ of being reactionary and anti-State.
In January the People's Public Security newspaper published an article on its website accusing the religion of gathering dignitaries and ethnic minority followers in the Central Highlands and the U.S. "to establish their own religion and ethnic minority state in the Central Highlands," a claim the Evangelical Church has denied.
On Dec. 2, the U.S. State Department included Vietnam in the group of countries on its Special Watch List for religious freedom.
The State Department said there are not enough violations of religious freedom to label Vietnam a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) which is the highest level of censure for countries that violate religious freedom. However, it said it would monitor the government closely and add it to the CPC if there was no improvement.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of Religion and Belief, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 15, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 3, 2023
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities arrested an activist on Tuesday on unknown charges after he posted two short messages on his Facebook page that appeared to criticize his former employer, a water purification company.
The first post on Hoang Van Vuong’s page said, “Whoever has party membership should establish clean water companies to sell dirty water but receive payments for clean water. Easy earn!”
The second post said, “Clean water companies provide dirty water. Who is held responsible?”
Vietnam has come down hard in recent years on activists and individuals who make critical comments on Facebook, which is widely used in the Southeast Asian nation, arresting them on vague charges of “abusing the rights of freedom and democracy” or “spreading anti-state propaganda.”
Last year, authorities convicted and imprisoned at least 31 such people, handing out prison terms ranging from one to eight years.
Vuong’s younger brother, Hoang Van Quoc, told Radio Free Asia that on Tuesday, Vuong received a call from his former employer asking him to come to the office to pick up a New Year’s gift. Police at the scene then arrested him.
Then the police went with him to his house, asked that the electricity be cut off and read out a house search warrant. They confiscated a camera, a cell phone and a broken laptop. said Hoang Van Long, his older brother.
After that, they made a record of the house search, made six copies, and had Vuong sign one before taking him away, Long said. The police didn’t tell the family what he was arrested for.
Tuyen said he was surprised by the arrest because Vuong was not an influential political dissident and he did not post messages often on Facebook.
Vuong, 44, began voicing critical viewpoints in 2011 and as a result was detained and beaten by authorities that year and in 2012, Tuyen said.
“He is an ordinary person and does not belong to any organization,” Tuyen said. “He spoke up whenever he saw injustice. He only talked about what he witnessed. He sometimes took part in a demonstration together with me or other groups.”
Thong Nhat district police told RFA that they did not have the authority to respond to inquiries about the arrest and suggested contacting Dong Nai provincial police. But someone there said provincial police had not conducted the arrest, and referred RFA back to district authorities.
Facebooker Hoang Van Vuong, 44, was arrested in Dong Nai Province for allegedly criticizing the water authorities. A relatively unknown but outspoken critic of injustice, Vuong began voicing his opinions in 2011 and was detained briefly in 2012. According to RFA, Vuong was called into his former workplace to pick up a gift whereupon he was promptly detained by waiting public security. It is not known what the charges are against Vuong.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 26, 2022
- Event Description
A court in An Giang Province has sentenced activist Nguyen Nhu Phuong to five years in prison plus three years of probation for spreading “anti-state propaganda,” in accordance with Article 117. A member of the No-U group, Phuong participated in many protests in years past such as against the Formosa environmental disaster and the Cybersecurity Law. During the pandemic, Phuong reposted a video purported to be of an An Giang provincial chief refusing to order the police to prevent people in the city from escaping to the countryside. Prosecutors argued at the trial that the video was fake and damaged the reputation of the Party. In a rare sign of openness, Phuong’s mother and wife were allowed into the courtroom. Born in 1991, Phuong went to Japan to study in 2014. He set up an import business after returning to Vietnam. He’s currently under investigation for a separate drug charge.
Lawyer Mr Dang Dinh Manh, representing Mr Phuong, reported:
On the morning 26 Dec 2022, An Giang province court sentenced Mr Phuong to 5 years jail plus 3 years probation on anti-state propaganda charge pursuant sec 117 of the penal code. His mother and his wife were allowed in court.
Mr Phuong was born in 1991. In 2014, he went to Japan to study. On his return, he opened a shop selling Japanese imports. He had participated in anti-Chinese hegemony protests.
On his Fb page, he often expressed his opinion on social, political issues. Authorities had assessed many of his articles and concluded that they were extremely negative against the state, the Vietnamese Communist Party and top leaders, causing social disorder, public confusion...
During the investigation phase and the trial, Mr Phuong acknowledged he was the owner of several Fb accounts and the author of articles that were considered as violating the law.
The trial lasted over 2 hours, the sentencing statement was read in 15 minutes.
After the trial, Mr Phuong was transported to Ba Ria temporary detention centre, where he was still subject to another criminal prosecution proceedings on 'storing and using illegal drugs'.
He will face an additional sentence on top of the recent one. Mr Phuong is facing an extremely difficult time ahead - his lawyer Mr Manh wrote.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 14, 2023
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 30, 2022
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam has convicted seven people for “resisting on-duty state officials” during a demonstration against the demolition of a road that ran through their parish, which ended in clashes between protesters and riot police.
The trial took place at the headquarters of the People's Court of Nghe An province, according to state-controlled media. All seven residents of Binh Thuan parish were found guilty under Article 330 of the Criminal Code.
Bui Van Canh, 44, was sentenced to one year in prison. Ha Van Hanh, 42, Tran Thi Hoa, 52, and Tran Thi Thoa, 58, were sentenced to eight months. Tran Thi Nien, 38, and Ha Thi Hien, 35, were both sentenced to six months in prison. Bach Thi Hoa, 70, was sentenced to four months and 17 days -- exactly the same amount of time she spent in detention -- and was released.
On July 13, hundreds of riot police descended on the parish in Nghe An’s Nghi Thuan commune to stop protesters removing a fence blocking a road that connects the parish to a national highway. The road, which had been in use for more than 100 years, is located on land the government granted to a private company for a planned industrial zone.
According to the indictment, the defendants "and many other extremists strongly opposed and obstructed" construction workers who were trying to demolish the road and the police sent to protect them. The indictment said protesters were: “shouting, cursing, carrying beer bottles; picking up and gathering rocks and glass bottles to provide for other protesters to throw at the riot police who were guarding works; using their hands and sickles to push the barbed wire fence to widen the road for the opponents; and directly rushing in and using their hands to push and beat repeatedly on the shields of the riot police.” As a result, it said, five police officers were injured and had to be treated at the hospital.
The protesters’ version of events differs from that given by the police. Demonstrators said police threw smoke grenades and explosives at them. Of three people released over the next few days, one said he was beaten while in custody.
No lawyers, no families in court
The seven defendants had no legal counseling and their relatives said they were not permitted to attend last week’s trial.
“I went to the detention center on November 29 to send things to my wife, but they didn't say anything [about the following day’s trial],” Ha Thi Hien's husband Nguyen Minh Duc told RFA, adding that none of the defendants' families had been informed.
“On the morning of November 30, around 7:30 a.m., there were two commune policemen in plain clothes walking along the street saying: 'Today the trial is in the province, the families should go to see how it goes.' The families were about to go when Mrs. Hoa came back from the hearing. She said that the trial was held in the district and not in the province.”
Duc said his wife and other defendants did not have defense attorneys because the police had told their families that if they hired lawyers the sentences would be heavier.
The seven were held in a Nghe An provincial Police detention center for the past four months. During that time, Duc said he only saw his wife twice, for five minutes each time. He said the other six defendants were only allowed to see their families once for five minutes.
Duc called the sentences unfair and too long, saying the people of Binh Thuan parish just wanted to protect a road that has existed for more than 100 years and helped locals go about their business.
He said his wife did not take part in any of the actions listed in the indictment, fellow defendant Ha Van Hanh only recorded a video of police grabbing people, and Bach Thi Hoa was found guilty despite suffering two broken ribs during her non-violent protest.
Duc said the prison sentence will seriously affect his family's life because he has to take time off work to take care of his two children - a two-year-old and an eight-year-old.
- Impact of Event
- 7
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 30, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 16, 2022
- Event Description
On December 20, the investigation agency of the Hanoi Police Department officially indicted Hoang Ngoc Giao, a Vietnamese NGO leader and a legal expert, on charges of “committing tax evasion” under Article 200 of the Penal Code, State media reported. But earlier, three anonymous sources told RFA Vietnamese that Giao was arrested on December 16 for “providing classified information to foreign entities.” The Hanoi People’s Procuracy reportedly approved the arrest of Giao. Hoang Ngoc Giao is also the director of the Institute for Policies on Law and Development (PLD), a locally registered NGO that carries out research on Vietnam’s development policy. The organization remains under the management of the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology (VUSTA), a government-controlled agency. The investigation agency of the Hanoi Police Department has not provided preliminary investigation results regarding Giao’s alleged “tax evasion.” The NGO leader is also an advisor who regularly assists the government in improving the country’s legal framework. Last month, Giao chaired a workshop proposing amendments to Vietnam’s Land Law at the Government Guest House in Hanoi. In early 2020, he demanded an independent investigation into the police raid of Dong Tam Village, a land conflict hotspot. Last October, Giao was elected chairman of the Vietnam - China International Trade Arbitration Center (VCITAC). The director of PLD is the latest NGO leader indicted on “tax evasion” charges. Previously, four directors from different Vietnamese nonprofit organizations were charged and imprisoned on similar charges. They include the prominent environmental activist Nguy Thi Khanh, who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018 for her anti-coal advocacy. Convicted tax evaders face up to seven years of imprisonment in Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 26, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 30, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnam’s State-owned media has remained silent about the mass protests across China in protest against the Chinese government’s draconian zero-COVID policy. Hundreds of people, on rare occasions, have taken to the streets of China in recent weeks to protest the government-imposed lockdowns and travel restrictions. Many were heard calling for President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party to step down. According to observers, Hanoi is censoring the news because it wants to avoid upsetting Beijing. Vietnam is China’s fellow Communist comrade, and it is also one of Beijing’s key trading partners. Reporting about the protests have either been restricted or scrubbed off State-owned newspapers and television channels. But according to RFA sources, news, videos and images about the anti-lockdown demonstrations in China have been widely circulated on Vietnam’s social media. Vietnamese authorities are also worried that similar mass demonstrations could break out in the country.. In recent weeks, bank depositors have staged protests across the country, although on a smaller scale compared to China, to demand payments from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) and securities firms after the arrests of real estate tycoons for alleged financial fraud. Vietnamese police also started to oppress bank demonstrators. A video published on November 30 showed plainclothes agents and security forces brutally forcing peaceful protestors rallying in front of an SCB branch in Danang City onto a bus. It’s unclear where these demonstrators were taken to. A similar rally occurred in front of another SCB branch in Ho Chi Minh City on November 1 and was also met with police suppression.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 16, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 18, 2022
- Event Description
Tran Van Bang, last known to be held at Chi Hoa prison, is reportedly in failing health and in need of medical treatment. His sister reported that his requests to be examined by a doctor had allegedly been denied several times; prison officials also allegedly said they’d take him to the hospital “if it became an emergency.”
61-year-old democracy activist Mr Tran Bang was arrested on 1 Mar 2022, on anti-state propaganda charge under sec 117 of the penal code. He is currently held at detention centre 4 Phan Dang Luu, Binh Thanh ward, of HCMC police.
On 18 Nov 2022, HCMC public prosecutor office returned the case to the police and demanded further investigation to be conducted within 2 months. This information was provided by Mr Bang's defence lawyers Messrs Nguyen Van Mieng and Dang Dinh Manh on their Fb page. The lawyers informed that the public prosecutor office didn't agree with the police's recommendation to prosecute Mr Bang, and also gave orders that the defendant can participate in the legal process at the end of the extended investigation period of 2 months.
He was allowed to meet with his lawyers in Oct 2022 and his family in Nov 2022. However, when his family came to prison to visit him in Dec 2022, they were turned away. A family member told RFA Viet 12 Dec:
'At beginning of Dec 2022, our family came to visit him, after fulfilling all admin procedures, prison officers reported to their superiors then came back to tell us we were not allowed to see him during the extended investigation period, as the secrecy of the investigation must be protected.
'We only know about the extended investigation period from the lawyers, the police didn't inform our family of that.'
His family is very concerned about his health. In the family visit in Nov 2022 - the first family visit since his arrest in Mar 2022 - he said his health had gravely deteriorated.
He has a tumour that keeps growing, yellow discharge is oozing out of his ears, his eyes are dry and blocked from opening due to severe eye discharge.
His wish of being allowed to see a medical specialist hasn't been approved.
Mr Bang is a former communist soldier who fought in the China-Vietnam border war in 1979. He is a member of Le Hieu Dang club - members include former high-standing communist officers turn democracy advocates. He participated in anti-Chinese hegemony protests and opposed the Special Economic Zones bill - which many saw as giving China long-term leases of Vietnam's land in strategic areas.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to health, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: ailing blogger arrested
- Date added
- Dec 16, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 18, 2022
- Event Description
Music lecturer Mr Phuoc was arrested on 8 Sept 2022, charged with 'anti-state propaganda' under sec 117 of the penal code. In his last post on his Facebook Đặng Phước before his arrest, he criticised authorities' brutal treatment towards noodle soup vendor, former activist Mr Bui Tuan Lam - who was arrested on 7 Sept 2022. Mr Lam was known for imitating Salt Bae (of notorious gilded-steak chomping video clip featuring Police Minister To Lam) in sprinkling onion. Mr Phuoc also discussed issues that affected the nation such as education, human rights violations... On 18 Nov 2022, Dak Lak province police had a working session with Mr Phuoc's wife Le Thi Ha, a teacher. She told RFA Viet, in this working session, the police asked questions about three generations of her family, then showed her Facebook Hà Lê, asking her if she was the owner of this page. They then threatened her: 'The police said this Facebook page didn't say much before my husband's arrest, but since his arrest, this page started to publish and share articles that shouldn't be shared. 'They threatened to inform the Education Department, which would then inform [my] school, then the school would work with me, if I continued to share articles on Facebook.' Mrs Ha said the police gave her an indirect warning that she would be expelled from the teaching profession if she continued to provide updates on her husband's situation or sharing articles on Vietnam's social situation on her Facebook page. Cyber police was also present in the working session, to record the conversation and the images to terrorise her, to use them against her and her husband - she said. Recently, Dak Lak police also invited several local Facebookers to ask them about their connection with Mr Dang Dang Phuoc. Mr Bùi Văn Châu Tuấn - a land justice victim - was among them. In a working session with Dak Lak police on 2 Dec, about 'anti-state propaganda', the police asked him if he knew Mr Phuoc. '[The police] asked me, do I know teacher Dang Phuoc. I said yes, as our family was victims of injustice... I knew of teacher Phuoc via Facebook. I later connected with him via Messenger,..then met with him, and asked him to write an article about the injustice faced by our family.' Mrs Huynh Thi Kim Nga, wife of prisoner of conscience Ngo Van Dung, was also summoned by the police who interrogated her about Mr Phuoc's Facebook page. RFA reported that police in Buon Ma Thuot City, Dak Lak Province, had threatened Le Thi Ha, wife of Vietnamese political prisoner Dang Dang Phuoc, a former music teacher, for sharing information about her husband on social media. Ha, who works in a local kindergarten, told RFA in an interview that she began to share details about her husband and other social issues in Vietnam on her personal Facebook account after Phuoc was arrested last September. Ha said that the police told her she should stop sharing information about her husband’s detention or she could be fired from her work at the kindergarten. Dang Dang Phuoc was arrested on September 8 on charges of “distributing anti-State propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Phuoc is known for his posts on social media criticizing the Vietnamese government’s abysmal human rights situation and other social issues.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger arrested on catch-all charges
- Date added
- Dec 16, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 24, 2022
- Event Description
Chinese human rights defender Dong Guangping has been incommunicado since he was taken away by Vietnamese police officers in Hanoi on 24 August 2022. He had previously been deported from Thailand to China in 2015 despite obtaining refugee status and he has been hiding in Viet Nam since early 2020. Despite non-public efforts to clarify his fate or whereabouts with the Vietnamese government, the latter has so far failed to provide any information on this matter, prompting the human rights defender’s family in Canada to issue a public urgent plea on 10 November 2022. It is feared that he has been sent back or is at risk of being sent back to China, in violation of Viet Nam’s obligation to respect the principle of non-refoulement. Dong Guangping (董广平) is a human rights defender originally from Zhengzhou, Henan province. He was a former political prisoner who was sentenced to prison terms from 2001 to 2004 and from 2016 to 2019 in retaliation against his pro-democracy and human rights activism. In July 2014, he was detained and held incommunicado for over eight months following his participation in an event calling for justice and accountability for the victims of the government crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests in 1989. In September 2015, he fled to Thailand with his family to seek asylum with the UN’s refugee agency in Bangkok. A month later, the Thai authorities arrested Dong Guangping along with Jiang Yefei, another Chinese human rights defender seeking asylum. While in immigration detention, Dong Guangping received formal recognition as refugee by the UN and was accepted by Canada for resettlement. However, the Thai authorities unlawfully allowed both defenders to be taken back to China at the request of the Chinese government. Once back in China, the defenders were detained, faced ill-treatment in detention, forced to confess on State TV, and subsequently sentenced to prison terms by a court in Chongqing. Dong Guangping left prison after completing his sentence in August 2019. Dong Guangping’s family were able to resettle in Canada in 2015 where they now live. Due to continued surveillance and harassment by local authorities in China after completing his sentence, Dong Guangping fled to Viet Nam in January 2020 and were waiting to travel to Canada to reunite with his family. His family and acquaintances have been unable to contact him since 24 August 2022. They learned subsequently that Vietnamese police took him into custody. As a State party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention Against Torture (CAT), Viet Nam has legal obligations not to return or send individuals to places where there are substantial grounds for believing they would be subject to serious human rights violations. In the UN Committee Against Torture 2018 review of Viet Nam’s compliance with CAT, the Committee raised concerns about the lack of clear legal protection of asylum-seekers and refugees and recommended the government to ensure “the proper assessment of persons before proceeding with their criminal or administrative expulsion or deportation in order to prevent them from returning to countries where they may risk being subjected to torture”. Furthermore, the arrest, detention or abduction by State agents, followed by the State refusing to acknowledge the detention or concealing the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person, constitutes enforced disappearance, which is a serious international crime. Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned about the apparent enforced disappearance of Dong Guangping in Viet Nam, and fears that he may have been sent back to China, where he faces high risk of arbitrary detention, unfair trial, and ill-treatment. Dong Guangping’s situation adds to a growing list of cases of refoulement of human rights defenders from one country to another in Asia.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Abduction/Kidnapping, Deportation, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Transnational repression
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- China: China Jails Two Political Refugees Sent Home From Thailand After Secret Trial, Thailand: Two Chinese Human Rights Defenders Seeking Asylum Detained in Bangkok
- Date added
- Dec 5, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 22, 2022
- Event Description
A Vietnamese court in Dong Nai Province on November 22 sentenced a Vietnamese couple to prison on the charge of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the State and individuals’ interests” under Article 331 of the Penal Code, RFA reported. Nguyen Thai Hung, a local Youtuber running his personal channel called “Telling the Truth TV,” where he discussed multiple social and political issues in Vietnam, received a four-year prison sentence. At the same time, Vu Thi Kim Hoang, Hung’s wife, received a two-and-a-half-year sentence on the same charge. RFA reported that both were tried without the presence of a lawyer. Hoang, 44, told RFA that she and Hung first hired lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng as their defense lawyer, but they had to dismiss their lawyer after being pressured by the police. Hoang added that although the trial was open to the public, only their daughter was allowed inside the courtroom, while other relatives had to remain at the building entrance. According to the indictment via RFA, from June 2020 to January 2022, Hung used his YouTube channel to host 21 online discussions that contained content “speaking badly of the [Communist] Party and the State, distorting the government’s socio-economic policy, slandering the Party and State’s high-level leaders, and distorting recent high-profile incidents.” Meanwhile, Hoang was accused of “being a related and supportive person” for providing Hung with accommodations and letting him use her laptop and access her bank account. It was reported that Hoang admitted the acts in court, while Hung pleaded innocent, claiming that he was exercising his right to freedom of speech and democratic rights by live-streaming his talks on YouTube.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 28, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 21, 2022
- Event Description
Award-winning environmentalist Nguy Thi Khanh will have her prison sentence reduced by three months.
On November 21, Khanh’s sentence was reduced from 24 months to 21 months by an appellate court in Hanoi.
Khanh, one of Vietnam’s most prominent environmental experts, was sentenced to two years in prison in June on “tax evasion” charges. Khanh is the first Vietnamese person to receive the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize, in 2018, which came with a $200,000 prize. The tax evasion charge stems from the fact that Khanh failed to pay about $18,000 in taxes (10% of the prize). Khanh has said she was unaware of the tax obligation on the prize money. The reduction in her sentence was reportedly attributed to her admission of failure to pay the tax and her many contributions to society.
There is evidence to suggest that Khanh’s arrest and prosecution are politically-motivated. An outspoken critic of the use of coal, Khanh joined three other anti-coal environmental activists– Mai Phan Loi, Dang Dinh Bach, and Bach Hung Duong— who were convicted earlier this year on similar charges and handed multi-year sentences.
Vietnam’s tax laws for registered NGOs are confusing and cumbersome. Further, Khanh, like her counterparts, faced criminal, not civil proceedings, which have been supervised by state security. Khanh also did not receive notice of need for repayment prior to her arrest. The cases raise flags of a widening crackdown on civil society groups that contradicts Vietnam’s public rhetoric on the importance of fighting climate change.
Vietnam’s jailing of climate leaders seems to have been at least partly the reason why international donors recently awarded Indonesia, instead of Vietnam, with billions of dollars to fight climate change. If Vietnam is serious about its commitments to an energy transition, it cannot continue to hold its most valuable environmental voices behind bars nor force NGOs to navigate perplexing tax laws. We call on Vietnam to clarify its tax laws and to release Khanh, Duong, Loi, and Bach immediately. We will continue to closely monitor these cases until their release.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, NGO staff, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: award-winning environmental WHRD arrested, Vietnam: prominent environmental WHRD sentenced (Update)
- Date added
- Nov 28, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 18, 2022
- Event Description
A Vietnamese court on Friday sentenced Facebook user Bui Van Thuan to eight years in prison–under vague rules that are often used by authorities to stifle criticism–for a series of posts in which he criticized the power struggle among local officials, whom he nicknamed “the dog fighting ring.”
In his final statement during the trial, Thuan, 41, gave up his right to appeal because he said he cannot trust the judicial system in Vietnam.
“The sentence for my husband may have met the authorities’ expectations, but it is utterly unconvincing to me,” his wife, Trinh Thi Nhung, told Radio Free Asia in a text message.
“My husband did not appeal, not because he pleaded guilty or surrendered,” she wrote. “The reason is: No political prisoners have appealed successfully so far.”
The People’s Court in the northern province of Than Hoa found Thuan guilty of “disseminating anti-state materials,” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code. In addition to the time in prison, Thuan must also serve five years probation.
According to the indictment, Thuan penned 27 Facebook posts with “content against the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The prosecution called 12 witnesses but only one, Le Quoc Quyen, who is a Facebook friend of Thuan and the head of Thuan’s local police station, showed up to the court.
According to the defense, the witness could not provide concrete details about the charges against Thuan. But when they requested that criminal charges be brought against the witness for false testimony, the judge denied the request.
“Sending a man to prison for eight years on the basis of a few Facebook posts indicates the government's total intolerance for any sort of criticism,” Phil Robertson, Human Rights Watch’s Deputy Asia Director, told RFA via text message.
“At this point, one wonders why the Vietnam government even bothers to send such cases to trial since the long sentences issued by these kangaroo courts are entirely predictable, and justice and rule of law in the country is a farce,” Robertson said.
According to RFA Vietnamese, Bui Van Thuan is the eighth activist sentenced on charges of conducting propaganda against the state this year. The rest were sentenced to five to eight years in prison and three to five years on probation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 20, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 2, 2022
- Event Description
Huynh Thuc Vy’s family visited her at Gia Trung Prison in Gia Lai Province on October 9. Her brother, Huynh Trong Hieu, reported that during the last five minutes of the visit, when Vy was allowed to hug her children, she whispered to her six-year-old daughter that she had been “beaten and choked by the neck.” Hieu also said that at the last visit on August 10, Vy slammed the phone on the floor after being told she could not hug her children, but she later said she was not disciplined for it. Hieu said Vy might have been targeted by officials for helping other prisoners, sharing her food with them, giving their families’ phone numbers to Hieu so he could update them about their imprisoned loved ones.
Mrs Vy is serving 33 month-jail in Gia Trung prison, Gia Lai province, for desecrating the flag of communist Vietnam.
In Sept 2022, after a prison visit, her 6-year-old daughter told her family that Mrs Vy said she had been beaten by a prison officer.
Her family lodged a written request to the Police in charge of Prison (C10 unit), Gia Lai public prosecutor office and Gia Trung prison , demanding an investigation into this.
In a face-to-face meeting with prison authorities on Wed (9 Nov), including Mrs Vy and her brother Huynh Trong Hieu, Mr Hieu was told the real story. He relayed it to RFA Viet:
(main points)
· Ms Vy was not assaulted by the prison officer, but by three criminal prisoners, in front of prison officers.
· In the meeting [on 9 Nov], Ms Vy said that on 2 Oct, a female criminal prisoner named Le Thi Huyen Anh slapped her twice in her face at the prison kitchen, because she didn't wear prison uniform. She told prison officers about this, the prison took no action. On her way back to her cell, this criminal prisoner again, out of the blue, struck her at her nape, when she fell down, that prisoner strangled her.
· In another meeting between Mrs Vy and prisoner Huyen Anh to resolve conflicts, in the presence of 5 prison officers, two additional prisoners were present. One was a female criminal prisoner named Pham Thi Chien who suddenly lunged at her and strangled her, and another prisoner threatened to use a chair to bash her. The prison officers present took no action at what was happening.
· Mr Hieu told RFA Viet, both him and Mrs Vy didn't understand why these two additional were present at the meeting to resolve the conflict between Mrs Vy and prisoner Huyen Anh.
· Mrs Vy also accused that, for over a month now, another prisoner threatened her that she 'won't be alive to return home'.
· About a week after 2 Oct, the prison organised a denunciation session, where Mrs Vy was denounced for 'offending prison officers and other prisoners'; prison officers asked other prisoners to give suggestions how to deal with Mrs Vy. The prison didn't take any action against prisoners who assaulted Mrs Vy, and had no plan to protect her.
· In another working session with prison officers, Mrs Vy was pressured by Mr Pham Tat Trung - representative of Gia Trung prison inspectors - and Mr Dang Ngoc Son - representative of prison officers, to withdraw her complaint against prisoner Le Thi Huyen Anh who slapped her and strangled her.
Having been assaulted and threatened, Mrs Vy became physically ill and mentally exhausted.
In the meeting on 9 Nov where both Mrs Vy and her brother Hieu were present, the prison asked both of them to sign a report, to correct the information regarding Mrs Vy was assaulted by prisoner Huyen Anh; the prison didn't say anything about protecting Mrs Vy's safety.
From the information he gathered so far, Mr Hieu suspected that the prison is plotting to harm Mrs Vy - using other criminal prisoners in their scheme.
Mr Hieu calls on rights organisations to please voice their concern about Mrs Vy's situation, to give her timely protection and save her life.
Mrs Vy is among founders of the independent Vietnamese Women's Association.
Human Rights Watch awarded her and her father the Hellman/Hammet prize in 2012 for their efforts to promote human rights in Vietnam.
Vietnam's laws allow prisoners with young children under 3 years to postpone serving their sentence. However, Mrs Vy was forced to serve her sentence on 30 Nov 2021, even though at that time her youngest child was under 3 years old.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Death threat, Intimidation and Threats, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: prominent WHRD sent back to prison (Update), Vietnam: Rights Activist Huynh Thuc Vy Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison, Yet to Have to Be Jailed
- Date added
- Nov 17, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 14, 2022
- Event Description
Political prisoner Dang Dinh Bach‘s wife, Tran Phuong Thao, updated The 88 Project after a recent visit and phone call with Bach.
He has been transferred to a new prison; his wife did not find out until she went to the old prison to visit him. Political prisoners and their families commonly face this practice in Vietnam.
Bach is serving five years in prison on charges of “tax evasion.” In August, a court upheld the sentence.
Update, November 2, 2022:
On October 16, Dang Dinh Bach’s wife, Tran Phuong Thao, visited Hanoi Detention Center No. 1 and found out that Bach was transferred to Prison No 6 in Nghe An Province on October 14.
Prison No. 6 is 300 km away from Hanoi, so Bach’s family (Thao, Bach’s father-in-law, Bach’s brother-in-law, and Bach’s sister) departed on October 19 at 4 am so that they could register to meet with Bach within the day. According to Thao, the prison authorities made it difficult for the family to find out in which area of the prison Bach was held. It wasn’t until 10:30 am that they were able to register to meet with Bach. The family finally met with him in person at 4 pm. Only Thao and Bach’s sister were allowed to see Bach. Even though Bach’s father-in-law and brother-in-law prepared all of the required documents to submit to the prison authorities for the visit, they were denied.
Bach is reported to be pretty healthy. Thao told The 88 Project that she did ask Bach about the living conditions at Prison No 6., but Bach did not answer her question. “Perhaps they reminded him not to say anything about it,” Thao said. She also shared that she had sent warm clothes, necessities, and books for him.
On October 27, Bach called home for 10 minutes, asking Thao to continue her international advocacy for him, as he is innocent. He told his wife that he had not received any books, while Thao told him that she has not received the letter he sent.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: environmental lawyer sentenced over alleged tax evasion (Udpate), Vietnam: journalists charged with tax evasion
- Date added
- Nov 17, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 7, 2022
- Event Description
In the latest clash over land-use rights in Vietnam, police have detained seven residents in the Central Highlands for trying to prevent men from cutting down a farmer’s coffee and durian trees amid a contract dispute, residents said.
The five men had been sent to cut down the trees because the farmer, identified as Nguyen Thanh Giang, hadn’t given Thang Loi Coffee Joint Stock Co., the company he was leasing the land from, the amount of coffee beans stipulated in his contract.
Since 2019, Giang had refused to hand over any beans due to bad weather and a plunge in coffee prices. After that, a court had ordered him to pay the company nearly 5,200 kilograms (11,500 pounds) of fresh beans as rent for the 2018-19 season. The farmer filed an appeal, but the appellate court upheld the earlier decision.
In Vietnam, citizens must obtain permission from the government for use of land. If the state grants parcels of land to state-owned companies or other businesses, then local farmers are at their mercy.
Early Monday, after hearing the men sawing down the trees in the dark, neighbors helped Giang chase them away. They caught three of the men and held them near the Hoa Dong commune in Krong Dak district of Dak Lak province, a resident told RFA.
When word of the incident reached authorities in town, they sent 20 vans with up to 500 police officers to the scene to rescue the trio and arrest 25 people.
After interrogations, police released 18 and sent the remaining seven to a temporary detention center, charging them with “resisting enforcement authorities” and “illegally holding people,” state media reported.
Giang’s orchard had about 30,000 coffee trees and more than 100 durian trees, the latter of which would begin bearing fruit in 2023, the resident said. Giang later posted on his Facebook page that about two-thirds of the trees in his orchard had been chopped down.
More than 1,000 households in Hoa Dong commune now face similar situations because they all rent agricultural land. In 1998, the families bought trees on the leased land and began sharing ownership with Thang Loi Coffee which held a 51% stake, said the resident.
When Thang Loi changed its name and became a joint stock company, it forced the families who rented its land to buy company’s shares at preferential prices. But Giang and others did not purchase them because they believed the company’s move was not legal.
Disgruntles residents petitioned the President’s Office, which directed the Dak Lak People’s Committee to resolve the matter, though it has not been settled, the source said.
Hundreds of local households that have leased a total of 2,300 hectares (5,700 acres) of land from the company are at risk of losing all of their assets — coffee and durian trees, said the resident.
RFA could not reach Do Hoang Phuc, chairman of the board of directors and general director of Thang Loi Coffee Joint Stock Company, for comment. Hoang Thi Thu Ha, deputy general director in charge of sales, declined to answer questions. RFA also could not reach Krong Pak Police for comment.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Land rights, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Corporation Agricultural business
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 17, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 20, 2022
- Event Description
The wife of Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Bui Van Thuan has filed a petition for help after a series of strangers visited her house, sometimes swearing and asking how she paid for her children’s meals.
Trinh Thi Nhung said the most recent incident was on Oct. 20, when a tall, young man wearing a mask drove to her house and asked to buy honey but ended up insulting her.
When the house’s owner asked the man to leave, he turned to Nhung and asked her how she paid for her children’s upbringing. He also claimed someone was giving her money while her husband was in prison. Finally, he told her to move out of her mother’s house and go to her husband’s hometown to live.
After the incident, Nhung filed a petition with authorities in Mai Lam ward, Nghi Son town, Thanh Hoa province but they said there was no basis to handle it.
Nhung was previously visited by a tattooed young man. She said he tried to break into the house when only she and her son were inside. She noticed that in the recent visit the car had the same registration plate as the one driven by the tattooed man.
Nhung filed two complaints to Mai Lam ward police to report being harassed, providing a video clip showing the second man with a clear shot of the car license plate.
“On Monday, Oct. 24, I filed a complaint with the commune police. The commune police chief saw the clip and said that because the man had not broken into my house, there was no basis to track him down,” she said.
The person in charge of local security in Mai Lam ward told Nhung if the man came back, she could defend herself or call the ward police.
RFA has not been able to contact Mai Lam ward police to verify the information that Nhung provided.
Nhung's husband, Bui Van Thuan, 41, was arrested at the end of August last year on charges of "making, storing, distributing or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The former chemistry teacher is known for his series of Facebook posts, in which he wrote about the internal fighting of state officials in many Vietnam localities, which he dubbed the "dog fighting ring."
State media cited documents from the Investigative Security Agency that said Bui Van Thuan was "frequently using social networks to post articles and images with content that infringes on national security."
More than 12 months of interrogation ended last month. Thanh Hoa province police announced the end of the investigation into Thuan, and transferred the file to the Procuracy to propose prosecution.
Nhung said the family had signed a contract with two lawyers Dang Dinh Manh and Nguyen Ha Luan to defend her husband in the upcoming trial.
Lawyer Dang Dinh Manh met Thuan in prison last week to prepare his defense, Nhung said.
During the time Thuan was detained, Thanh Hoa police repeatedly threatened to arrest his wife because she often announced details of her husband's case on social networks, and wrote a letter of complaint to demand her husband’s rights were observed.
In March and July of this year, Nhung was summoned for interrogation by the Security Investigation Agency of Thanh Hoa province's police, asking her to limit the number of articles about her husband that she posted on Facebook.
The police asked Nhung to confirm her husband's Facebook account and also her social network accounts. When she refused, the police threatened to arrest her for "failing to cooperate with the investigation agency."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Vilification
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Suspected state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger arrested by police disguised as health workers, Vietnam: wife of detained HRD threatened with arrest
- Date added
- Oct 30, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 25, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities must immediately and unconditionally release journalist Le Manh Ha and stop treating independent journalists as criminals for merely doing their jobs of reporting the news, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
On Tuesday, October 25, the People’s Court of Tuyen Quang province sentenced Ha after a two-day trial to eight years in prison to be followed by five years of house arrest for violating Article 117 of the penal code, an anti-state provision that bars “making, storing, distributing or spreading” news or information against the state, according to news reports.
The ruling said Ha produced 21 video clips and 13 articles that the court deemed as “propaganda against the socialist state of Vietnam” and posted them to his Voice of the People Le Ha TV (TDTV) YouTube-based news channel and personal Facebook page, according to the same reports.
Ha pleaded innocent to the charges at his trial and indicated he would appeal directly after the verdict was handed down, according to a U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia report that quoted his defense lawyers.
“Vietnamese authorities must free journalist Le Manh Ha, who was wrongly convicted and harshly sentenced to eight years in prison for merely doing his job as a journalist,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnam must stop equating independent journalism with criminal behavior and release all the journalists it wrongfully holds behind bars.”
Ha was arrested by plainclothes police in Tuyen Quang City on January 12, 2022, after which police raided his house and seized 20 books, two laptop computers, and a cellphone, according to multiple news reports.
Days before his arrest, Ha posted a commentary on Facebook about the “unequal fight” in eliminating official corruption, according to a U.S. Congress-funded Voice of America report.
The report said Ha’s TDTV channel often discusses legal matters related to state land grabs, a politically sensitive issue in the Communist Party-ruled nation, and he airs interviews with state land grab victims.
CPJ’s email to Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security did not immediately receive a response. Vietnam is one of the world’s worst jailers of journalists, with at least 23 members of the press behind bars for their work at the time of CPJ’s December 1, 2021 prison census.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 30, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 10, 2022
- Event Description
The investigation agency of the Thanh Hoa Police Department concluded their investigation into Bui Van Thuan, a Vietnamese dissident blogger, and informed his family that the case had been consequently submitted to the provincial procuracy, according to Trinh Thi Nhung, Thuan’s wife. Bui Van Thuan, 41, was arrested on August 30, 2021, on the charge of “distributing anti-State propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Nhung wrote on her personal Facebook account that the investigation into her husband’s case concluded on September 10, but she only learned about the decision on September 20. In an interview with RFA, Nhung said that she’s hiring attorney Dang Dinh Manh as a defense lawyer for her husband while adding that Thuan’s family was still not allowed to visit him in detention. During the investigation process, the Thanh Hoa Police Department had summoned Nhung several times to their working sessions, demanding she limit the updates on social media regarding her husband’s case. The police also threatened to arrest Nhung if she refused to verify the authenticity of her and Thuan’s personal Facebook accounts.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger arrested by police disguised as health workers, Vietnam: wife of detained HRD threatened with arrest
- Date added
- Oct 21, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 28, 2022
- Event Description
Nguyen Minh Son, 60, a Facebook user who often speaks out about Vietnam's political and social issues, has been detained by the Security Investigation Agency of the Hanoi Police Department, which also searched his house.
Tran Bao Han, Son's nephew, confirmed the news with RFA, adding that after Thursday’s search, police only gave the family a single document titled "Notice about the application of detention measures.”
According to the notice, Son was questioned and will be detained from Sept. 28, 2022 to Jan. 25, 2023. The family is still unclear under what offenses Son is being held.
“In the morning, the police agency invited my uncle to a local police station for interrogation and arrested him there, then brought him back to search his house. Now he is held in Hoa Lo,” a temporary detention center managed by the city Police Department, Han said.
Some of his documents, books and computers were taken away. The problem is that we still don't know what [allegations have been made] against him. They have just detained him for investigation.”
On the morning of September 28, Mr. Son went to the headquarters of the Security Investigation Agency of the Hanoi Police Department for interrogation after a summons from the agency.
"My uncle was summoned… once before, but this time, I suspected that they would arrest him," Han said.
The summons letters require him to “work” with an investigator named Nguyen Huu Dung, about a video clip that Son posted on his Facebook page, named "Son Nguyen," on December 31, 2021. This video had been removed from his page.
RFA contacted investigative officer Nguyen Huu Dung. When asked about what the accusation was, Dung said he couldn't hear clearly and hung up. The RFA reporter called back, but he didn't answer the phone.
Nguyen Vu Binh, a friend of Son, said Son often participated in peaceful protests and also expressed his views on the social situation in Vietnam on his personal Facebook page
“As far as I know, he participated in many peaceful demonstrations in 2017 and 2018,” Binh said. “He met other activists who criticize the government as well as sharing his views on Facebook but there haven't been any protests in a while, so I was a bit surprised when he was arrested."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 21, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 1, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnamese journalist and human rights defender Pham Doan Trang was transferred from Hoa Lo Detention Center in Hanoi to An Phuoc Prison in Vietnam’s southern Binh Duong Province on October 1, according to the latest update from her family. The new prison is located about 100 kilometers from Ho Chi Minh City center. Other political prisoners who are being jailed in An Phuoc Prison include journalist Nguyen Tuong Thuy and student activist Tran Hoang Phuc. Vietnamese authorities often send political prisoners to detention centers located far from their families as an extra form of punishment. Last month, Nguyen Thi Tam, a Vietnamese land rights activist, was transferred to Gia Trung Prison in Gia Lai Province, which is nearly 1,200 kilometers from her home. Trinh Ba Phuong, another land rights activist, is being held at An Diem Prison in Quang Nam Province, which is located around 800 km from his home.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 20, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 7, 2022
- Event Description
Per Luong's daughter, Nguyen Thi Xoan, Le Dinh Luong’s family went to visit him at Nam Ha Prison on October 7, they were told by a prison official that Luong did not want to see them because he did not want to wear the prison uniform. When the family pressed them to see a statement signed by Luong confirming that, the official only showed a piece of paper with Luong’s signature but did not let them read its content. When the official was asked how long Luong had refused to wear prison uniforms, he responded: “Today.” The family then remembered that Luong once told them that “If one day I cannot come out to see our family, know that something has happened to me in prison.” Luong’s family is asking for any help they can get to find out what has happened to him. The 88 Project encourages supporters to share the news and contact Nam Ha Prison for an official statement.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 20, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 30, 2022
- Event Description
On 30 Sept 2022, 46-year-old Ms Ngoc Tien of An Giang province was sentenced to 12 years jail plus 4 years probation for subversion, despite the fact that she had handed herself in, made sincere confession and asking for a lighter sentence - as reported by state media.
State media reported that in April 2017, she used Facebook “Van Nguyen” to join forums organised by US-based democracy advocacy group 'Vietnam Provisional Government' (VPG) headed by a Vietnamese American citizen named Mr Dao Minh Quan. This group is branded a terrorist group by the communist regime.
The indictment stated that Ms Ngoc Tien used her facebook page to mobilise many people to participate in an online referendum, to vote for Mr Dao Minh Quan as President of the 3rd Republic of Vietnam. [The fledgling democracy of South Vietnam was under the 2nd republic before it was taken over by the Northern communist force in April 1975, ending the Vietnam War.]
As at Feb 2022, she reportedly managed to recruit 225 people who lived in hardship, she then provided their information to VPG so VPG could consider giving them gifts, money, houses and jobs.
According to RFA, to date, at least 19 people had been sentenced for subversion, for having joined VPG.
RFA had tried to contact VPG many times but had been unsuccessful.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
English summary of the case shared via email to FORUM-ASIA, a Vietnamese article of the case is available at RFA
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 20, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 27, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnamese human rights lawyer Vo An Don and his family were stopped by police in Ho Chi Minh City this week from boarding a flight to New York, where they had hoped to apply for political asylum in the US, the well-known rights lawyer told RFA on Wednesday.
Don and other family members were barred from leaving Vietnam by police at Tan Son Nhat Airport at around 9:42 p.m. on Sept. 27, Don said, calling the action taken against him by authorities arbitrary and vindictive.
Don added that airport police told him he would need to contact immigration authorities in his home province of Phu Yen, on Vietnam’s south-central coast, for an explanation of the order barring his travel overseas.
He and his family were now on their way back to Phu Yen, Don said.
“I’ll work with the Phu Yen police tomorrow to find out why my departure was temporarily suspended,” Don said, saying that airport police had cited “security reasons” for blocking his departure in accordance with Article 36 of the Law on Entry and Exit for Vietnamese citizens.
According to Vietnamese law, citizens of the country have the right to travel domestically and overseas, Don said. “I’ll take legal action against them and file a request for compensation if they fail to give legitimate reasons for what they did,” he added.
“In the past, I used to work as a defense lawyer for ordinary, common people,” said Don, whose license to practice law was revoked in 2017 after he successfully defended the right to benefits of the surviving family members of a person who died in police custody.
“Since then I have only stayed at home and worked as a farmer. I have not been involved in any other cases or broken the law, and there is therefore no reason to say that I have been a threat to national security,” he said.
Don said he and his family had decided to seek asylum in the US because they were suffering harassment by Phu Yen authorities and economic hardship since he could no longer work as a lawyer.
The Washington-based International Organization for Migration (IOM) had secured advance funding for the family’s airfare, which was returned to the IOM when the family could no longer fly.
Don had taken his children out of school and given away many of his family’s belongings before trying to leave, and now has to buy many household appliances again, he said. He hopes his children’s schools will now allow them to return to class, he added.
'Prestige of the Party'
Requests for comment sent to the US Embassy, IOM offices in Vietnam and the Vietnam Immigration Department received no responses this week.
A Sept. 28 article in the Ministry of Public Security’s Public Security Newsletter said however that Don during his work as a lawyer had “damaged the prestige” of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party and government by posting stories on social media and speaking to members of the foreign press.
Speaking to RFA, Truong Minh Tam — a Vietnamese lawyer and human rights activist now living in Illinois — said that Phu Yen police had abused their authority by ordering the suspension of Don’s right to travel abroad.
“According to Article 37 of the Law on Exit and Entry of Vietnamese Citizens, only the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Public Security have that authority,” Tam said.
Also speaking to RFA, Vietnamese musician and political observer Tuan Khanh noted that Don had successfully brought a suit in 2014 against five Phu Yen police officers who caused the death of a citizen, Ngo Thanh Kieu, held in their custody.
This had likely made Don a target for provincial authorities’ revenge, Khanh said.
In a statement issued late on Wednesday, Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch said that the Vietnamese government's efforts to block Don's travel to the U.S. are yet another example of how it restricts the freedom of movement of activists based on what he called "vague claims" of national security.
"The reality is Hanoi doesn’t want Vo An Don traveling overseas where he could speak freely about the litany of harassment, discrimination and abuse he’s suffered because of his choices to represent politically sensitive clients in Vietnam’s kangaroo courts,” Robertson said.
“Vietnam has forced Vo An Don to run a gauntlet of constant abuses, including harassment, threats, and legal retaliation ... This travel ban against Vo An Don and his family shows how the Vietnam government is prepared to use every dirty, abusive trick to silence the very few lawyers left in the country who dare stand up for the principle that everyone deserves legal representation.”
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 20, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 21, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security continues to send prisoners of conscience far from their families to serve their prison sentences, as an additional punishment.
Most recently, Hanoi activist Nguyen Thi Tam was transferred to Gia Trung Prison camp in Gia Lai province, nearly 1,200 kilometers (746 miles) from her home. Another activist from Vietnam’s capital, Trinh Ba Phuong, was taken to An Diem Prison camp in the central province of Quang Nam, 800 kilometers (497 miles) away from his home on Sept. 21, one month after the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi rejected his appeal and upheld his 10-year prison sentence in an appeal hearing in mid-August.
Phuong’s wife Do Thi Thu and his father-in-law and sister-in-law left their hometown in Hoa Binh province on the evening of Sept. 25 and did not arrive at the prison until the next morning.
“It took us 29 hours to get to the prison and back. The cost per person was at least VND1 million (U.S.$ 44) for both ways,” she said.
Also arrested on charges of "conducting anti-state propaganda" under Article 117 of the Criminal Code for human rights activities and speaking out about a police raid in Dong Tam commune in early 2020, Thu's mother-in-law and brother-in-law, Can Thi Theu, and her son Trinh Ba Tu were both sentenced to eight years in prison.
Theu is currently serving her sentence at Prison camp No. 5 in Yen Dinh district, Thanh Hoa province while Tu is serving his at Prison camp No. 6 in Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province, neither of which is convenient for prison visits.
Thu said to save costs her father-in-law, former prisoner of conscience Trinh Ba Khiem, rode a motorbike from their family farm in Hoa Binh to the two prisons. It took him more than two hours to reach Prison camp No. 5, and 8 hours to get to Prison camp No. 6.
According to human rights organizations, Vietnam is holding hundreds of prisoners of conscience, although Hanoi has always insisted that there are none in Vietnam, only people who break the law.
It has been a long-running practice to send the vast majority of prisoners of conscience to serve their sentences far from their families. Those with families in the North are transferred to prisons in the Central region or the South, while those in the South are sent to the Central region or the North.
Truong Minh Duc, Vice President of the Brotherhood for Democracy was sentenced to 12 years in prison for subversion in 2018 and is currently being held at Prison camp No. 6 in Nghe An.
His wife Nguyen Kim Thanh said that from Ho Chi Minh City to Nghe An, she spends more than VND5 million (U.S.$ 211) on plane tickets, bus tickets and motorbike taxis every time. On the Lunar New Year and other public holidays, the cost of traveling to the prison may rise to over VND7 million (U.S.$ 295).
Prison No. 6 has an extremely harsh climate which affects prisoners’ health Thanh said:
“When it is sunny, the weather is too harsh. He [her husband] has to wet towels and clothes to hang on the window and his neck to cool it down,”she said.
“It would be very cold in winter because the prison is in a mountainous area. As the prison cell is not small, the cell is very cold due to wind.”
Because of bad weather conditions, Duc has headaches and high blood pressure in the hot season and colds and allergies in the winter.
Nguyen Tuong Thuy, Vice Chairman of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, is serving an 11-year prison sentence at An Phuoc Prison camp in the southern province of Binh Duong. He was arrested in May 2020 on charges of "conducting propaganda against the state" in the same case as President Pham Chi Dung and editor Le Huu Minh Tuan.
His wife Pham Thi Lan takes at least two nights and one day to get from Hanoi to the prison and back, and it costs at least VND4 million (U.S.$ 168) if she can buy a cheap round-trip flight ticket between Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. If she can't buy cheap airline tickets and has to get them from Vietnam Airlines, the cost can be up to VND7-8 million (U.S.$295-337) for a visit.
An activist commented that the transfer of prisoners of conscience to prisons far from their families makes prisoners unaccustomed to living in new climatic conditions, which leads to them getting sick more often, especially as prison medical care is limited. Sending them away to prison also makes it difficult for their families to find the time and money to visit.
Not all prisoners of conscience are sent a long way from their family homes. Journalist Le Van Dung (Le Dung Vova) was transferred to Nam Ha Prison camp after losing his appeal against a five-year prison sentence. His wife Bui Thi Hue said it takes her four hours and about VND1 million (U.S.$ 42) for each visit.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Land rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 20, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 6, 2022
- Event Description
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is calling on Vietnamese authorities to investigate allegations of the beating and shackling of prisoner of conscience Trinh Ba Tu.
HRW issued a media release on Thursday urging authorities to open an investigation into the alleged actions of prison guards at Prison No. 6, at Thanh Chuong township in Nghe An province.
The statement by the New York-based human rights organization was released two days after Tu’s father, Trinh Ba Khiem, said his son had been punished for filing a complaint against the prison.
“There needs to be an urgent, transparent, and impartial investigation of Trinh Ba Tu’s serious accusations that prison guards shackled and beat him,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of HRW's Asia division.
“That kind of treatment is outrageous and unacceptable, and the perpetrators should be held accountable for maltreating prisoners.”
Robertson said dissidents imprisoned in Vietnam are regularly subjected to harassment and inhumane treatment. He said he saw little possibility of Vietnamese authorities investigating these allegations.
“Foreign diplomats and UN officials should request that Vietnamese authorities allow them to visit Trinh Ba Tu and conduct interviews with him to get to the bottom of this matter,” said HRW in its statement.
Tu’s sister-in-law, Do Thi Thu, sent a petition to Vietnam's President, the Chairman of the National Assembly, the Minister of Public Security, the Supreme People's Procuracy and the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province.
She asked them to explain to Tu’s family why her brother-in-law was beaten, tortured and shackled.
“When I heard that Tu was beaten and was on a hunger strike, my family was very worried about him,” said Thu, who is married to another prisoner of conscience, Trinh Ba Phuong.
“My family does not know why he was beaten and shackled. My family doesn't know if he is still being beaten or on a hunger strike."
This is the second time Tu has been beaten by Vietnamese police in prison. When arrested in mid-June 2020, his beating by police in Hoa Binh province caused kidney damage.
According to former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Van Hai (aka blogger Dieu Cay), who was imprisoned for many years in many prisons, Prison No. 6 is the most draconian in Vietnam.
In early August, citizen journalist Do Cong Duong died while serving an eight-year prison sentence there, despite being healthy when he was arrested.
Mr. Trinh Ba Tu, a famous land rights activist, who is on hunger strike at Detention Center No. 6 in Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province, was beaten by prison guards and shackled for many days in solitary confinement.
Mr. Tu provided this information to his father, Mr. Trinh Ba Khiem during a family visit on September 20, 2022. Mr. Khiem told RFA about the visit as follows:
“A visit often lasts an hour. At minute 40th, my son said 'I was beaten, Dad'… and then the prison guards (nearby) rushed in, made a fuss and pushed my son out of the visitors' room. My son screamed but it was so loudly there that I couldn't hear [what he said]"
Before being able to meet his son through a glass partition, Mr. Khiem was informed by a prison staff that "Tu is being disciplined for writing a slanderous petition/denunciation letter. Because of the discipline, [your] family can only visit him once every two months. As you are seeing Tu now for this month, you won't be able to see him again in October."
Mr. Khiem was also warned: "[You are allowed] to talk only about family issues, not anything else. If you violate [this rule], the meeting will be stopped immediately and a minute [about the violation] will be made."
RFA's reporter has tried to contact Detention Center No. 6 to verify the information by making phone calls to its public telephone number. However the calls rang unanswered.
Mr. Trinh Ba Tu, born in 1989, is currently serving an eight-year jail term at Detention Center No. 6 on the charge of "spreading anti-State materials."
Mr. Tu and his mother, Mrs. Can Thi Theu, were both arrested in mid-2020 after speaking up strongly on social media about the raid of 3,000 mobile police officers who had attacked Dong Tam commune at dawn of January 9, 2020, killing Mr. Le Dinh Kinh, 84, Dong Tam spiritual leader. Three police officers also died in the incident.
Putting all the information together, Mr. Trinh Ba Khiem told RFA the incident which had happened to his son from the beginning of September as follows:
“According to my summary, Tu had written a denunciation letter and on September 6 was called to a room for a meeting for four to six hours. And he was beaten there.
Tu could not tell me he had been beaten by how many people and for how long.
Then my son was thrown into a discipline room, shackled for 10 days where he had to do everything from sleeping to going to the toilet in the same place."
However, he did not know what his son's denunciation letter was about and the detention center did not provide him with related information either.
After the 10 days, Mr. Tu was released from the shackles. At first, he was detained in the area for people charged with security offences, then transferred to the areas for those charged with criminal offences.
Right after being beaten by the prison guards, Mr. Trinh Ba Tu started to go on a hunger strike. His father's visit marked his 14th day of hunger strike and to date, there is no information whether he has stopped the strike or not.
According to Mr. Khiem, his son looked very thin and pale. However, the father did not see any injuries or bruises on his son's body.
Mr. Khiem, who was imprisoned for fighting against the coercion of his family's land in Duong Noi commune, said Vietnamese security officers "know how to beat [suspects/prisoners] without leaving a trace."
According to Mr. Khiem, after telling his father that he had been beaten, Mr. Tu was subdued and taken away by prison guards. Then prison staff immediately created a minute, saying that "Mr Tu falsely accused the prison officers of beating him". Mr. Khiem also said that he had been asked to sign the minute but he refused to do so because of lacking information about the incident.
Mr. Khiem said his family would do everything they could to demand the Vietnamese authorities to investigate the torture against his son in prison and also request the Ministry of Public Security to respond to Mr. Trinh Ba Tu's denunciation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 23, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 8, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnamese police in Dak Lak Province on September 8 arrested Dang Dang Phuoc, a music teacher, on charges of “making, storing, and distributing information, documents, products against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Phuoc’s last online post on his social media was about the recent arrest of Bui Tuan Lam, the noodle vendor. According to a friend, he was arrested while doing morning exercises near his house and wished to remain anonymous due to security concerns. Phuoc, 59, worked at Dak Lak Provincial Musical College. He was also an online commentator who frequently shared his critical opinions of Vietnam’s human rights violations, corruption, and social injustice. His personal Facebook account has more than 6,000 followers. The Dak Lak Police claimed that Dang Dang Phuoc had used his Facebook account to write and publish content that “contains distorted propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” It added that the local authorities “had informed and educated Phuoc to halt the illegal activities but he refused to comply and even advanced such activism.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 18, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 30, 2022
- Event Description
The family of a Vietnamese political dissident say it took a week for them to find out the outcome of his trial, which took place without a defense lawyer.
Le Anh Hung was sentenced to five years in prison on August 30 after spending more than four years in a mental hospital and on remand.
The blogger was tried on the charge of "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, organizations and individuals,” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code.
“Recently, I called the police officer investigating my son’s case to ask about it. He said my son was tried on August 30. I asked how many years [the sentence was]. He said five years,” Hung’s mother Tran Thi Niem told RFA.
The Hanoi police investigator also told Niem that, after subtracting more than four years in a detention center and a psychiatric hospital, "he will probably be released next year."
RFA called the mobile number of the Hanoi City Police investigator who handled the case, but no one answered.
Our reporter also tried to call the Hanoi People's Court using the phone number listed on the agency's website but the line was always busy.
The state-controlled press has made no mention of the trial.
Lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng, from the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association, signed a contract to provide legal assistance to Hung, but Hung later waived his right to a lawyer after his family had a “financial disagreement” with Mieng.
"Hung had a document allowing him to refuse a lawyer after he got out of the mental hospital,” Mieng said. “I had only met him once so the security investigators told me not to continue."
Mieng was not informed about the trial since he was no longer the dissident's defense attorney.
Hung, born in 1973, was a blogger for Voice of America, specializing in writing about politics in Vietnam.
He is a member of two civic organizations that are not recognized by the Vietnamese government: The Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam and the Brotherhood for Democracy. The two organizations have been suppressed in the past few years and dozens of members have been sent to prison with lengthy sentences.
Hung was arrested on July 5, 2018 after sending hundreds of petitions to a variety of central agencies accusing then-Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai of smuggling and spying for China.
In April 2019, the investigating agency sent Hung to the Central Institute of Forensic Psychiatry forcing him to be treated for an alleged mental illness. During that time his family say he was drugged and abused.
In May this year, after more than three years of forced psychiatric treatment, the police agency brought Hung back to Detention Center No. 1 under the authority of the Hanoi Police Department to await his trial
Immediately after news of his arrest, Amnesty International issued a statement condemning the move and saying the Vietnamese government was using harsh laws to silence peaceful critics.
Since the beginning of the year, Vietnam has sentenced at least 21 bloggers and activists. Ten of them were convicted of "abusing democratic freedoms" with sentences ranging from one to five years in prison.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 11, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 7, 2022
- Event Description
“Freedom for Vietnam!” shouted noodle peddler and activist Bui Tuan Lam, as police dragged him away for “insulting” the country’s leaders.
The arresting officers first covered his mouth with their hands in an effort to silence him. Then they pushed him into a car “and gagged him with a dirty towel that I use to wipe up the noodle tables,” said Le Than Lam, Bui Tuan Lam’s wife who described to RFA’s Vietnamese Service the scene of her husband’s Wednesday arrest at their home and restaurant in Danang, in the country’s central region.
Bui Tuan Lam had achieved some notoriety last year when he appeared in a video that went viral showing him imitating the Turkish chef known as Salt Bae.
The video was widely seen as a mockery of a senior Vietnamese government official who was caught on film being hand fed one of Salt Bae’s gold-encrusted steaks — by the chef himself — at a cost of 1,450 pounds (U.S. $1,975). Critics wondered how the official could afford the extravagant meal on a monthly salary of $660.
Bui Tuan Lam, who called himself “Onion Leaf Bae” in the video, was charged for violating Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code, which prohibits “creating, storing, and disseminating materials and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” state media reported.
Prior to his arrest, hundreds of officers surrounded the family home and demanded entry, Le Thanh Lam told RFA.
“It happened at about 7 p.m. when all of our family members were at home. At first, they pulled at the door trying to gain entry. We said that they had to show us a search warrant,” she said.
“They said they would carry out a search first and provide us with the warrant later, but we refused to let them in. They assaulted Lam’s younger brothers, Minh and Tuan, grabbing their necks, arms and legs, then arrested them both and escorted them to the police station,” she said.
After searching the house, the police confiscated three T-shirts printed with the message, “Human rights should be respected in Vietnam,” said Le Thanh Lam.
The officers also destroyed three security cameras but did not acknowledge doing so in the summary of their search, she said.
During the search, her husband began to peacefully defy the police.
“They did not allow him to talk with others. They took him inside but he shouted loudly ‘Freedom for Vietnam!’ and sang songs” in protest, she said.
After the search they dragged him away as he continued to shout. So they shoved him into the car and gagged him, Le Thanh Lam said.
Bui Tuan Lam’s mockery of a government official should not be considered a crime, Phil Robertson, deputy director for Asia at New York-based Human Rights Watch told RFA.
“Vietnamese authorities regularly define any comment they don’t like as ‘propaganda against the state’, making Vietnam one of the most thin-skinned governments in the region when it comes to public criticism," Robertson said.
"In this case, they are locking up a street-side noodle seller who had the audacity to ridicule the minister of public security for buying a U.S. $2,000 steak on an overseas trip."
Mockery is a legitimate form of expression, Robertson said.
"Vietnam should abolish the rights-abusing Article 117 of the Penal Code, and immediately free Bui Tuan Lam and others locked up for simply expressing views the communist party dislikes,” he said.
Authorities on Thursday used the same article to justify the arrest of music lecturer Dang Dang Phuoc of Dak Lak Province, south of Danang, who discussed Bui Than Lam’s arrest on Facebook.
“Phuoc was arrested at around 6 a.m. while doing morning exercises near his home. The police took him to his home and searched his house,” a close friend of Phuoc, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told RFA.
“Ha, Phuoc’s wife, rang me at 6:10 a.m. and told me about the arrest. I came right away. The police searched the house for many hours.” Phuoc’s friend said.
RFA contacted the Dak Lak Provincial Police to verify Phuoc’s arrest but the police officer who answered refused to provide information over the phone.
“Since 2019, Dang Dang Phuoc has taken advantage of the Facebook platform to compile and publish many stories and video clips with distorted content against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” state media quoted Dak Lak police as saying.
Phuoc, 59, is a music lecturer at Dak Lak Education College who has about 6,000 followers on his Facebook page, where he often discusses social issues.
His most recent post criticized the Danang police for their actions during Wednesday’s arrest of Bui Tuan Lam.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Raid, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: pro-democracy defender intimidated by police
- Date added
- Sep 11, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 20, 2022
- Event Description
Dozens of religious communities across Vietnam celebrated the "International Day Commemorating Victims of Violence based on Religion or Belief" but the day was marked by further repression in some communities.
In 2019, the United Nations designated August 22 as an international memorial day for victims of persecution because of their religion or belief.
The day is special for independent religious communities in Vietnam who have fought hard to remain independent of government control.
Cao Dai crackdown
On Saturday, police from Binh Khanh ward in An Giang province’s Long Xuyen city visited the Cao Dai Binh Khanh religious pilgrimage group, forcing members gathered at the house of the group leader, Nguyen Thi Thu Cuc, to disperse.
A clergyman of the independent Cao Dai sect, Nguyen Trong Tieng, said fellow believers met at Cuc's house to mark the memorial day after morning worship.
At 8 a.m., when the group was hanging banners, a group of four people led by a local policeman arrived and told them to cancel the memorial, staying until 5 p.m.
“As soon as people took out banners for hanging, the police came to stop them and took records” Tieng said.
“Ms. Cuc's family had to inform her fellows not to come... The followers and policemen argued and finally Ms. Cuc agreed to sign a written commitment not to hold this memorial ceremony."
Tieng said he decided not to attend the memorial when he heard about the police harassment. Even so police met with Tieng on the afternoon of Aug. 22 to interrogate him about the event.
Police asked Cuc to sign the document on his behalf but she refused.
RFA contacted Cuc's family but they declined to provide any more information.
The reporter also contacted the People's Committee of Binh Khanh ward, using the number on the ward's website, but could not get through. RFA emailed the office but received no response.
Two years earlier the Cao Dai community in An Giang held a memorial ceremony without incident.
Other Cao Dai communities under police scrutiny
Nguyen Ngoc Dien, deputy administrator of another Cao Dai community in Long Xuyen city, said this year his group was allowed to commemorate the event under the eye of local police who did not intervene.
1926 Cao Dai is a separate group from 1997 Cao Dai which was formed under government pressure to show loyalty to the Vietnamese Communist Party. It has suffered years of persecution from authorities and the other Cao Dai group, which has tried to pressure members into switching sect.
Protestants questioned by police
Some Protestant communities in the Central Highlands also faced police harassment this year. Religious activist Y Quynh Buon Dap, who is currently a refugee in Thailand, told RFA: “The police came to threaten [people in] several places, and said they would summon some for interrogation. At Ako Dung village in Dak Lak the police summoned six people for short interrogations."
Some religious communities abandon commemoration attempts
Cao Dai community head Nguyen Bach Phung in Vinh Long province said that there was no memorial service where she lives because the local government constantly monitors them.
The abbot of the Phuoc Buu Pagoda of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam in Xuyen Moc, Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, told RFA that he knew about the memorial day. However, Thich Vinh Phuoc said his temple had no human resources for organizing the event as a consequence of long-term religious persecution.
In the southern coastal province, there are two pagodas, Phuoc Buu and Thien Quang, belonging to the Buddhist Church and built before 1975 when the Vietnam war ended.
Both were pressured by local authorities to join the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha – a member of the government aligned Vietnam Fatherland Front.
Phuoc said local authorities sought to intimidate Buddhists by installing cameras on the way to the Phuoc Buu temple and trying to build ditches to narrow the temple entrance.
Government pressure is even stronger at Thien Quang Pagoda.
Recently authorities used the pretext of building a ditch to block the entrance to the temple and occupy a large part of its land.
“There are three factors for the local government’s pressure on that pagoda,” Phuoc said.
“The first is that its head Thich Thien Thuan is my disciple. The second one is that his temple is independent of the Vietnamese Buddhist Church. And third, the pagoda has hosted thousands of traditional Buddhists on many occasions."
Vietnam Interfaith Council lists victims of religious persecution
Thich Khong Tanh, co-chair of the Vietnam Interfaith Council, said that over the weekend the council had a meeting about the memorial day. It decided to issue a statement listing religious crackdowns and a specific list of victims of religious persecution in the past year.
Unified Church also under pressure
The abbot of Ho Chi Minh City’s Lien Tri Pagoda in District 2, which was demolished by the local government in 2016, said the national government is putting pressure on two establishments of the Unified Church of Vietnam, Son Linh Pagoda in Kon Tum and Thien Quang in Ba Ria-Vung Tau. Thich Khong Tanh said the government aimed to force them to give up their independence and agree to be managed by the Buddhist Church of Vietnam.
“On the last Vu Lan [wandering spirits] festival, Son Linh Pagoda held a gratitude ceremony, but the police and local authorities entered and harassed monks and Buddhists," the abbot said.
He said other religions such as traditional Cao Dai, Hoa Hao Pure Buddhism, or Protestantism were also persecuted and harassed.
Overseas groups monitor religious freedom in Vietnam
U.S. NGO Boat People SOS, specializes in monitoring the situation of religious freedom in Vietnam.
According to the Facebook page of general director Nguyen Dinh Thang, in the past week dozens of religious communities in Vietnam, including churches in the Central region, Central Highlands, and South have successfully organized memorials for victims of religious persecution. He said the groups included pure Hoa Hao, traditional Cao Dai, Protestant, and Catholic communities.
Thang said his organization would monitor and report to any harassment by Vietnamese authorities at memorials to the international community.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 5, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 25, 2022
- Event Description
Award-winning Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang has lost her appeal against a nine-year jail sentence. She was sent to prison in December 2021 for “conducting anti-state propaganda.”
Trang refused to plead guilty during Thursday’s appeal at Hanoi High People’s Court even though her lawyers had advised her that a guilty plea would be the only way for her to persuade the court to reduce or dismiss her sentence.
Trang has not been allowed to see her family since she was arrested in October 2020, and her mother, Bui Thi Thien Can’s request to attend the appeal was ignored by authorities.
Can went to the High People’s Court on Thursday with her son but they were barred from entering the courtroom, along with diplomats from the E.U., the U.S., the Czech Republic, Switzerland and Germany.
"Our family expected her sentence to be upheld and we are not surprised with the final outcome because we know the appeal is a show hearing and that the outcome had been decided in advance by senior officials, not by the judge after the defense lawyers presented their defenses," Trang's mother said after hearing the appeal court's decision.
One of Trang's lawyers, Trinh Vinh Phuc said: “As for the defense, it was not as exciting as the first-instance trial. Part of the reason is because Ms. Pham Thi Doan Trang was not eager to speak up. When asked by the judge, she said she had no need for questions and answers so the court panel could soon announce its final decision. She said her sentencing had already been arranged so that no matter what she said, it would not go anywhere. She refused many questions from the judge and the representative of the Procuracy.”
Another of Trang’s lawyers, Dang Dinh Manh, told RFA this week she is very ill, suffering from sinusitis after catching COVID-19 and still nursing a knee injury sustained when she was beaten by security forces during a 2015 protest in the Vietnamese capital. Her other health issues include arthritis and gynecological problems.
International groups called for Trang’s release ahead of the appeal. PEN America, an NGO which campaigns for writers’ freedom of expression, issued a statement on Monday calling on the Vietnamese government to repeal Trang’s sentence and release her immediately.
Earlier this month U.S.-based NGO the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) also called on authorities not to contest her appeal. The organization had been hoping to present her with its 2022 International Press Freedom Award in New York in November. Trang has been presented with many prestigious international awards, including the U.S. State Department’s International Women of Courage Award and the Reporters Without Borders’ Press Freedom Prize.
Trang was arrested in Oct., 2020 but the charges were not made public for more than a year after her arrest.
Along with the “anti-state propaganda” charge, she was accused of speaking with foreign media: Radio Free Asia and the BBC, allegedly to defame the government with “fake news.”
Hanoi authorities were also angry over books Trang wrote, such as “Politics for Ordinary Citizens,” and “Handbook for Prisoners’ Families.”
The CPJ’s 2021 prison census ranked Vietnam the world’s fourth-worst jailer of journalists, with at least 23 imprisoned for their work.
Vietnamese activists’ appeals are highly unlikely to succeed with another four failing this month.
On Aug. 16 the Provincial People’s Court in Dak Lak rejected the appeal of Y Wo Nie while the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi dismissed the appeal of Le Van Dung.
Y Wo Nie was sentenced to four years by Cu Kuin district court on May 20, charged with “abusing democratic freedom,” for telling international groups about religious persecution in his region.
Dung was arrested in June last year and convicted this March for “conducting anti-state propaganda.” He was sentenced to five years in prison and five years of probation.
On Aug. 17 the appeals of Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam were also rejected. They were both arrested on June 24, 2020 and charged with "conducting anti-state propaganda.”
Phuong is serving 10 years in prison and five years' probation, Tam was jailed for six years with three years’ probation.
Trang's lawyer Phuc told RFA he was not optimistic about the appeals process in spite of Vietnam's commitment to freedom of expression.
“The judge stopped lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng when he talked about the gap between Vietnam’s law and the international conventions that Vietnam has signed. The judge said the court uses the Vietnamese law,” Phuc said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: prominent pro-democracy WHRD arrested on catch-all charges, Vietnam: prominent pro-democracy WHRD handed down 9-year imprisonment (Update)
- Date added
- Aug 28, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 17, 2022
- Event Description
On August 17, the Hanoi People’s High Court upheld its previous conviction in an appeals hearing for the two land rights activists, Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam, previously convicted of “making, storing, and distributing anti-State information, materials, and products” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code.
After their first-instance trial on December 15, 2021, Phuong was sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence and five-year probation, while Tam received a six-year prison sentence and three years probation.
Phuong and Tam, farmers from Duong Noi Commune, Hanoi, were prominently known for defending land rights and campaigning against the Vietnamese authorities’ illegal land confiscations in their hometown in the mid-2000s. The two land activists also raised their voices regarding police raids in Dong Tam Village, another land conflict hotspot, which resulted in the deaths of three police officers and the village leader, Le Dinh Kinh.
Trinh Ba Phuong was also a co-author of the “Dong Tam Report,” which helped shed light on what actually happened in Dong Tam on the early morning of January 9, 2020, when the violent conflict happened. Phuong also met with representatives from the U.S Embassy in Vietnam on February 6, 2020, to raise concerns about the arrests of 27 Dong Tam villagers and call for an independent investigation into the case.
The Vietnamese government has consistently branded the Dong Tam land protestors as “terrorists” and accused them of murdering the deceased police officers. It also intimidated and arrested those who sought to contest this narrative or call for an independent investigation.
The families of Phuong and Tam were barred from entering the courtroom by plainclothes police agents. Their earlier requests to attend the trial were ignored by court authorities. The Hanoi appellate court had earlier declared that the trial would be a public one.
Do Thi Thu, Phuong’s wife wrote on Facebook that the plainclothes police chased them away when the police van carrying her husband approached the court gate area. Thu added that a plainclothes policeman allegedly grabbed her by the nape and pulled her away from the court area while cursing at her. “One policeman even slapped me,” Thu wrote.
Nguyen Thanh Mai, Tam’s daughter, wrote on social media that the Tam family was also not allowed to attend the appeal hearing.
“Vietnam’s hollow promise to support the country’s farmers by providing them with land is exposed by the authorities’ rights abusing treatment of Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam,” wrote Phil Robertson, Asia deputy director of Human Rights Watch, one day before the appeal hearing.
“In their single-minded pursuit of power and profits, government and Communist Party of Vietnam officials have forgotten that farmers were among the original supporters of the revolution, and now they are throwing farmers’ interests out the window,” he added.
Phil Robertson also urged Vietnam’s international donors, UN agencies, and Hanoi-based diplomats to “vocally oppose rights abusing treatment of Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam, and demand the appeals court quash their unjust convictions for actions that simply constituted peaceful advocacy using their civil and political rights.”
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Land rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 22, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 16, 2022
- Event Description
This was a bad week for democracy in Vietnam, as two prominent activists lost appeals against their jail sentences on Tuesday and another two on Wednesday.
The provincial People’s Court in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak, rejected the appeal of Y Wo Nie while the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi dismissed the appeal of Le Van Dung on Tuesday.
Also on Tuesday the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi carried out the appeal hearing of 52-year-old Le Van Dung. He was arrested in June last year and in March this year he was convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and sentenced to five years in prison and five years of probation.
Dung’s appeal only lasted one hour and 45 minutes before the court upheld his sentence.
Lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, who defended Dung at his appeal, said the hearing was too shallow.
“The court asked questions very briefly, did not go into depth or give time for debate. The court also cut off the arguments of the lawyer,” Manh said.
“Having previously worked with us we know that Dung did not expect the appeal hearing would change the outcome. So when he went to court his attitude was very relaxed, very calm and he was almost smiling throughout the hearing.”
According to the lawyer, the Procurator had an attitude of not wanting to argue and only answered lawyers’ questions vaguely.
“The lawyers actually raised a lot of issues,” Manh said. “I raised four issues, but he only argued with me over one issue with only one very short sentence.”
“For example, when we argued about the issue of judicial expertise, the Procurator said that the assessors are granted the assessor’s license by the state, so they have the right and full authority over the matter of expertise and [they consider] their expertise as such is lawful. They didn’t argue against many issues we raised.”
In cases of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code or under Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code, the defendants’ statements on social networks are usually assessed by state agencies.
The purpose of the examination is to find content that is alleged to violate the above laws.
Also according to Dung's defense, the lawyers could not argue further with the Procuracy because the presiding judge interrupted, saying "there is no further consensus on anything."
Manh said Dung still insisted he did not break the law, but only exercised his right to freedom of expression as prescribed by the Constitution.
“No one is surprised with the result of the hearing,” Manh said. “We all understand the way the Vietnamese court works, so we don't expect a big change, not even a small change. In general, we disagree with the accusations against Dung in both hearings."
The lawyer said Dung should not have been arrested and prosecuted just for voicing his opinions since the right to freedom of expression is enshrined in the Constitution. He said the Vietnamese government also has a responsibility to respect this right, having signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The hearings drew criticism from international human rights organizations.
Human Rights Watch called for the court to release Le Van Dung, and accused the Vietnamese government of suppressing human rights.
“The politically motivated, totally bogus conviction of Le Van Dung should be quashed and he should be immediately released, “said Asia Regional Vice President Phil Robertson.
“Using the Internet to speak out about injustice and demand reforms should not be considered a crime. By prosecuting him, Vietnam shows what a dictatorial, rights-abusing state it has become. Le Van Dung’s five-year prison verdict in March exemplifies the way officials retaliate against outspoken citizens for simply speaking their minds.”
Amnesty International Deputy Regional Director Ming Yu Hah also criticized the appeal.
“This appeal hearing once again shows the failure of the Vietnamese government to fulfill its human rights obligations,” she said.
“Le Van Dung is an independent journalist and has fought for the freedom of expression of disadvantaged groups in society, as well as for social transparency. His efforts should be applauded, not jailed for speaking his mind.”
“The Vietnamese government should immediately release Le Van Dung and many other human rights activists, such as Pham Doan Trang, Can Thi Theu, Trinh Ba Phuong, Trinh Ba Tu, and Nguyen Thi Tam."
“Dung is known for his live broadcasts on Facebook under the name CHTV, through which this journalist specializes in helping farmers whose land has been expropriated to ‘claim their grievances’ and at the same time provide comments on the socio-political situation in Vietnam.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 16, 2022
- Event Description
This was a bad week for democracy in Vietnam, as two prominent activists lost appeals against their jail sentences on Tuesday and another two on Wednesday.
The provincial People’s Court in the Central Highland province of Dak Lak, rejected the appeal of Y Wo Nie while the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi dismissed the appeal of Le Van Dung on Tuesday.
In December the Hanoi People's Court sentenced Phuong to 10 years in prison and five years’ probation. Tam was sentenced to six years in prison and three years’ probation.
The following day the appeals of Trinh Ba Phuong, 37, and Nguyen Thi Tam, 50, were rejected. They were both arrested on June 24, 2020 and charged with "conducting anti-state propaganda.” Phuong: is serving10 years in prison and 4 years' probation, Tam was jailed for six years with three months probation.
Y Wo Nie is a Protestant from the Ede ethnic minority. He was sentenced to four years by Cu Kuin district court on May 20 this year. He was charged with “abusing democratic freedom,” for reporting religious persecution in his region to international groups.
His conviction was based on an indictment claiming he took pictures of three handwritten human rights reports and sent them to several international organizations and also met with representatives of the US diplomatic mission in Vietnam.
Lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng told RFA his client had changed his appeal to protest his innocence.
“He changed his appeal from asking for reduced imprisonment to total freedom, saying that he was not guilty and did not violate Article 331 of the Criminal Code,” Mieng said.
The trial took place without a judicial expert, witnesses or relatives. Only the defendant, lawyer and an Ede-Vietnamese interpreter.”
The lawyer said Nie's wife and relatives were not allowed to enter the courtroom, so they, and more than 100 other Ede people, stood in the courtyard.
Mieng asked the appeals court to summon two examiners from the Department of Information and Communications of Dak Lak province and a diplomat from the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City but his request was denied by the court.
The appeals panel did not mention a point in the original indictment saying that Nie met representatives of the U.S. Embassy and Consulate General in Gia Lai province’s Pleiku city in June 2020.
Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, a former prisoner of conscience from Ho Chi Minh City, said the sentence was predetermined.
"When the accused complains, the court should consider letting the lawyer present the reasons for the complaint. The independence of the court must be based on the argument in court between the lawyer and the prosecutor and it is very unfortunate that the evidence was not applied in this hearing and the final court judgment,” Quang said.
“Vietnam’s justice system has not been effective in reforming and is still targeting dissidents. Those with different ways of thinking will be severely punished, especially regarding … the behavior of public authorities towards the Protestant community in the Central Highlands.”
Mieng also said the assessment of the Department of Information and Communications did not follow regulations and resembled the statement by the State Department spokesman, coming to the same conclusions as the original indictment.
The indictment of the People's Procuratorate of Dak Lak province states that Nie personally wrote three human rights reports, took pictures and sent them via WhatsApp to "reactionary subjects abroad."
Mieng said the documents included a copy of “The Violation of Religious Freedom” and the content of the report was sent to the UN Commission on Human Rights and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The other two reports were on “The Situation of Religion and Human Rights of the Ede ethnic people in the Central Highlands,” and on “The Situation of Religious Freedom in General and in Particular for the Ethnic People in the Central Highlands."
Nie was arrested in September 2021 for activities judged to "affect the political security situation, social order and safety and the normal operation of State administrative agencies, reduce the public's confidence in the regime and affect the image of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam as well as the prestige of the Communist Party of Vietnam in international diplomatic relations.”
This is Nie's second time in prison. He was sentenced to nine years for “undermining the unity policy,” a provision often used to imprison religious activists among many Montagnard ethnic minority groups in the Central Highlands.
A recent report on religious freedom from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) also criticized the Vietnamese government's crackdown on the mountain dwelling religious groups of the Central Highlands.
According to Vietnamese NGO Defend the Defenders, there are currently more than 60 religious freedom activists imprisoned with long sentences under the charge of "undermining the unity policy." Most of them are Protestants from many ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment, Reprisal as Result of Communication
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 19, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 11, 2022
- Event Description
The Hanoi High-Level People’s Court on Thursday upheld the 5-year prison sentence imposed in January on Dang Dinh Bach, director of the Research Center for Law and Policy for Sustainable Development (LPSD), saying Bach had refused to return VND 1.3 billion ($54,200) owed in taxes.
Bach had failed to file taxes and to report sponsorship from groups overseas from 2016 to 2020, the indictment against him said.
Speaking to RFA after the hearing, Bach’s wife Tran Phuong Thao said that security forces had barred her from attending her husband’s trial, forcing her to sit instead at the courthouse gate. Lawyers were also prevented from bringing laptop computers or mobile phones into the court, she said.
“I was not surprised by the outcome of the trial and was mentally prepared for whatever would happen,” Thao said. “My husband continues to deny all the charges made against him and still declares his innocence.
“Because my family has not paid the government’s so-called ‘remediation money,’ the court would not consider mitigating circumstances,” she said.
Rights groups and activists have condemned Loi’s, Duong’s and Bach’s jailing, noting their arrests followed their promotion of civil society’s role in monitoring the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), which came into force in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Lawyer, NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Active
- Date added
- Aug 15, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 2, 2022
- Event Description
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is dismayed to learn that Do Cong Duong, a jailed independent journalist who had been extremely ill for months, died in detention last week, and calls on the international community to take action to ensure the survival of other journalists held in Vietnam’s prisons.
The official cause of the 58-year-old Do Cong Duong’s death on 2 August has not been announced but he was suffering from multiple ailments for which he was being denied appropriate medical care. Jailed since January 2018, he was serving an eight-year sentence in northern Nghe An province’s Prison No. 6. The authorities refused to hand his body over to his family.
“We are deeply shocked to learn of Do Cong Duong's death as a result of his detention in truly inhumane conditions,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “We call on the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, Alice Jill Edwards, to take action to ensure the survival of Le Huu Minh Tuan and the 39 other journalists currently imprisoned in Vietnam.”
Degrading treatment
Duong's health had deteriorated significantly in prison and he had been suffering from heart disease, pneumonia, and respiratory failure for several months. Despite his family’s repeated protests, the prison authorities never granted him the necessary care and he had to wait until he was near death to be hospitalised.
What with torture, solitary confinement and denial of medical care, the conditions in Vietnam’s prison are appalling. Degrading treatment is routine in its prisons and detention centres, especially for political prisoners. After refusing the grieving family’s request for his body, the prison authorities buried Duong inside the prison, against his family’s will.
Detailed reporting on land seizures
Duong, who was from the northern province of Bac Ninh, used social media to circulate his independently reported news and information, like many other citizen-journalists in Vietnam. A very active citizen-journalist, he often live-streamed video reports on the “Tieng Dan TV” Facebook page about corruption-related issues and land seizures by the state, which often targets the least advantaged sectors of the population.
It was while he was filming a land grab in Tu Son, a city in Bac Ninh province, that he was arrested in January 2018 and was tried twice in September and October of that year on charges of “disturbing public order” and “abusing democratic freedoms,” receiving a combined sentence of nine years in prison that was reduced to eight years on appeal in January 2019.
RSF sounds the alarm about the situation of the 40 other journalists and bloggers currently detained in Vietnam. Many of them – including Le Huu Minh Tuan, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in June 2020 – are in very poor health and risk suffering the same fate as Duong.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Death
- Rights Concerned
- Right to life
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 14, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 7, 2022
- Event Description
On March 7, 2022, Tran Thanh Phuong was released into home surveillance for another two years, after completing his sentence. However, instead of allowing him to return to his home in Ho Chi Minh City, the An Phuoc prison officer took Phuong to Hue, a city in central Vietnam, without any explanation. Phuong’s wife, Le Khanh, posted a message on Facebook asking for help resolving the issue since her husband currently doesn’t have a job and is sheltering temporarily with a relative.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 14, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 13, 2022
- Event Description
Nguyen Duc Hung was sentenced on July 13 to five and a half years in prison for “anti-state propaganda” in an “open trial” that his family did not know about until they read about it in the newspaper. According to a well-known lawyer, Vietnamese laws only require the state to notify a defendant’s lawyer, not their family, of the trial date. It is not clear if Hung had a lawyer at trial. An activist who once participated in protests against the Formosa environmental disaster in 2016, Hung was convicted for his social media posts on a wide range of subjects: land rights, human rights, public health, and corruption.
Facebook activist Nguyen Duc Hung’s family say he was denied visitors and they only found out about his five-and-a-half-year sentence from state media the day after it was handed down.
Hung’s posts aimed to raise awareness of an environmental disaster in his hometown of Ky Anh. The Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh steel factory discharged chemical waste into the sea and environmentalists say the effects are still being felt by the residents.
His social media posts did not focus solely on the disaster in his home town. He told his 9,000-plus followers about cases of social injustice and human rights abuses. He also focused on religious freedom, posting comments about the case of Thien An Monastery in which the provincial government of Thua Thien Hue "borrowed" land from the religious facility.
Hung was convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the criminal code.
The indictment said Hung’s actions directly affected the implementation of the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's laws, and the strength of the people's government, divided national unity, reduced the people's trust in the Party and State, and potentially caused national insecurity and disorder.
While the court claimed it was a public criminal trial Hung’s family said they heard nothing from the police or the court.
“When they carried out the trial, my family did not know,” Hung’s father Nguyen Van Sen told RFA.
“I phoned the detention center and was told that the trial had been carried out the day before. When I asked why they didn't notify my family, the police said the family was not involved."
Sen got the same response when the called the provincial police’s investigative department.
According to a lawyer who has defended many similar trials Hung’s case is not uncommon. Ha Huy Son said the court does not have to notify the family or invite them to the trial. He said Criminal Procedure Code 2015 only stipulates telling the family the person is in custody, or has been arrested in the case of an urgent arrest. It is only necessary to tell the defense lawyer, the victim and any other parties involved at least 10 days before the trial.
Hung is the sixth Facebooker this year to be convicted of "conducting propaganda against the state." The others received sentences of between five and eight years.
Hung, 31, was arrested on Jan. 6 this year and has been held incommunicado since then. His father said, despite repeated trips to the detention center, the family was not allowed to see him.
The family did not hire a defense lawyer and Sen said he did not know if one was present at the trial. Sen did not want to comment on the sentence, other than saying he hoped it would be reduced because Hung’s wife had left him to raise their two primary school children.
State media did not mention whether Hung had a lawyer, only saying he had pleaded guilty and asked for leniency.
RFA called the People’s Court of Ha Tinh province but no-one replied.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 14, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 27, 2022
- Event Description
The former director of the SENA (Southeast and North Asia) Institute of Technology Research and Development has been placed under house arrest and banned from leaving Vietnam amid a probe into allegations of ‘abusing democratic freedoms’ for submitting a series of recommendations on improving the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam.
On Wednesday the Ministry of Public Security said the Investigation Security Agency had decided to probe Nguyen Son Lo, 74, under Article 331 of the Criminal Code.
The ministry did not explain why the investigation had been launched, saying the Investigation Security Agency was “focusing on investigating, collecting documents, and consolidating evidence on the criminal acts of the accused and related individuals … according to the provisions of law."
Lo’s close friend Nguyen Khac Mai, director of the Hanoi-based Minh Triet Cultural Research Center, said his colleague was a highly-decorated war hero who turned to study and offered his insights on the situation of the country and ways to improve people’s lives.
"Recently he founded a think-tank on cultural research and development,” said Mai.
“He told us ‘the issue of culture has become a huge issue these days for the nation’ so he wanted to contribute to this field.”
He said his friend had written a number of books to advise the country’s leaders, offering recommendations on Vietnam’s economy and culture.
“The Central Inspection Commission [of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam] came to SENA to work with him and confirmed they had not forbidden him from expressing his opinions or making recommendations. They just asked him not to spread them widely," Mai said.
Lo was advised not to send his books to provincial Party secretaries or National Assembly deputies. He was told to send them internally to bodies such as the Central Organizing Commission, the Central Inspection Commission, the Central Commission on Propaganda and Education, the Secretariat and the Politburo of the Party’s Central Committee.
According to Mai, Lo agreed to send his comments only to responsible officials but did not understand why he was being investigated.
Last year, Bach Thong district police in Bac Kan province, published an article titled "Suggestions to build the Party or act against the Party." The article referred to the SENA Institute and claimed it had written an open letter about the 13th National Congress of the Party expressing incorrect and distorted views on Party and State.
Mai said his colleague was not acting against the Party.
"He only has a constructive mind. He wants to contribute, correct mistakes, improve, make this Party and government more civilized and cultured, more humane, more popular, and kinder.”
“That's his aspiration and I think 90 to 100 million people also want the same. No one wants to overthrow the regime, they just want it to be better.”
“Less corruption, more humanity, less immoral behavior, no land grabbing but negotiation and proper compensation. That is his wish like mine and others," said Mai.
On July 4, the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations issued a decision to suspend the operations of the institute and take steps to abolish it, saying its establishment and operations violated regulations.
According to Mai, SENA is a civil society organization, legally registered with the state and its members are former high-ranking cadres such as Nguyen Manh Can, former deputy head of the Central Organizing Commission of the Communist Party of Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Academic
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 31, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 5, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnamese police on Tuesday arrested a prominent political activist and blogger on a charge of spreading anti-state “propaganda” that could land him in jail for as long as 20 years, as authorities continue to crack down on dissenting voices in the one-party communist country.
Nguyen Lan Thang, a contributor to RFA’s Vietnamese Service since 2013, was taken into custody at around 8 a.m. while on his way to a coffee shop in Thinh Quang ward in the capital Hanoi, family sources said.
He now faces a charge of “making, storing, spreading or propagating anti-State information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
Speaking to RFA, fellow activist Thai Van Duong called Nguyen Lan Thang a “fighter in the pro-democracy movement,” saying the two had participated together in anti-China protests in Hanoi.
Thang was an activist not only in his social media postings but also in his daily life, Duong said.
“Both I and my friends and the international media know that Thang has an excellent character, unlike the descriptions given of him by opponents of the pro-democracy movement.
“Only those who have interacted with Nguyen Lan Thang can understand his personality and the way he performs his activities,” Duong said. 'Wave of abuse'
Phil Robertson, deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch, said in a statement that Nguyen Lan Thang had “peacefully campaigned for democratic reform and justice, so he should be respected and listened to rather than face this kind of unjustified repression.
“Vietnam’s excessive and unacceptable crackdown on freedom of expression has just snared another victim who will invariably face a kangaroo court trial and years in prison for speaking his mind,” Robertson said.
“Governments around the world should demand Nguyen Lan Thang’s immediate and unconditional release, and pressure Hanoi to stop this wave of abuse.”
Thang, who comes from a family of scholars in Hanoi, has a Facebook following of more than 152,000. He has taken part in protests defending Vietnam’s sovereignty in disputed areas of the South China Sea and worked to help people affected by floods and storms in the country’s Central Highlands.
In his discussions of a wide range of political and social issues and Thang struck a moderate tone, seeking balance and avoiding sharp, direct criticism, frequently ending his blog posts with the phrase "Love all."
In one post he compared the arrest and jailing of activists in Vietnam who raised questions about social issues avoided by most other people to the treatment of the Greek philosopher Socrates.
In his most recent post for RFA on April 7, Thang noted news reports about Russian ships turning off their locator systems to evade being tracked for illegal oil sales. He recalled that during the Iraq War, tycoons from a certain "socialist-oriented market economy" had repainted oil ships to buy sanctioned Iraqi oil at a discount and "became very very rich and acquired a lot of land, factories, and banks."
In 2013, he was detained and interrogated at Noi Bai Airport in Hanoi after returning from Thailand and the Philippines, where he had met with U.N. human rights officials to report on human rights abuses in Vietnam. A year later he was barred from leaving the country to attend a World Press Freedom Day event organized by UNICEF in the United States. Caught in crackdown
Thang is the latest of four Vietnamese bloggers to be caught up in a crackdown on critics of the Communist Party that has seen Facebook posters, journalists and writers receive hefty jail terms for their work.
In May, RFA reported that Nguyen Truong Thuy, who had blogged on civil rights and freedom of speech issues for RFA Vietnamese for six years, was in failing health with limited access to medical treatment.
The 72-year-old former vice president of the Vietnam Independent Journalists Association is serving an 11-year sentence on a charge of “propagandizing against the state" and was suffering from back pain, high blood pressure, scabies and inflammatory bowel disease, Thuy’s wife, Pham Thi Lan, told RFA after visiting him on May 14.
Truong Duy Nhat, who had been a weekly contributor to RFA Vietnamese before his abduction by police in Thailand in January 2019, was convicted in March 2020 of “abusing his position and authority” in a decade-old land fraud case and jailed for 10 years, a charge Nhat has described as politically motivated.
Nhat declared at his trial that after seeking political asylum in Thailand at the beginning of 2019, he was arrested by Thai Royal Police on January 26 and handed over to Vietnamese police, who took him across the border into Laos, and from there back to Vietnam.
Nguyen Van Hoa, who had blogged and produced videos for RFA, was handed a seven-year jail term in November 2017 after using a drone to film protests outside a Taiwan-owned steel plant, whose spill of toxic waste the year before had left fishermen and tourism workers jobless in four coastal provinces.
Amnesty International has said that Hoa was tortured by the authorities to confess to his “crime” and in May 2019 was being held in solitary confinement as punishment for his refusal to cooperate.
Arrested on Jan. 11, 2017 for “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state” under Article 258 of the Penal Code, Hoa was later charged with “conducting propaganda against the state.”
According to RFA reports, Vietnam has arrested at least 18 dissidents since the beginning of the year, most of them charged with “conducting propaganda against the state" under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code and Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code.
Both laws have been criticized by activists and rights groups as measures used to stifle voices of dissent in Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 10, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 2, 2022
- Event Description
Pham Doan Trang’s mother, Bui Thi Thien Can, was detained at Noi Bai Airport for questioning by security police for four hours. She was detained as she returned to Hanoi from her trip to Geneva to accept the Martin Ennals Human Rights Award on behalf of her daughter on June 2. During the three-week visit, Mrs Bui met with more than 20 representatives from the EU, several international organizations, officials at Switzerland Foreign Ministry, representatives from the UNHCR, a number of UN Special Rapporteurs, the US ambassador to Geneva, and officials from Canada and the Czech Republic. According to one of her children, the octogenarian was finally released after midnight in a state of total exhaustion.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Reprisal as Result of Communication
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Offline
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 2, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 17, 2022
- Event Description
The Observatory has been informed about the conviction, sentencing, and ongoing arbitrary detention of Nguy Thi Khanh, a prominent environmental activist, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018 and a symbol of the campaign against Vietnam’s reliance on coal power.
On June 17, 2022, Nguy Thi Khanh was sentenced to two years of imprisonment for tax evasion under the Article 200 of Vietnam’s 2015 Criminal Code, after being prosecuted and convicted for failing to pay a 10% tax on her Goldman Prize money, which is equivalent to an amount of VND 456 million (around 18,252 Euros).
Ms. Khanh was arrested on January 11, 2022 and detained for investigation at the Police Detention Centre No. 1 in Hanoi, where she remained detained pending trial. The acts of harassment against her began after she had repeatedly raised concerns on Vietnam’s heavy reliance on coal. In October 2021, Nguy Thi Khanh along with several NGOs alerted Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh on the necessity to revise Vietnam’s Draft National Power Development Plan for the 2021-2030 period. In October 2019, she had joined 12 Vietnamese NGOs, including Oxfam - Vietnam, in signing the “Hanoi Statement” (Tuyến bố Hà nội), which called on the government to stop funding coal-fired power stations and to conduct a democratic consultation with the Vietnamese people.
At the time of publication of this urgent appeal, Nguy Thi Khanh remains in the Police Detention Center No 1.
Ms. Khanh is the fourth and most prominent environmental activist denouncing Vietnam’s continued heavy reliance on coal-fired power to be arrested this year on charges of tax evasion. On January 24, 2022, Dang Dinh Bach, director of the Law and Policy of Sustainability Development Research Center, was sentenced to five years in prison. On January 11, 2022, Mai Phan Loi, founder and leader of the Center for Media in Educating Community (MEC) and Bach Hùng Duong former director of the MEC were sentenced to our years and two years and six months respectively.
The three environmental rights defenders were accused of corporate tax evasion, although non-profit organizations are exempt from corporate tax in Vietnam. Tax laws regarding NGOs receiving funds from international donors are particularly vague and restrictive. The organisations of the three defenders, along with the VCHR, believed that their arrests were prompted by their work to promote civil society engagement in monitoring the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) which came into force in 2021.
The Observatory expresses its deepest concern about the Vietnamese authorities’ use of legal harassment, especially the use of tax-related charges against environmental activists, as a strategy to criminlise them.
The Observatory strongly condemns the judicial harassment and arbitrary detention of Nguy Thi Khanh, Dang Dinh Bach, Bach Hung Duong, and Mai Phan Loi, as it seems to be only aimed at punishing them for their legitimate environmental and human rights activities.
The Observatory urges the Vietnamese authorities to put an end to all acts of harassment against the above-mentioned human rights defenders and immediately and unconditionally release them.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, NGO staff, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: award-winning environmental WHRD arrested
- Date added
- Jul 2, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 9, 2022
- Event Description
Four people were hurt in clashes with police as hundreds of mostly female protesters wrapped themselves in Vietnamese flags to rally against a cemetery and crematorium project in central Vietnam, villagers said Friday.
The protest on Thursday targeted Vinh Hang Eco-park and Cemetery, an 80-ha, 500 billion dong ($21.8 million) project in the Hung Nguyen district of central Nghe An province.
Approved by local authorities in 2017, the cemetery has encountered strong objection by local residents due to environmental and water resource concerns.
“There was a clash among the police and local residents. One woman was seriously injured and was sent to Nghe An provincial hospital for emergency care. Two others were sent to a district hospital with less serious injuries,” local resident Phan Van Khuong told RFA Vietnamese.
“They arrested three or four people but released them on the same day,” he added.
A Facebook page titled “Hạt lúa Kẻ Gai” showed dozens of police officers in uniform knocking down protesters’ tents.
“The Commune People’s Committee sent some people to plant markers on a road where local residents put up tents [to block the project] and we all rushed up there to stop them,” Nguyen Van Ky, a resident from Phuc Dien village, told RFA.
“In response, district and commune police officers were deployed and they removed the tents and shoved us down, injuring four people,” said Ky.
The injuries were caused when police officers kicked and stomped on protesters. A fourth protester had a leg injury that did not require hospital treatment.
RFA called authorities from Nghe An province and Hung Tay commune to seek comments but no one answered the phone.
While all land in Communist-run Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation.
- Impact of Event
- 7
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community), Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Land rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 11, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 18, 2022
- Event Description
Hundreds of ethnic minority households from a commune in south-central Vietnam's Dak Lak province are fighting to reclaim their land from a forestry company after 40 years of working on it as hired laborers.
Protests in Lang village, Ea Pok town, Cu Mgar district began last month, with farmers demanding the return of about 40 hectares of arable land.
Demonstrations came to a head on May 18 when hundreds of people gathered on the land to protest against the coffee company's destruction of their crops.
Videos and photos of the protest were shared on social media, showing riot police clashing with demonstrators.
Demonstrations continued last week, with protestors holding up banners asking the coffee company to return the land. State media has so far not reported on the incident.
“We want the company to return our ancestral land so that people can have a business in the future,” a local resident told RFA under the condition of anonymity. “People are getting [taxed] more and more but have less land, so people need to reclaim the land.”
According to RFA research, Lang village has about 250 households, all indigenous Ede people. The residents all make a living from farming.
‘The company does not give a dime’
Residents told RFA they had been cultivating the land for many generations but after 1975 the local government took it and gave it to the state-owned enterprise, Eapok Coffee Farm to grow coffee trees. The company later changed its name to Ea Pok Coffee Joint Stock Company.
Locals went from being landowners to hired workers on their own land. They say the company allowed them to cultivate the land from 1983 until now but told them to produce 18 tons of coffee per hectare or pay for up to 80% of each harvest.
“People work hard, but they don't have enough to eat because they have to pay the company's output. In many cases, they don't even have enough output to pay so they are in debt and have to pay for it in the next crop," said one resident who was assigned to grow coffee on 8,000 square meters of land.
Residents say that in 2010 the company allowed them to uproot coffee trees and grow other crops, including corn, but did not support them by offering seedlings, fertilizers, or pesticides. The company also continued to impose output quotas or taxed as much as 80% of the crop.
“People have to pay by themselves. The company does not give a dime or give a single pill when people are sick,” said another resident farming 10,000 square meters of land.
Struggling farmers decided to file an application with the government in 2019 to reclaim their land and farming rights.
Locals say this year Ea Pok Coffee asked them to start growing durian trees. When they opposed the plan the company started destroying crops on May 18 to prepare the land for durian cultivation.
When an RFA Vietnamese reporter called Ea Pok Coffee Joint Stock Company to ask for comments they were told the press must register with the company's leaders, and get their approval first.
When asked about the government's attitude towards people's demands, a local resident said: “We sent petitions to the town government and the provincial government but got no response. The first time five households signed, then many more households signed. The government always sides with the company, rather than helping the people.”
RFA contacted Nguyen Thi Thu Hong, chairwoman of the People's Committee of Ea Pok town, to ask about the dispute between Lang villagers and the coffee company. She said that she would not accept telephone interviews.
When asked if people would agree to maintain the current form of contract farming if Ea Pok Coffee Joint Stock Company reduced taxes and increased support, local people said they still committed to reclaiming the land.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Indigenous peoples' rights defender, Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 11, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 9, 2022
- Event Description
A Vietnamese court on Thursday sentenced a Facebook user to five years in prison for posting stories criticizing government authorities, with an additional five years of probation to be served following his release, state media and other sources said.
Nguyen Duy Linh, a resident of the Chau Thanh district of southern Vietnam’s Ben Tre province, was jailed following a 3-hour trial in the Ben Tre People’s Court. He had been charged with “creating, storing, disseminating information, materials, publications and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Linh’s wife Nguyen Ngoc Tuyet was present at his trial as a witness, but friends and other political dissidents were barred by authorities from attending and Linh had waived his right to a defense by lawyers in the case, sources said.
Commenting on the outcome of the case, Phil Robertson — deputy director for Asia for the rights group Human Rights Watch — told RFA by email that posting criticisms of government policies and authorities online should not considered a crime.
“All that Nguyen Duy Linh did was exercise his right to freedom of expression, which is a core human right that is explicitly protected by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that Vietnam ratified,” Robertson said.
Vietnam’s one-party communist government “seems intent on proving that it is one of the most rights-repressing governments in the Asian region,” Robertson added. “The authorities in Hanoi have completely lost any idea of how to rule a modernizing, 21st century country with intelligence and respect for the people.”
State media reporting on the case said that Linh from March 2020 to September 2021 had posted on his Facebook page 193 stories with content “offensive to the Party and State’s leaders or against the government.” Linh had also posted what state sources called false stories about socio-economic issues and the spread of COVID-19 in Vietnam, according to media reports.
Linh is the fifth person accused in Vietnam since the beginning of this year of “spreading anti-State materials” under Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code or “propagandizing against the State” under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code. Both laws have been criticized by activists and rights groups as measures used to stifle voices of dissent in Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 11, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 25, 2022
- Event Description
Do Le Na, the visually impaired wife of Le Trong Hung, took her two sons to visit their father on May 15 as scheduled. But when she got there she was told the schedule was changed, without being given a reason; she was told to come back the next day, which she did. Finally, after 411 days the children were able to see their father for the first time in a brief 30-minute visit. Hung reported he had contracted Covid earlier but was coping well; he said he was also suffering from back pain. Hung mentioned he was not eating food that she bought from the canteen out of concern that prison officials might spike it with drugs in an effort to send him to a psychiatric hospital.
RFA Viet 3 June reported that on 25 May, Mr Hung - currently serving 5 years jail for anti-state propaganda - has been transferred to a further away prison 350km in distance from his home, where his visually impaired wife lives with their two young children.
Mr Hung's new prison is prison 6, Nghe An province. Mrs Le Na told RFA Viet, she wasn't informed of the prison transfer. Only when she came to temporary detention centre no 1, Tu Liem, Hanoi to bring him supplies on 1 June that she was informed of this. She said, during the time Mr Hung was transferred to the new prison, Hanoi police even sent people to her place to guard her and her two children, to intimidate them. '...My husband's only offence was being patriotic and trusting Party Chief Trong, thinking that he could help the Party Chief in his anti-corruption campaign by raising awareness about [officials'] wrongdoings and gifting copies of the nation's constitution to the people to raise their understanding.
'Yet, for that, my husband was jailed and transferred to a very remote prison, notorious for its harsh conditions, among the worst in Vietnam.' Mrs Le Na said.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: citizen journalist willing to candidate for elections arrested, his house searched
- Date added
- Jun 11, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 20, 2022
- Event Description
An ethnic Ede Montagnard minority activist was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday for submitting three reports about human rights violations in Vietnam to “reactionary forces” overseas, another activist who followed his trial said.
A court in Cu Kuin district, Dak Lak province, sentenced Y Wo Nie on the charge of “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, said activist Vo Ngoc Luc, who followed the trial developments as they were broadcast over a local loudspeaker.
The article prohibits citizens from abusing “the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the State’s interests and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.” Rights groups have criticized the statute as providing authorities widespread latitude to crack down on any criticism of the government.
Nie participated in several online training courses held by “reactionary forces.” The classes included lessons on religious faith, Vietnam Civil Law, international human rights law, the Montagnard experience in Vietnam, and how to document human rights abuses, according to the online news outlet Congly, the mouthpiece of the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam.
“Learning about human rights is very good — that’s what I told security officers whom I met this morning,” Luc said. “You cannot convict [people] for taking online courses on human rights.”
Prosecutors failed to provide evidence to support a second accusation against Nie for “providing false information,” Luc said.
“They were all general and ambiguous accusations,” he said.
“Saying the sentence was too heavy is wrong,” Luc added. “I would say it was groundless. If we lived in a civilized world, then the court would declare his innocence, set him free right at the trial, and the investigation agency would apologize him.”
In its indictment, the Cu Kuin People’s Procuracy said that in 2020 Nie collected distorting and false information and composed three reports on human rights violations and sent them to “reactionary forces overseas” via the WhatsApp instant messaging service.
The indictment also said Nie met with the delegates from the U.S. Embassy and Consulate General in Vietnam when they visited the Gia Lai province in June 2020.
The judges concluded that Nie’s acts had affected social safety and order, political security and government administrative agencies’ activities, undermining confidence in the regime and at home and abroad.
When Nie was arrested in September 2020, Cu Kuin police officers said that they seized “many materials with false content and images slandering, insulting and defaming the prestige and dignity of the party, state, local authorities, the public security forces in Cu Kuin district and in Dak Lak province.”
Prior to the September 2020 arrest, Nie received a nine-year jail term for “sabotaging the national unity policy.”
In recent decades, many ethnic minority groups in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, including the Montagnards, have been persecuted for their religious beliefs and seen their land confiscated without adequate compensation. The crackdowns tend to ramp up on the groups when they try to fight back and report these human rights abuses, activists said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Minority rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 27, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 21, 2022
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam’s capital on May 21 arrested Hanoi resident and human rights activist Truong Van Dung, charging him under Article 88 of Vietnam’s 1999 Penal Code with “conducting propaganda against the State,” Dung’s wife Nghiem Thi Hop told RFA the same day.
Dung, who was born in 1958, was taken into custody at around 7 a.m. at the couple’s home, Hop said.
“While I was out shopping, I received a phone call from a neighbor telling me he had been arrested, and I came back at 7:30 but they had already taken him away.”
Police in plain clothes then arrived and read out an order to search the house, taking away books, notebooks, laptop computers and protest banners, she added.
Dung had participated in protests in Hanoi including demonstrations against China’s occupation of the Paracel Islands — an island group in the South China Sea also claimed by Vietnam — and protests against the Taiwan-owned Formosa Company for polluting the coastline of four central Vietnamese provinces of Vietnam in 2016.
Public protests even over perceived harm to Vietnam’s interests are considered threats to its political stability and are routinely suppressed by the police.
Dung’s arrest under Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code is the second arrest on national security charges reported since Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh’s May 12-17 visit to the U.S. Cao Thi Cue, owner of the Peng Lai Temple in southern Vietnam’s Long An province, was arrested on charges of “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” under Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code.
Both laws have been criticized by rights groups as tools used to stifle voices of dissent in the one-party communist state.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Three Hanoi-based Activists Held in Police Station for Hours, One Beaten After Holding Peaceful Mini-demonstration, Vietnam: Two Activists Beaten by Plainclothes Agents on Paracell Commemoration
- Date added
- May 27, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 9, 2022
- Event Description
he Hanoi police have resumed investigation against blogger Le Anh Hung, taking him back to their temporary detention center from the city-based mental hospital.
According to the decision of the capital city’s Police Department on May 9, the compulsory mental treatment was stopped by the city’s People’s Procuracy on the same day and he was transferred back to jail on May 10 for further investigation on the allegation of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code.
The investigation is expected to end soon and the first-instance hearing will be carried out in coming months, according to his lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng.
Mr. Le Anh Hung, a political blogger of Voice of America, was arrested on July 5, 2018 for his postings on Facebook on which he accused many senior communist leaders of criminal activities and working for China against the country’s interests. Ten months later, on May 4, 2019, he was sent to a mental hospital for compulsory treatment.
He was reported not to agree with the treatment, denying to take medicines provided by the mental facility. However, he was beaten and forced to take medicines after being tied to his bed, according to his family.
Le Anh Hung was moved from the National Psychiatric Ward in Hanoi, where he was admitted in April 2019, and returned to prison last week so that the criminal prosecution against him could resume. A member of the Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam, Hung was arrested in July 2018 and charged with “abusing democratic freedoms.” However, he has yet to be tried. During his unusually long pre-trial detention period, now entering its fourth year, Hung has often complained of physical and psychological abuse and has had to go on several hunger strikes to protest the abuse.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 16, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 11, 2022
- Event Description
On 11 and 12 May 2022, Hoa Binh province police repeatedly called Mr Trinh Ba Khiem - Mrs Theu's husband - to come to their office 'to work'. This was the third time 64-year-old Mr Khiem was summoned to the police office regarding the statuses, video clips... he posted on his Facebook since the arrest of his wife Mrs Can Thi Theu and his two sons Trinh Ba Phuong and Trinh Ba Tu. Mr Khiem told RFA Viet: 'In the second working session I had with Hoa Binh province police, they questioned me, why did I say on social media that the communist regime killed people; I told them, that was correct, [the communist regime] killed [land petitioner] Mr Le Dinh Kinh [in an ambush on Dong Tam village in Jan 2020]...
'The police also told me, I am not allowed to publish on social media unverified articles, they asked me to stop live streaming on social media.'
Mr Khiem said he refused to comply with the police's demand, and asserted that he would continue to speak out on social media and to fight for justice for his family members.
'They demanded me to stop [all those activities], otherwise I will be jailed with a heavy sentence.'
On 11 May, before going to the police office, Mr Khiem told RFA Viet: 'I am never afraid of the communist louts. In my struggle [for my rights] , it is the communist regime that commits criminal offences, the communists must defend themselves before me, I never have to defend myself before them.'
Coming home after his working session with the police, he said:
'[The police] persuaded me not to live stream bad mouthing the regime, otherwise they will put me in jail. The communist regime's police really want to arrest me, that is my assessment.'
In the working session on 12 May, Mr Khiem informed that the police changed tack. Instead of banning him from speaking out on social media. they persuaded him not to use the word 'communist' in his speech.
'That was their demand, they didn't like that word; in the view of this communist regime, the Communist Party is always correct, only individuals make mistakes, if you call them all 'communists', they don't like it at all, they said, you bad mouth the regime and the state by saying that.'
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
News summarised from Vietnamese article: VoA Vietnam
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 16, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 5, 2022
- Event Description
Tran Hoang Huan was sentenced to eight years in prison plus three years of home surveillance for postings on Facebook that allegedly violated Article 117 of the Criminal Code. Huan, 34, was accused of making 186 posts and 60 statuses that “distort and defame the people’s government,” and 21 articles that “are lies which created confusion among the citizens.” The trial, which was televised, did not appear to show any lawyer representing Huan.
On May 5, the People’s Court of the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang convicted a local citizen named Tran Hoang Huan of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code for his online posting. During a short trial which lasted a few hours, the court sentenced him to eight years in prison and three years of probation. Huan, who was arrested on April 8 last year, was accused of disseminating 186 articles on Facebook from early September 2020 to early April 2021 with the content criticizing the regime and defaming its leadership.
Before being arrested, in 2020, he was fined VND12.5 million ($560) for posting articles on Facebook unwanted by the regime. He was also summoned to a police station many times where he was forced to pledge not to post critical statuses, according to the state-controlled media.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger arrested, charged for online criticising government response to COVID-19
- Date added
- May 16, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 19, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnamese citizen journalist and political prisoner Le Trong Hung was allowed to see his wife for the first time since his arrest more than a year ago, a 40-minute meeting last week, his wife told RFA.
Born in 1979, Hung is known for livestreaming on Facebook and YouTube videos on controversial social and political issues, particularly land rights cases that have been at the center of controversies in Vietnam.
He was arrested in March 2021 on charges of “disseminating anti-State materials” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code shortly after nominating himself to run for Vietnam’s National Assembly elections in defiance of the ruling Communist Party and sentenced in December to five years in prison and five years of probation.
Hung was able to see his family on April 22, three days after an appeal’s court in Hanoi upheld his sentence in a hearing that neither his lawyers nor his family were informed about in advance, said Hung’s wife, Do Le Na.
“My husband said that on April 19, the trial day, he was ‘kidnapped; and sent to the court. He did not agree to stand the trial as he hadn’t got a chance to see his lawyers,” she told RFA.
Her 40-minute meeting was closely monitored, Na added.
“They repeatedly reminded me and my husband not to mention the appeal trial,” she said. “They warned that our talk over the phone would be stopped and we would be kicked out if we talked about the trial.”
Na said that she would keep fighting for her husband.
“I myself will keep speaking up and reaching out to human rights organizations and civilized countries which pay attention to the human rights situation in Vietnam. I want to point out how my husband has been treated and expose all of the Vietnamese government’s wrongdoings.”
Before his candidacy, Hung was a chemistry teacher at Xa Dan junior high school in Hanoi, but he quit teaching after unsuccessfully petitioning for reforms to the educational system.
He had also participated in protests for environmental conservation, as well as sharing news about protests in Myanmar and the cases of other activists targeted by Vietnam’s government.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: citizen journalist willing to candidate for elections arrested, his house searched
- Date added
- May 4, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 26, 2022
- Event Description
Background
Dinh Van Hai, a disabled person, is living in Duc Trong district, Lam Dong province. History of Activism
Dinh Van Hai, with his deep knowledge on international, criminal, civil and land rights, often shares his views on national and international issues. He participated in many demonstrations on national sovereignty and the environment and also protests against human rights violations by the authorities, especially violent attacks against activists.
Mr Hai was arrested in Oct 2021, charged with conducting “anti-state propaganda” pursuant sec 117 of the penal code for his Facebook postings that were critical of the regime's environmental and social policies.
On 26 April 2022, he was sentenced to 5 years jail plus 3 years probation by Lam Dong province court.
His relative (name withheld due to security concern) informed RFA Viet that his family didn't receive any official notification about the hearing. They were only aware of it via a person who provided legal assistance for the disabled, as Mr Hai was disabled.
According to the relative, Mr Hai stated before court that what he did was towards a more progressive, developed, better society, it wasn't his intention to oppose the Party and the state. He also expressed his wish for a multi-party system so the people can participate in a free election.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 4, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 7, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities should drop all requirements that journalist Phan Bui Bao Thy attend mandatory “re-education” classes, let him work freely, and stop using arbitrary anti-state laws to harass and detain journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.
On April 7, the People’s Court of Quang Tri sentenced Thy to one year of “non-custodial re-education” for allegedly defaming state leaders on social media, according to news reports. That sentence allows Thy to live outside of a prison, but under state supervision that requires him to attend classes on local laws and regulations for the duration of his sentence, according to reports.
The ruling, handed down after five days of deliberations, cited 79 posts allegedly published by Thy and Le Anh Dung, a local businessman, on the Facebook pages Hoang Le, Quang Tri 357, and QUANG TRI 357 between April 2020 and February 2021, according to those reports, which said the posts infringed on the “reputation, honor and dignity” of provincial leaders.
Dung was sentenced to 18 months of the same punishment, those reports said.
“It is Vietnamese authorities, not journalist Phan Bui Bao Thy, who need a ‘re-education’ on the importance of a free press in a just, fair, and democratic society,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnam must immediately stop punishing and jailing journalists on spurious anti-state charges.”
Thy, the bureau chief of the state-run Giao Duc Va Thoi Dai (Age and Education) news magazine, was first detained on February 10, 2021, in Vietnam’s central Quang Tri province, as CPJ documented at the time.
At the time, CPJ was able to review the page Quang Tri 357, which had about 2,300 followers and featured posts accusing Quang Tri provincial leaders of misusing funds meant for local infrastructure and property projects. The Facebook pages allegedly linked to Thy and Dung have since been taken down or set to private.
Thy was held in pretrial detention until his conviction under Article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code, an anti-state provision that bans “abusing freedom and democracy to infringe on the legal interests of the state, organizations, and individuals,” according to those news reports.
CPJ emailed the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and called the Quang Tri People’s Court for comment, but did not receive any replies.
Vietnam is among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, with at least 23 members of the press, including Thy, behind bars for their work at the time of CPJ’s 2021 prison census.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 13, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 5, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities should release journalist Nguyen Hoai Nam immediately and unconditionally, and stop imprisoning members of the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
On Tuesday, April 5, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Nam to three years, six months in prison under Article 331 of the penal code, an anti-state provision that bans “abusing freedom and democracy to infringe on the legal interests of the state, organizations, and individuals,” according to news reports.
According to those reports, the charges stemmed from Nam’s critical reporting on how authorities handled a corruption case at the Vietnam Internal Waterways Agency, which he posted on his personal Facebook page, which has about 7,800 followers. Nam, a former state media reporter, also frequently posted criticism of Communist Party officials, reports said.
“Vietnamese authorities must free journalist Nguyen Hoai Nam, who was wrongfully sentenced to prison for doing his job as an independent journalist,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnam must stop treating journalists who report in the public interest as criminals, and should ensure that members of the press do not face prison for their work.”
CPJ could not immediately determine whether Nam intends to appeal the conviction. He was first detained on April 3, 2021, in Ho Chi Minh City, and was held in pretrial detention until his conviction and sentencing on Tuesday.
CPJ emailed the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and called the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court office for comment, but did not receive any replies.
Vietnam is among the world’s worst jailers of journalists, with at least 23 members of the press behind bars for their work at the time of CPJ’s 2021 prison census.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: media worker arrested on catch-all charges
- Date added
- Apr 13, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 24, 2022
- Event Description
On March 24, the local Nam Dinh Provincial People’s Court held an appeal hearing for Vietnamese activist Do Nam Trung, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and four years of probation on charges of “distributing anti-state propaganda” last December under Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal code. The appeals court announced its decision on the same day, upholding Trung’s previous sentencing.
Do Nam Trung, 40, is an activist famous for his work on the promotion of freedom of expression, human rights, and democracy in Vietnam. His activism includes his participation in and calling for protests opposing China’s actions in the South China Sea, which resulted in his arrest and 14-month incarceration in 2014.
After being released from prison, the Nam Dinh-based activist continued his role as an activist, which included demanding the suspension of Taiwan-based Formosa Steel Plant’s operations following its environmental scandal, helping rescue people living in flooded and landslide-prone areas, calling for the boycott of corrupt toll booths, as well as working with victims of land confiscation in Vietnam and informing them about their rights.
Trung was also a frequent target of coordinated harassment from the government-backed army of cyber trolls. Trung’s Facebook account, which he used as a platform to report his activities, had been constantly under mass reporting by Vietnam’s online Force 47 and often resulted in a temporary suspension of his account.
According to Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, Trung’s partner, his parents and sister were able to enter the courthouse while she was not. The court insisted that only “family members” were allowed inside.
Previously, Tuyet wrote on her Facebook account that Do Nam Trung’s overall health remained stable and that his condition while in detention was acceptable. He also received full COVID-19 vaccinations, she added.
Prior to the Nam Dinh activist’s trial last year, rights advocate Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a press statement urged the Vietnamese authorities to “immediately release the human rights activist Do Nam Trung and drop all charges against him.”
“Do Nam Trung is the latest victim of Vietnamese government retaliation against citizens who refuse to remain silent in the face of injustice and rights abuses,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of HRW. “Global pressure on the Vietnamese government is needed to repeal this abusive criminal law that blatantly violates the right to free expression.”
Trung’s appeal hearing took place only one day after the Hanoi People’s Court tried independent journalist Le Van Dung. The court sentenced Dung to five years in jail and five years probation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 30, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 17, 2022
- Event Description
Bui Van Thuan’s wife received a letter from him for the first time since he was arrested on August 30 last year. Thuan said he’d had two shots of the Pfizer vaccine and was in generally good health due to regular exercise. But since last October he’s been having joint pains that doctors have looked at but couldn’t do anything about. Thus every 10 days or so he needs to take antibiotics and pain medication.
Later in the month, Trinh Nhung, Thuan’s wife, received a summons from the Thanh Hoa Police Department in order to discuss details related to the case of Bui Van Thuan, who allegedly stored documents and “items that oppose the state” on his computer.
Mr Thuan was arrested since Aug 2021. Since then, his wife Mrs Trinh Thi Nhung continued to update about his situation on social media and lodge grievance letters to authorities to demand that his rights are protected.
On 17 Mar [2022], Mrs Nhung was summoned by Thanh Hoa province police investigation bureau. In this working session, the police threatened her for fighting for her husband's rights.
Talking to RFA Viet, Mrs Nhung said:
'The investigators told me I should cut down on publishing articles about my husband on the net, they can arrest me any time, they said they had good basis to arrest me. They said I should not publish my police summon on the net, it was not a right thing nor a good thing for me to do.'
She said investigators had asked leading questions to her many times in the working session. They wanted her to confirm her husband's Fb account and her own Fb account, she refused and was again threatened of arrest.
'[Investigators] told me, for me to refuse to provide my private information and my husband's information meant I wasn't cooperative, they could arrest me for not cooperating with the investigation office.'
Before his arrest, Mr Thuan was known for his reports and comments about officials' power game with biting humour. Since his arrest, his family hasn't been allowed to contact him.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 30, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 23, 2022
- Event Description
A court in Hanoi on Wednesday handed down sentences to a journalist and a relative who tried to hide him from authorities.
Le Van Dung, an activist and independent journalist who publishes to Facebook and YouTube, was sentenced to five years in prison and five years’ probation for “propaganda against the state.”
The court handed Dung’s 66-year-old uncle Nguyen Van Son an 18-month suspended sentence for helping the journalist hide from police.
Dung denies the charges, according to his lawyers and family.
Ha Huy Son, one of the lawyers representing Dung, described the court’s decision as an “unjust verdict, with no basis.” He added that they will appeal.
Dung, a 51-year-old journalist also known as Le Dung Vova, was arrested for his reporting in June 2021.
He posted videos and articles to social media about corruption and land confiscations, and commented on political and social issues.
An indictment cited by state media alleged that Dung “made and posted to the internet 12 video clips” between March 2017 and September 2018 that included propaganda against the state, defamed the government, spread false news, caused confusion, and were insulted the “honor and prestige of the Party and State leaders.”
Vietnam’s state-run radio Voice of Vietnam quoted part of Dung's statement to the court, in which he said it makes no sense to argue about the legal system in Vietnam.
His lawyer, Ha Huy Son, gave VOA the full statement.
In it, Dung said that the accusations against him have “no legal basis. It does not follow a standard or a rule. I am not guilty.”
A second lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh, wrote on Facebook after the trial that while Dung admitted posting content to social media, “he has consistently rejected the views that the statements in the clips are illegal.”
Dung’s wife, Bui Thi Hue, told VOA that she and his mother were not allowed to attend the trial, even though the court said it was “open to public.”
The Hanoi People’s Court did not immediately respond to VOA’s request for comments.
Human Rights Watch earlier said Vietnam should drop the charges and that Dung is one of more than 60 people being prosecuted for speaking out.
“Vietnamese authorities persist in treating any sort of criticism of the government as a grave threat to be prosecuted with long prison terms,” the rights group’s deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said on Tuesday.
“International donors and trade partners of Vietnam should press Hanoi to listen to its critics instead of persecuting them,” he added.
With limited space for independent reporting in Vietnam, many independent bloggers and journalists use social media to report or comment on sensitive issues.
The country has one of the worst records on the global press freedom index, ranking 175 out of 180 countries where 1 is freest. Accusations of propaganda against the state and abusing freedoms are regularly used to jail critics, media watchdog Reporters Without Borders says.
Many face lengthy sentences.
An activist arrested in July on propaganda charges lost his appeal against the sentencing on Thursday.
The appeals court in Nam Dinh province upheld a sentence of 10 years’ prison and four years’ probation for rights activist Do Nam Trung, his lawyer told VOA.
“This is an unjust judgment,” said the lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh. He added that under Vietnam’s penal code, violations of speech should be punished only under civil charges.
“Trung has held the view that his statements in his video clips and articles are exercising his right to freedom of speech as provided by the constitution, and therefore he believes that the verdict is wrong”, Manh said.
Trung, 40, was arrested on July 6, 2021, for posting six video clips that authorities said were “distorting content” and “defaming the government,” according to state-run media.
A court in December sentenced him to prison.
“Vietnam routinely prosecutes people for simply expressing their views critical of the government, making it one of the most dangerous countries in Southeast Asia to be a human rights activist,” said Robertson of Human Rights Watch.
“Authorities should immediately and unconditionally release [Trung] for speaking his mind about the government. Vietnam should also immediately repeal the rights-abusing charge of ‘propaganda against the state,’ which has been used so frequently to target government critics,” he added.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: social media activist and journalist charged for reporting on corruption, his house raided
- Date added
- Mar 29, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 14, 2022
- Event Description
Thugs with steel pipes attacked members of the Yao ethnic minority community in Vietnam’s Lao Cai province on Monday as they protested the construction of a hydropower plant they said would block the water source they rely on for salmon farming.
Residents are trying to block construction of the project because they say it has contaminated water on a nearby spring, killing their fish, and Vietnamese project developer May Ho Energy Company Ltd. has not offered inadequate compensation to cover their losses.
“The company has been carrying out the construction work without paying [enough] compensation to local residents,” a resident surnamed Lo told RFA by text message.
But when members of the Dao Do (Red Yao) community gathered to stop work on the plant in a hamlet of Sa Pa town, the company hired thugs to “suppress them,” Lo said.
“Being beaten, the residents had to resist,” he said. “Because the thugs all used steel tubes, the residents had to pick up bricks [to throw] to fight back.”
A video shot by a protester shows dozens of people in plainclothes with steel tubes approach and attack local residents who had gathered peacefully.
The incident quickly escalated and turned into a clash when the locals fought back.
Vuong Trinh Quoc, who is the chairman of the town’s People’s Committee, told state media that locals assaulted construction workers, leaving eight workers injured.
Many residents, including Lo, denied the report and said they were not the instigators. He expressed anger about the incident on social media after seeing Quoc’s statement in the media.
Another resident who gave her name as May also said that those who had assaulted locals were thugs hired to attack them.
RFA could not reach Quoc for comment, but later contacted Pham Tien Dung, vice chairman of the town’s People’s Committee, who said he was not authorized to speak with the media about the incident.
RFA could not reach the local representative of the May Ho Energy Company for comment, despite making several calls.
The private company registered in April 2017 received a project license for construction of the hydropower plant in May 2021. Building work began the following month.
The project falls under a category that allows the state to appropriate land for the purpose of national development, according to a report by state-run Vietnam News Agency.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 20, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 5, 2022
- Event Description
The Vietnamese authorities stopped several pro-democracy supporters from attending an event in Hanoi in support of Ukraine on March 5, 2022, following the Russian invasion, Human Rights Watch said today. The Ukrainian Embassy was holding “a charity bazaar dedicated to raising funds for people in need in Ukraine.”
The Vietnamese government routinely violates freedom of movement and other basic rights by subjecting activists, dissidents, human rights defenders, and others to indefinite house arrest, harassment, and other forms of detention to keep them from attending protests, criminal trials, meetings with foreign dignitaries, and other events. At times, the authorities detain people just long enough to make them miss the event.
“Vietnamese security agents frequently restrict activists’ movements, blocking them from leaving their homes or neighborhood to prevent them from attending an event the government considers problematic,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Now the Vietnamese government has extended its policy of repressing activism by preventing people from showing support for the embattled people of Ukraine.”
Hoang Ha (known as Song Que), a rights supporter, reported that the evening before the Ukrainian charity event, security agents from ward and district levels asked her whether she planned to attend. On the morning of March 5, a security agent in civilian clothes prevented her from leaving her house even though she promised that she would only go to a friend’s house for lunch.
Dang Bich Phuong wrote on her Facebook page, “Ukrainian people, please sympathize with us. When we express our support for you online, our accounts got blocked. When we tried to take to the street to support you, they blocked our doors. At least, Ukrainian people enjoy more freedom than we do.” Among six friends that Dang Bich Phuong had invited to her house for lunch before heading to the charity event in the afternoon, only three were allowed to go to her house. Each of them brought along a “tail” of two security agents who were apparently told to prevent them from going to the bazaar after lunch. Dang Bich Phuong wrote that, when she went down to pick up the food she ordered, she saw “a row of six guys sitting in the lobby.” As a result, Dang Bich Phuong and her friends realized they would not be permitted to go to the bazaar.
Security agents prevented at least eight democracy campaigners from going to the Ukrainian Embassy’s event: Nguyen Xuan Dien, Hoang Ha, Nguyen Nguyen Binh, Nguyen Khanh Tram, Nguyen Van Vien, Pham Thi Lan (wife of political prisoner Nguyen Tuong Thuy), Dang Bich Phuong, and Nguyen Hoang Anh.
During the March 2, 2022 vote at the United Nations General Assembly on passage of a resolution calling on Russia to end its military offensive in Ukraine and denouncing Russia’s violations of international humanitarian and human rights law, Vietnam abstained.
As Human Rights Watch detailed in its February report, “Locked Inside Our Home: Movement Restrictions on Rights Activists in Vietnam,” the Vietnamese government frequently uses various methods to keep people under house arrest, such as stationing plainclothes security agents outside homes, using padlocks to lock people inside, erecting roadblocks and other barriers to prevent people from leaving their homes and others from entering, mobilizing neighborhood thugs to intimidate people into staying home, and applying very strong adhesives – such as “superglue” – on locks.
In a separate case on March 2, the poet Thai Hao left his house in Thanh Hoa for the airport. He planned to fly to Ho Chi Minh City to receive an award for poetry at an informal ceremony organized by the literary group Van Viet. Thai Hao reported that prior to his trip, security agents went to his house and “advised” him not to go. He was determined to go, but before he could get very far, uniformed police stopped him on the road. Two men in civilian clothes then crossed the street and attacked him, hitting him in the face.
Initially, the uniformed police did not intervene. Only when Thai Hao yelled repeatedly for help did the police at the scene tell the two men to stop hitting him. The police fined Thai Hao for violating traffic laws and took him to the police station, keeping him there for three hours. Thai Hao missed his flight and had to return home.
Hoang Hung, a poet involved in organizing the informal Van Viet gathering, wrote that the authorities prevented all invitees who lived outside of Ho Chi Minh City from attending the event. Those who lived in Ho Chi Minh City met at a café on March 3, surrounded by plainclothes security agents. When one participant raised a piece of paper with the names of the awardees, a security agent snatched the paper out of his hand.
On March 7, Van Viet published a letter that “denounces the government’s obstruction of its awards and harassment of its recipients.”
“Vietnamese police and security officers harass and abuse critics and rights activists in the most blatant ways, always with total impunity,” Robertson said. “Concerned governments should urgently condemn this litany of abuses and call for an end to the authorities’ violations of people’s right to freedom of movement because of their beliefs and speech.”
- Impact of Event
- 8
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community), Woman
- Violation
- Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 20, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 5, 2022
- Event Description
More than 100 Vietnamese villagers demanding title to their land were attacked and beaten on Saturday by assailants wearing civilian clothes while police looked on and refused to intervene, according to local sources.
The attack in Dien Ban town in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province came after petitioners set up tents and raised banners in front of the town’s People’s Committee headquarters, asking for their right to land for which they paid five years ago, sources said.
Roads leading to Dien Ban had already been blocked to prevent access to the town center when protesters arrived, a petitioner named Nguyen Thi Thanh Tam told RFA on Monday.
“However, a large number of us managed to push our way through and reached the place where we raised our banners and set up mats and blankets, planning to stay there till today.”
A group of around 30 men wearing face masks, helmets and civilian clothes then arrived and attacked the group, beating petitioners including children and elderly women, Tam said.
“They even sprayed us with fire extinguishers and took away our tents, illegally detaining protesters and taking them to a nearby police station,” she added.
Traffic police present at the scene did nothing to prevent the assault, Tam said, noting that the unidentified attackers appeared to be working in coordination with local authorities to attack and disperse the protest.
“After all, the roads to the town center had been cordoned off, so how could they get to where we were?” she asked.
Thugs associated with the police have frequently been used by Vietnamese authorities in the past to break up land-rights protests or attack political dissidents or members of unsanctioned religious groups, sources say.
Saturday’s protest was the latest attempt by petitioners to secure title to land lots purchased from the Bach Dat An Stock Company, which accepted villagers’ payments for the land but have yet to acknowledge ownership, sources say.
A March 5 report by state-owned newspaper Lao Dong (Labor) said that petitioners had set up tents and raised banners in front of the People’s Committee headquarters, but had taken down the tents themselves and dispersed quietly on their own.
No mention of the assault on protesters was made in the article, which quoted the committee’s deputy chairman.
Calls seeking comment from Dien Ban Town Party Chief Dan Huu Lien and Village Chairman Tran Uc were not picked up this week.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Land rights, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Suspected state
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 14, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 28, 2022
- Event Description
Background
Tuan was born in Quang Nam Province and currently lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City. He graduated from the history program at the University of Da Nang, and now is also pursuing a law degree at Hanoi Law University.
Profile photo source. History of Activism
Tuan is a young professional that showed his concern for human rights in Vietnam starting at a very young age. He has participated in the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam since 2015 and joined many collective movements across the country. According to journalist Pham Doan Trang, Tuan has always dreamed of writing the first historical book on the democratization of Vietnam.
Details of Imprisonment
According to certain news sources in Vietnam, the authorities intend to combine the cases of Pham Chi Dung, Pham Chi Thanh, and Le Huu Minh Tuan into one case with Le Huu Minh Tuan acting as an accomplice. All are members of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam.
October 2020:
The government has finished its investigation of Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Le Huu Minh Tuan. Thuy’s wife said their lawyer will be Nguyen Van Mieng. Some observers expected that the trial would be held soon.
November 2020:
Lawyers for jailed journalists Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Le Huu Minh Tuan say they have finally received paperwork that allows them to start working on the cases on behalf of their clients, after the Procuracy office finished its investigation. Attorney Nguyen Van Mieng reported that since their arrests, the three men have not yet been allowed to talk to a lawyer. He also said the men were allowed to receive supplies sent by their families on November 6, but he was not able to see them due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Attorney Nguyen Van Mieng, lawyer for Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Le Huu Minh Tuan, said the order for their temporary detention was signed on November 12, 2020, allowing for three months and 15 days of additional detention. It is thus expected that their first instance trials will take place toward the end of January 2021. Dung said that after reading the 12-page indictment against him, “I could not see where I broke the law.” Thuy said, “Of the 45 articles attributed to me, some weren’t even mine.” He said he’d appeal the indictment within 15 days.
January 2021:
Three members of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) were sentenced to a total of 37 years in prison after a trial lasting half a day. Pham Chi Dung, 55, received 15 years; Nguyen Tuong Thuy, 69, received 11 years; and Le Huu Minh Tuan, 32, received 11 years. All three were convicted of “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code. Thuy is known to be in poor health; the long sentences could cause serious health problems. You can read our analysis of the trial here. Before his sentencing, Thuy made this statement: “All my articles are just yearnings for our people and our country. In the future, activities like mine will be considered perfectly normal.” Dung said, “A harsh sentence for independent journalists like us will show the world what ‘freedom of the press’ looks like in Vietnam. It’ll also create problems in international relations during this difficult period.”
The authorities accused the three of writing “reactionary content,” of publishing articles that “distort the truth, incite individuals to rise up and overthrow the people’s government, or even incite hatred and extremism.” However, a video of Tuan highlights the peaceful nature of his work and aspirations. He contends that he joined the IJAVN, a purely civil and professional entity, to pursue the rights enshrined in Vietnam’s Constitution. He also emphasizes, explicitly, that his objective is never to topple the current regime. Please watch and share this video of Le Huu Minh Tuan speaking in his own words.
Update, late January: Le Huu Minh Tuan has decided to appeal his prison sentence. He appears to be in good health and spirits, according to his lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh.
June 2021:
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) issued an opinion on Le Huu Minh Tuan, in which they found Le Huu Minh Tuan’s detention to be arbitrary and called for his immediate release.
The WGAD also noted that this case is one of many cases brought before the Working Group in recent years concerning arbitrary detention in Viet Nam. These cases follow a familiar pattern of arrest that does not comply with international norms, which is manifested in the circumstances of the arrest, lengthy detention pending trial with no access to judicial review, denial or limiting of access to legal counsel, incommunicado detention, prosecution under vaguely worded criminal offences for the peaceful exercise of human rights, and denial of access to the outside world. This pattern indicates a systemic problem with arbitrary detention in Viet Nam which, if it continues, may amount to a serious violation of international law.
February 2022:
On February 28 an appeals court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld the 11-year sentence for Le Huu Minh Tuan, a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), on charges of “anti-state propaganda.” The open trial lasted only half a day and Tuan’s family was not allowed inside the courtroom. Tuan’s sister, Le Thi Hoai Tam, told VOA that Tuan was not allowed to see his lawyer, Dang Dinh Manh, before the trial due to “pandemic reasons.” According to his lawyer, Tuan stated in court that he only exercised his basic freedoms of expression and of the press according to Article 25 of the Constitution.
We talked to Le Thi Hoai Tam, Tuan’s sister. Like many other families of political prisoners in Vietnam, they have faced harassment from the law enforcement to visit and send Tuan necessities. Ms. Tam calls on the international community to speak out forcefully for the release of Tuan and members of the Independent Journalist Association. Watch the interview to learn more about Tuan and his personality through the eyes of his sister and the family.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: independent journalist critical of the Government arrested, Vietnam: three independent journalists handed down hards sentences (Update), Vietnam: three independent journalists in detention are indicted and face long-term imprisonment
- Date added
- Mar 10, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 1, 2022
- Event Description
Vietnam’s security forces continue political suppression which started in late 2015, arresting Ho Chi Minh City-based human rights activist and civil society campaigner Tran Van Bang (aka Tran Bang) on March 1 and charged him with “conducting anti-state propanda” under Article 117 with potential imprisonment of between seven and 12 years, even 20 years in prison.
According to local activists, the HCM City’s police broke into his private residence in the Tuesday’s morning when he was alone at home. The state-controlled media reported that police also conducted a house search and confiscated a number of documents with “anti-state” content.
Citing information from the city’s Police Department, the state-controlled newspapers reported that the local police probed the case on November 24 last year.
Like other political cases, Mr. Bang, 61, likely will be held incommunicado for at least four months during the investigation period.
Before being arrested, Mr. Bang was summoned by the local police twice and he warned his friends that he would be arrested soon.
In late 2021, he announced to close his Facebook page Tran Bang to focus on his health. He reportedly has a number of health issues in recent years, including eye vision but has not been treated properly due to Covid-19 pandemic and social isolation due to the deadly outbreak.
Mr. Bang, an engineer in construction, has been involved in social affairs more than a decade ago. He is among well-known government critics, and often gives interviews to foreign media such as Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, and BBC.
He has actively participated in peaceful demonstrations in HCM City and Hanoi since 2011 to protest China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea). He was detained many times by security force, and in a protest in 2015, he was brutally beaten by security forces.
Bang has been the second activist being detained and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” since the beginning of 2022. On January 10, blogger Le Manh Ha got arrested for his posts on Facebook on a number of issues, including systemic corruption and land grabbing across the country.
According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam is holding at least 254 prisoners of conscience, including 37 in pre-trial detention. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators. Among them are 12 activists in pre-trial detention and 50 convicted activists alleged of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code (1999) or Article 117 of the Criminal Code (2015), the controversial accusation the international community has urged Vietnam’s authoritarian regime to remove from the country’s law because it has been used for decades to silence peaceful government critics.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
Case shared by Defend the Defenders Vietnam
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 10, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 9, 2022
- Event Description
Prominent Vietnamese environmentalist Nguy Thi Khanh is the latest activist in the country to be arrested on tax evasion charges, state media reported this week.
Khanh, who is the first Vietnamese ever to win the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018, was arrested last month in her home in Hanoi. State media did not confirm her detention until Feb. 9. Authorities searched her office and home and confiscated documents and several devices.
Khanh won the Goldman for her work with the Green Innovation and Development Center, an organization she founded which promotes sustainable development in the Southeast Asian country.
Her advocacy for green energy sometimes puts her crosswise to the Vietnamese government, which wants to increase the production of coal, the burning of which is a major contributor to climate change.
Two other activists were sentenced last month tax-related charges.
Dang Dinh Bach, leader of the Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center, was sentenced to five years for tax evasion, while journalist Mai Phan Loi, who heads the Center for Media in Educating Community, received four years for tax fraud. Both were arrested in June 2021.
The Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said in a statement that the arrests of Bach and Loi were intended to prevent the creation of the Vietnam Domestic Advisory Group, which would have enabled activists to be independent civil society representatives in accordance with the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA).
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to work
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, NGO staff, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 17, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 24, 2022
- Event Description
Background
Bach lives and works in Hanoi. He is currently the Director of the non-profit Law & Policy of Sustainable Development (LPSD).
LPSD is a member of the Vietnam Environmental Network (VEN), Vietnam Sustainable Energy Alliance (VSEA), and the Vietnam Non-Communicable Diseases Prevention and Control Alliance (NCDs-VN).
Bach, 43, is known for his ability to mobilize young people to volunteer for charitable projects such as helping victims of storms and disasters, especially those impacted by global warming and environmental catastrophes. Bach has created many competitions and awards for innovation in the field of sustainable living which attracted the participation of many young Vietnamese. LPSD has also been a strong supporter of the government’s fight against the spread of COVID-19.
Profile picture: Dang Dinh Bach. Source: Thiennhien.net History of Activism
Bach was not known for his role in political activism. Family Situation
He was arrested just weeks after his wife gave birth.
On January 24, he was sentenced to five years in prison. He did not know of his trial date until his lawyers visited him on January 14.
The family has not been allowed to see him. They said because Bach is a vegan, he has been eating very little while in prison. His lawyer said Bach has gone on a hunger strike since January 10 to protest against his prolonged detention and not being allowed family visits. Bach has also demanded to be released on bail.
January 2022:
His family can send him food (which is bought at the detention center) twice per month. Bach is a vegan. The family is concerned that Bach can not maintain his physical and mental health if he follows the vegan diet, due to the poor nutritional value of food in the detention center. As a result, they have sent him non-vegan food. Nevertheless, he has given it all away to his fellow inmates. Bach follows a meager diet of rice, sesame, and salt. The family worries for him because he has lost a lot of weight since his arrest. He was in good health before the arrest, his wife reported.
On January 18, 2022, Thao and attorney Huong went to the Hanoi Court to submit a document saying that Bach’s family would pay compensation (on the accusation of tax evasion) before the trial, amounting to VND 500,000,000 (~US$ 22,000). However, they were told that they need to ask for the judge’s signature to be allowed to do so. As of the time of this writing, the family still has not received the approval needed to pay the fine. The family was advised by their attorneys that they should propose again at trial to pay the compensation with the hope that Bach will receive a minor sentence. It is refundable if Bach is proven innocent.
Bach's hearing reportedly failed to meet international standards for a fair trial and even Vietnam’s Criminal Procedure Code. His cases was purely political and he was imprisoned for his activities, given the fact that according to Vietnam’s laws, all non-profit non-government organizations (NGOs) are not subject to tax.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: independent media worker handed down 30-month jail (Update), Vietnam: journalists charged with tax evasion
- Date added
- Jan 31, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 5, 2022
- Event Description
On January 5, authorities in the central province of Ha Tinh arrested local Facebooker Nguyen Duc Hung and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison, even to 20 years. Ha Tinh is the coastal province most affected by the waste dumping of Taiwan’s Formosa Steel plant in 2016 and Mr. Hung is among outspoken independent journalists about the environmental disaster. He was kidnapped by the local security forces when he was on his way to workplace.
Nguyen Duc Hung was accused of using social networks such as Facebook and Youtube to address the country’s issues such as land seizure, corruption, environmental pollution caused by industrial groups including Formosa, etc. He will be held incommunicado for at least four months, a common practice applied by Vietnam’s investigation agencies in so-called “national security” cases. Police have also conducted house searches and confiscated his laptops, cell phones and other personal items.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
Information provided by Defend the Defenders
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 18, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 11, 2022
- Event Description
The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) protests the arbitrary conviction of civil society activist Mai Phan Lợi to four years in prison by the Hanoi People’s Court at a one-day trial on 11 January 2022. Lợi was accused of “tax evasion” along with a colleague, Bạch Hùng Dương, who received a 30-month sentence. VCHR deplores the frequent use of tax-related charges as a pretext to detain and silence bloggers, human rights defenders civil society activists and other government critics in Vietnam.
“Mai Phan Lợi’s real “crime” is that of advocating greater independence for civil society in Vietnam” said VCHR President Võ Văn Ái. “As part of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA), Hanoi pledged to establish a Domestic Advisory Group composed of independent CSOs to monitor the trade agreement and make recommendations on issues of land rights, worker rights and the environment. Mai Phan Lợi is sent to prison simply for urging Vietnam to uphold its binding obligations to the EU and the Vietnamese people”.
Mai Phan Lợi, 51, is founder and chair of the Scientific Board of the Centre for Media in Educating Community (MEC), a government-registered non-profit organisation established in 2012. He is also a journalist, former Hanoi Bureau chief of the law magazine Pháp Luật. He was arrested on 24 June 2021 along with another prominent civil society activist, lawyer Đặng Đình Bách, director of the Law and Policy for Sustainable Development (LPSD). Both men were accused of “tax evasion” under Article 200 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code. No information has been made public so far on the situation of Đặng Đình Bách.
Lợi and Bách were both Executive Board members of VNGO-EVFTA Network, a group of development and environmental CSOs established in 2020 to raise awareness about EVFTA and its civil society component in Vietnam, the Vietnam Domestic Advisory Group (DAG). Lợi’s role was to organize chat-shows and workshops on MEC’s communications channel GTV to highlight the role of civil society in monitoring the implementation of EVFTA in Vietnam.
The Court ruled that Mai Phan Lợi had “ordered his subordinates not to keep accounting records” and “not to declare and pay tax”. According to reports of the trial in the State-controlled press, Lợi and his accomplice had evaded taxes of almost 2 billion dongs (77,500 Euros) from subventions and donations worth over 19 billion dongs received by his organisation over the past 10 years.
The arrests of these civil society activists and the lack of independence of the Vietnamese DAG has been strongly denounced by its EU counterpart, the EU DAG, most recently in a statement issued at the first meeting of the Vietnam-EU Joint Civil Society Dialogue Forum in November 2021: ”The EU DAG has consistently raised the cases of several civil society representatives in Vietnam arrested and imprisoned in recent months directly with both parties to the EVFTA. We are concerned by the limited number of participants in the Vietnamese DAG and therefore ask that a defined process for further civil society engagement and participation be clarified. This is all the more urgent as we understand that a number of civil society organisations have had their applications for participation [in the DAG] rejected on unclear grounds”.
Stressing that EVFTA “explicitly calls for DAGs to be composed of “independent representative organisations” (Article 13.14.15 of the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapter), the EU DAG recalled that the civil society component was “the bedrock on which it can be ensured that the commitments undertaken are implemented in practice by both Parties”.
To obtain ratification of EVFTA, Vietnam adhered to all these provisions, but has failed to live up to its promises. Whereas the EU DAG, which was established in 2020 and consists of over 20 members including human rights NGOs, worker and employers organisations, business groups and environmental organisations, the Vietnamese DAG was not established until August 2021 – one year after EVFTA came into force. It has only three members, the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Institute for Workers and Trade Unions (an affiliate of the State-sponsored Vietnam General Confederation of Labour), and the Centre for Sustainable Rural Development (SRD). The criteria of independence specified for DAGs under EVFTA are clearly not applied in Vietnam.
VCHR calls on Vietnam to immediately release Mai Phan Lợi, Đặng Đình Bách, Bạch Hùng Dương and all other civil society activists detained for the legitimate exercise of their right to freedom of expression, association, assembly and freedom of religion or belief.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker, NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: journalists were charged with tax invasion
- Date added
- Jan 18, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 12, 2022
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam have arrested land rights activist Le Manh Ha on charges of spreading anti-state materials on social media, his wife told RFA Thursday.
Ha’s arrest Wednesday already marks the sixth time since the start of this year that authorities have detained people for human rights advocacy.
He had been operating a YouTube account called “People’s Voice Television” and a Facebook account called “Voice of the Vietnamese People,” where he shared his criticisms of the government.
Years ago, the government took his community’s land in Na Hang district in the northern province of Tuyen Quang to build a power plant. He has said that the government has not yet paid him and his former neighbors proper compensation. Since then, Ha has studied Vietnamese law and has helped others with legal advice and petitioning the government.
Police in plainclothes arrested Ha Wednesday in Tuyen Quang’s Chiem Hoa district. They took him to his current home in Tuyen Quang city and searched his house. His family told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that the authorities have not yet provided them with any documentation related to the arrest.
“At about 8:30 a.m. yesterday when I was getting my mother to the hospital, a local resident informed me that the police arrested Ha in Chiem Hoa,” Ha’s wife, Ma Thi Tho said.
“I decided to return home and got back around 9 a.m. and there were many police officers, around 20 or 30 of them, surrounding my home,” she said.
She said the police brought Le Manh Ha to the home at about 10:30 that morning.
“Shortly after his arrival, they read out a house search warrant and an order to prosecute my husband,” she said.
Among the items taken from Ha’s house were books on Vietnamese laws and its constitution.
Tho said police officers told her that her husband was in violation of Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code, which prohibits spreading propaganda against the state. Article 117 has been described by analysts as a vague set of rules frequently used by authorities to stifle peaceful critics of the country’s one-party communist government.
“The real reason is because he has been fighting for the people,” Tho said.
Le Dinh Viet, Ha’s defense lawyer, said his client has been fighting to correct the injustice of not being compensated for his land during the construction of the hydropower plant.
“He did not break any laws,” Viet said.
The Tuyen Quang hydropower plant began operations in 2008, but the government has not yet finished compensating affected families. Authorities promised to provide 16 square meters of land in Tuyen Quang city for each family, but in 16 years, only half of them have received their plot of land.
While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint between citizens and their government. Some small landholders have accused authorities of pushing them aside in favor of lucrative real estate or infrastructure projects, and then paying too little in compensation.
“The Vietnamese government is using criminal law to intimidate and shut down people peacefully protesting against land confiscation,” Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said in December 2021 about the arrests of other land rights activists in the country.
“The government should release [everyone] arrested and imprisoned under Article 117, and abolish this abusive law,” he said.
Among the remaining five arrestees this year were Le Thanh Nhat Nguyen, Le Thanh Hoan Nguyen, and Le Thanh Trung Duong, monks at the Peng Lai Temple in the southern province of Long An.
The three monks, along with their previously arrested leader Le Tung Van, were charged with article 331 for “abusing rights to freedom and democrary to violate the State’s interests, legitimate interest of organizations and individuals.”
State media did not reveal their crime, but article 331 is often used in cases involving activists advocating for human rights and religious freedom.
The other two arrestees were Nguyen Thai Hung and his wife Vu Thi Kim Hoang from the southern province of Dong Nai. Hung was in the middle of a livestream when police stormed in and arrested the couple.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 17, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 5, 2022
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam broke into a home and arrested a couple while the husband was livestreaming criticism of the government, their family told RFA.
Nguyen Thai Hung and his wife Vu Thi Kim Hoang were arrested Jan. 5 at about 6 p.m. in their home in the southern province of Dong Nai while Hung was on YouTube.
Viewers of the livestream were able to witness the arrest as it occurred. About 20 minutes into the broadcast, Hung left his computer to investigate what sounded like glass breaking. Shortly after, a man in an orange “Electricity of Vietnam” uniform appeared in frame, shouting, “Stay still. Don’t move.”
At that point, the webcam was turned down to show only a corner of the table and what looks to be a script.
Provincial authorities charged Hoang with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interests.” They have yet to make any official statement on Hung’s arrest.
The couple’s arrest was carried out by people in plain clothes, Hoang’s sister, Vu Giang Tien, told RFA.
“Two men suddenly broke into my sister’s house by climbing over the fence. Then they cut the gate lock open and rushed into the house,” she said.
“My sister’s oldest daughter got scared and started screaming. My mother, who lives next door, came over immediately and shouted, ‘Robbers! Robbers!’ when seeing the intruders in plain clothes, not in police uniforms,” Tien said.
When a man wearing yellow appeared with a gun, Tien said her mother stopped shouting out of fear.
“Those people took the two kids to a room upstairs to ask questions. Others who had already entered the house broke the glass door to open it. They searched the house, making a big mess, and they arrested Hung and Hoang and took them away,” Tien said.
The police did not announce why the couple were arrested or present any documents related to the arrest, the family said.
When the family asked why Hoang was also arrested, the police said they needed to take her away for investigation because she was involved in concealing a crime.
Two days later, the family went to the police station to find out more and were told by police that Hoang had been arrested for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” and that she was being held at a detention house elsewhere in the province.
The police did not provide them with any information about Hung, they said.
Tien said that Hung had been sharing his views on his YouTube channel for more than a year. The channel, established in January 2020, has around 40,000 followers. Videos are no longer available on the account.
Hung’s Facebook account is active, but the most recent post, which discussed the death of a young soldier, Tran Duc Do, is from July 2021.
Vietnam is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index for 2021. Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply in 2020 with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers and Facebook personalities in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January 2021.
Police have arrested at least 40 political dissidents since then, most of them charged with "disseminating anti-state materials,” according to RFA reports.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 13, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 31, 2021
- Event Description
On December 31, a court in Hanoi sentenced Le Trong Hung to five years in prison and five years of probation after his release.
Le Trong Hung campaigned as an independent candidate for the 15th National Assembly election in May 2021.
Police arrested Le Trong Hung on March 27, two months before the election, and charged him with conducting propaganda against the state in violation of article 117(1) of the Vietnamese Penal Code. A Hanoi court is scheduled to hear his case on December 31. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison.
“Imprisoning activists like Le Trong Hung who dare to run as independent candidates for parliament shows what a charade Vietnam’s elections are,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The authorities should immediately and unconditionally release him instead of prosecuting him for challenging the status quo.”
Le Trong Hung (also known as Hung Gan), 41, is a former government middle school teacher. In 2015, after filing a petition without success demanding reform to benefit students in a school in Hanoi, he quit teaching. In 2017 he began reporting as a citizen journalist on Facebook and YouTube, commenting on social issues and advising people petitioning the government.
He participated in anti-China protests and protests for environmental conservation. He used social media to share news about protests in Myanmar and the struggles of Vietnamese activists such as Trinh Ba Phuong, Trinh Ba Tu, and Pham Doan Trang. He also promoted education and knowledge about Vietnam’s Constitution, and offered people free copies of the constitution.
In February Le Trong Hung announced his plan to run as an independent candidate for the National Assembly election. He published his proposed policies, promising that, if elected, he would promote education about constitutional rights and campaign for laws to allow peaceful protests, freedom of association, and a citizens’ watchdog role over government. His policy agenda also included a call to amend the constitution and repeal articles granting supremacy to the Communist Party of Vietnam (article 4), allowing only a single trade union (article 10), and confirming state ownership of all land, water, and natural resources (article 53), among others.
On February 23 Le Trong Hung challenged Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong to a debate on television, since Nguyen Phu Trong was running as the parliamentary candidate in the residential area where Le Trong Hung lives. One week later, police began to summon him repeatedly for questioning and placed him under intrusive surveillance.
Following his arrest on March 27, the Communist Party of Vietnam’s website ran an article accusing Le Trong Hung of “using social media to publish writing or livestream the distortion and disparagement of the government.” It chides him for “commenting in a distorted way the guidelines, paths and policies of the Party and the State.” The party’s post claimed that Le Trong Hung “continuously makes speeches that defame the government, oppose the State and dismiss the leadership role of the Party.” The article dismisses as “reactionary” comments that Le Trong Hung was arrested because he ran as an independent candidate and said that the authorities arrested him because he had been violating the law for a long time.
The authorities have also harassed Le Trong Hung’s family. They summoned for questioning his wife, Do Le Na, who is blind and taking care of their two young children. Officials also pressured her to vote in May in the parliamentary election, but she declined. Strangers in civilian clothes allegedly followed his 10-year-old son as he went home from school.
Police arrested two other people who tried to run as independent candidates for parliament in 2021; Le Van Dung (also known as Le Dung Vova) in Hanoi and Tran Quoc Khanh in Ninh Binh. Both were charged under article 117 of the Penal Code. In October a Ninh Binh provincial court convicted and sentenced Tran Quoc Khanh to six and a half years in prison.
In April police in Binh Thuan province detained a poet, Nguyen Quoc Huy (known as Dong Chuong Tu), a member of the Cham ethnic minority, and interrogated him for three days about his self-nomination for the election. They confiscated his passport before releasing him.
“Vietnam’s government brutally punishes anyone who dares to challenge them, and Le Trong Hung is yet another victim of that repression,” Robertson said. “So long as the country’s leaders don’t allow free and fair elections, the Communist Party of Vietnam will do as it pleases at the population’s expense.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security, Right to political participation
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: citizen journalist willing to candidate for elections arrested, his house searched
- Date added
- Jan 10, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 16, 2021
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam on Thursday handed down a 10-year prison term to a rights activist accused of criticizing the government on social media in the third trial held this week of political dissidents in the one-party communist state.
Do Nam Trung was convicted in a trial lasting just under four hours in the People’s Court of Nam Dinh City in northern Vietnam. He had been charged with “spreading materials against the State” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Arrested on July 16 by a large group of police officers who broke into the house he shared with his girlfriend, Trung had taken part in several social movements and had spoken out against official corruption on his Facebook page.
He had also posted criticisms of the build-operate-transfer highways that Vietnam has adopted in recent years, sparking rare protests over toll collections described by many motorists as unfair.
Trung’s girlfriend told RFA that she was shocked by the sentence handed down by the court.
“It’s too unfair, damn it! It’s too harsh, and they are so cruel. Ten years in prison and four years on probation — I really didn’t think it could be that heavy,” she said.
Defense lawyer Dan Dinh Manh, writing on his own Facebook page on Thursday, said that Trung had rejected prosecutors’ arguments that he had committed any crimes. He had also refused to comment on the writings that prosecutors used to build their case against him, Manh said.
“Like almost all other verdicts handed down based on Article 117, today’s sentence is unjustifiable and unsatisfactory,” Manh said.
“In accordance with international practice, if criticisms directed against government policies, agencies, organizations or leaders are unsupported by the facts, the victims can always file a civil case and claim compensation.”
“That should be sufficient,” he said, adding that Trung now plans to appeal the court’s verdict against him.
Vietnam’s laws see criticisms as criminal offenses, Manh said.
“I would like to see Article 117 removed so that cases like this can be tried in the future as civil violations, as this would comply with international trends,” he said.
In a statement the day before Trung’s trial, New York-based Human Rights Watch slammed the government’s legal proceedings against him.
“Do Nam Trung is the latest victim of Vietnamese government retaliation against citizens who refuse to remain silent in the face of injustice and rights abuses,” the group said.
Others also convicted
Trung’s sentencing this week followed the trial on Wednesday of two land rights activists who were jailed for criticizing a deadly police assault last year against villagers living on disputed land outside Hanoi.
Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam were also convicted in a four-hour trial. Phuong received a 10-year prison term with five years’ probation, and Tam was sentenced to six years in prison with three years’ probation.
On Tuesday, independent journalist and activist Pham Doan Trang was sentenced in Hanoi to nine years in prison following her conviction under Article 117 for her writings advocating democracy and good governance in Vietnam.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers and Facebook personalities, as authorities sought to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January.
Arrests have continued through 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 10, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 15, 2021
- Event Description
The Hanoi People’s Court tried land rights activists Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam on the morning of December 15. The trial concluded at around 1:15 p.m. on the same day.
According to attorney Dang Dinh Manh, the court sentenced Trinh Ba Phuong to 10 years of imprisonment and five years of probation; and Nguyen Thi Tam to six years of imprisonment and three years of probation. Phuong’s sentence was longer than the prison term requested by the Procuracy, which was eight to nine years in prison and five years of probation.
Most notably, families of the two activists had reportedly not received invitation letters prior to the trial. And when they were gathering in front of the court waiting for entry approval, families and relatives of Phuong and Tam were coerced by security forces and subsequently taken to the Duong Noi Police Station around 8.30 a.m.
Do Thi Thu, Phuong’s wife, previously wrote on her Facebook account that since early morning the security forces had set up “pandemic control” checkpoints at both ends of the alley where she lived in an effort to bar Phuong’s family from attending the trial.
As of 12 p.m., sources confirmed that Thu was still being detained at the police station and she could not be reached via Facebook. Nguyen Thanh Mai, Tam’s daughter, later said that she had to shut down her cell phone while being held at the police station, expressing fear that the police might confiscate it.
On her social media, Mai said that the police released them after the court announced the sentences.
Mai also shared that the police had denied their request to take them back to the court to get their motorbikes since they were forcibly taken to the police station on the authorities’ vehicles in the morning. Their demand, however, had still not been met as of 1:47 p.m. According to Mai, the police instead told them to “pay for a taxi to go home.”
In the latest live streaming video on her Facebook page at around 7 p.m. on December 15, Mai confirmed that she had safely returned home. According to her, none of the family members or relatives of Phuong and Tam could attend the trial this morning; the court cited COVID-19 preventive measures for their refusal to grant entry permission.
Mai also shared that she believed her mom had “done nothing wrong,” adding that Nguyen Thi Tam and Trinh Ba Phuong’s vocal criticisms regarding the Dong Tam incident only resulted from the missteps of Vietnamese authorities in handling sensitive land disputes.
Who are Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam?
Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam are land rights activists in Duong Noi Commune, Ha Dong District, Hanoi City. They became activists after their land was confiscated by the local authorities without just compensation. Phuong and Tam have also been amplifying the voices of farmers at Dong Tam Village, following a police raid of the village on January 9, 2020.
They were arrested on June 24, 2020, and subsequently charged with “making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials, and products against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” in accordance with Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code.
Trinh Ba Phuong is the eldest son of Can Thi Theu and the brother of Trinh Ba Tu. Theu and Tu were also arrested in June 2020. They were each sentenced to eight years imprisonment by the Hoa Binh provincial People’s Court in June 2020, under the same charges of “propagandizing against the State.”
What evidence was used to prosecute them?
According to the indictment, the evidence used to convict Trinh Ba Phuong and Nguyen Thi Tam was collected from their personal Facebook accounts, mostly from December 9 to 11, which coincided with the Dong Tam incident.
Phuong was also convicted of possessing the book “A Handbook for the Families of Prisoners” written by Pham Doan Trang.
The indictment states that the posts and videos they published on their social media contained information that was “defamatory and slanderous of the people’s government,” and it was “propagandizing false information, sowing confusion among the people.”
According to RFA, Phuong once told his lawyer that the police allegedly threatened to arrest his wife if he did not confess his crime.
What is the international response?
In a press statement, rights advocate Human Rights Watch (HRW) condemned the Vietnamese government’s conviction of the two land rights activists.
HRW urged the Vietnamese authorities to “immediately drop politically motivated charges and release the two land rights activists in Hanoi.”
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Land rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: four land righs defenders detained, their houses violently raided, Vietnam: Trinh Ba Phuong, land rights defenders was sent to mental hospital
- Date added
- Jan 10, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 14, 2021
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam jailed a journalist and prominent dissident for nine years on Tuesday for anti-state activities, her lawyers and state media said, in a case that attracted the attention of international human rights groups. Pham Doan Trang, who published material widely on human rights and alleged police brutality in Vietnam, was convicted of "conducting propaganda against the state" by a Hanoi court, according to her legal team and state-controlled media. Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and tolerates little criticism.
Calls to the court seeking confirmation of the verdict went unanswered on Tuesday.
"It was such a long sentence, close to the maximum term for such activities," said one of her lawyers, Nguyen Van Mieng, adding that Trang did not plead guilty at the trial and they would meet later to discuss a possible appeal. Trang, 43, was detained hours after an annual US-Vietnam human rights dialogue in October last year, an arrest the US embassy said could impact freedom of expression. Dang Dinh Manh, another member of her legal team, said the nine-year sentence was severe. "The sentence is too long. The judges insisted that Trang's activities were dangerous for society and for the administration," Manh said. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called the verdict an unacceptable sentence for a brave woman who only spoke her mind. "The imprisonment of such a committed reformer dedicated to promoting human rights, good governance and justice is a searing indictment of everything that is wrong with authoritarian Vietnam today," he said. "In a democratic society, Trang's prolific ideas and writings would be admired and extolled rather than criminalized."
In May 2016, police detained and prevented Trang from attending a meeting with then-US President Barack Obama, who had invited her to join him at an activists' forum. Two years later, she was detained after meeting with a European delegation that was preparing for an annual EU-Vietnam human rights dialogue.
During the one-day trial which failed to meet international standards for a fair trial, the People’s Court of Hanoi found her guilty of “Conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 88 of the country’s Penal Code 1999 which was replaced by the Criminal Code 2015 from 2018.
Ms. Trang, who was honored by a number of international and Vietnamese rights groups such as the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Czech human rights group People In Need, and the California-based Vietnam Human Rights Network, was protected by well-known lawyers including Saigon-based human rights attorneys Dang Dinh Manh and Nguyen Van Mieng. However, the judge reportedly ignored their defense statements.
The sentence was harder than the proposal of between seven and eight years in prison of the People’s Procuracy of Hanoi.
Only Trang’s mother and older brother were permitted to attend the trial while many activists were reportedly held de facto under house arrest from very early of Tuesday. The main roads leading to the court areas were blocked by security forces. Diplomats from the EU and some other countries were monitoring the hearing via TV screen in another room near the courtroom.
Ms. Trang, 43, has a little chance of getting reduced sentence or freed if she appeals today’s judgment.
The former reporter of the state-controlled VnExpress newswire was arrested on October 6 last year, a few hours after the 24th Vietnam-US Annual Human Rights Dialogue. Initially, she was accused of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999 and Article 117 of the Criminal Code 2015 for her writing criticizing the authoritarian regime. Later, the second charge was dropped.
In a meeting with her lawyers before the trial, she said that she was held incommunicado for months and later placed to share a cell with other inmates who tried to beat her seven times but she fought back and won. She has suffered a number of diseases, including high blood pressure, and an injured leg which was a result of plainclothes attack in the peaceful demonstration in Hanoi on May 1, 2015 on environmental issue.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: prominent pro-democracy WHRD arrested on catch-all charges, Vietnam: prominent WHRD formally charged after 1-year pre-trial detention (Update)
- Date added
- Jan 10, 2022
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 1, 2021
- Event Description
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.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Rights Activist Huynh Thuc Vy Sentenced to 33 Months in Prison, Yet to Have to Be Jailed
- Date added
- Dec 6, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 8, 2021
- Event Description
Villagers in a commune in north-central Vietnam are pushing back hard against a developer’s plans to build a cemetery and crematorium near their homes, saying they fear pollution and have not been consulted on the project, RFA has learned.
Residents of the Hung Tay commune in Nghe An province’s Hung Nguyen district posted a Facebook video on Monday showing police officers violently dispersing villagers who had gathered to protest at the entrance to the site.
The cemetery project at Dai Hue mountain is located uphill and only 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) from the nearest residential area, and villagers had already put up tents at the cemetery’s entrance to stop construction work from moving ahead, local sources said.
“The distance from the project’s fences to where we live is not great enough and it isn’t safe,” one resident said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “This will affect our lives, and especially our sources of water and wind,” he said.
Though developers say that area residents have already consented to the project, no papers exist to document their agreement, RFA’s source said. “We never signed anything saying we had been consulted, and without this document, the provincial government should never have approved this project.”
Claims by developers that VND 40 billion (U.S. $1,765) has already been paid in compensation for 32.5 hectares of land handed over by government authorities for the project are also false, the source said.
“In fact, we haven’t received any notification about the land that was acquired, about who will receive compensation for the land, or even how much they will receive,” he said. “Where is that VND 40 billion now, and who is holding it?” he asked.
Commune residents have asked provincial authorities and the project’s developers for answers to these questions, but have so far received no response, he said.
'Provoked to protest'
A video of Monday’s clash between residents and police circulated widely on social media this week, with many viewers commenting that villagers had been provoked into launching their protests. Speaking to RFA, one resident said their blockade of the worksite was not aimed at opposing government authority, however.
“All we did was to set up some tents to prevent construction and protect the land,” he said. “That’s all this was, there was nothing else.”
“However, the authorities did send some policemen in, and so a few minor clashes with the residents occurred,” he said, adding that no one had been arrested in the clash.
Attempts to reach Hung Tay commune authorities for comment received no response, and RFA was unable to independently verify reports from another source that police had used weapons to disperse the crowd.
According to state-run Nghe An Television, a majority of the province’s residents have agreed to construction of the cemetery and crematorium, though a few individuals may still oppose the plan due to a “lack of understanding” of the project.
While all land is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of expression Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 29, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 16, 2021
- Event Description
Police in the coastal Vietnamese city of Danang summoned a former activist who runs a beef noodle stall for questioning Tuesday after he posted a video on social media in which he imitated a celebrity chef who had hand fed gold-coated beef to the country’s public security chief in a video that went viral this month.
The police came knocking six days after noodle vendor Bui Tuan Lam posted a video clip of himself on Facebook gyrating and spreading salt like Turkish celebrity chef and social media star known as Salt Bae, who served a pricey cut of beef to Vietnam’s top cop To Lam in early November.
Salt Bae, whose real name is Nusret Gökçe, served a Golden Giant Tomahawk steak to To and his entourage in London, where they stopped after representing Vietnam at the United Nations climate change conference in Scotland.
A video of To’s party being fed the U.S. $1,975 piece of meat obtained by RFA’s Vietnamese Service went viral, prompting social media comments raising questions about the propriety of a Communist Party official on a monthly salary of roughly U.S. $660 eating such a luxury meal. Subsequent media reports noted the delegation had also visited the London grave of Karl Marx during the trip.
Bui, known as Peter Lam Bui among activists in Vietnam, used to be active in human rights and justice advocacy.
In his video clip, Bui calls himself “Onion Leaf Bae” after the signature move of the celebrity chef, who writhed dramatically as he sprinkled salt on To’s steak.
“This morning they came to my house — two officers from the city security agency, an officer in charge of my locality, and, of course, some plainclothes person doing filming outside,” Bui told RFA.
The reason for the summons was not clear and only said that it requested that Bui go to an office “to provide information about a criminal dealing for investigation work,” he said.
A video of the police visit recorded by Bui shows him asking officers for the reason for the summons, but he was not given one.
“I refused [to go] and said that if the reason was stated clearly in the order, I would work with them because in principle the order is related to a legal case, so it cannot be so general given that someone could be indicted based on what I said,” Bui said.
After listening to Bui’s explanation, the police officers threatened to forcefully escort him to their office, he said.
The video clip might not be primary reason for his most recent summons, Bui suggested, noting that he has received such notices in past months and ignored them.
But he added that his imitation of Salt Bae may have irritated police enough for them to follow up.
“For me, the clip’s impact, if any, is just that they are upset by having to deliver the summons,” he said. “They have had it in mind for a long time to summons me.”
Gökçe, 38, has opened 17 steak restaurants around the world, and videos of his meat-salting performances have been seen and shared by millions. When his London eatery opened in September, it was slammed for U.S. $34 desserts and U.S. $135 hamburgers in the British press, which ran features on stratospheric Salt Bae dinner tabs.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 19, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 20, 2021
- Event Description
On October 20, the People’s Court of Ninh Binh province convicted Facebooker Tran Quoc Khanh of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to six and half years in prison and two years of probation for his Facebook posting regarding the country’s issues. Mr. Khanh was likely forced to give up legal assistance and he had no lawyers during the trial. Unlike other political trials, his family was allowed to attend the trial and they reported that he did not confess guilty. Mr. Khanh was arrested in April prior to the parliament’s election shortly after he declared to run for a seat in the country’s highest legislative body but is considered as a rubber-stamp by international political observers.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
Case shared by Vietnam Human Rights Defenders
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Social media activist got arrested for criticising the communist regime on Facebook
- Date added
- Nov 2, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 27, 2021
- Event Description
A court in southern Vietnam on Thursday sentenced five independent journalists to long prison terms after a two-day trial, putting them behind bars for a total of 14 years and six months for writing articles authorities said had slandered government leaders.
The members of the now-shuttered Clean Newspaper Facebook group had been charged under Clause 2, Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the State’s interests and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”
Handed the heaviest sentence, journalist Truong Chau Huu Danh was sentenced to four years and six months, while Doan Kien Giang and Le The Thang received sentences of three years each, and Nguyen Phuoc Trung Bao and Nguyen Thanh Nha were each given two-year sentences.
The five will also be barred from working as journalists for three years after finishing their prison terms, the court in Can Tho city said.
“The sentence especially for Truong Chau Huu Danh was too severe, and the sanctions used under Article 331 are too harsh,” independent journalist Duong Van Thai told RFA following the trial. “Authoritarian countries will give someone a harsh verdict if they want to destroy them,” he said.
“In fact, the Communist regime doesn’t want to listen to any critical, dissenting voices,” Thai said. “They only like praise, hate criticism, and dislike any new ideas.”
“They are never lenient with political dissidents and always give them much harsher penalties. This is the easiest way for Vietnam’s Communist regime to get revenge,” he said.
Thai added that the group may have been given especially harsh sentences because of their reports on infighting among Communist Party leaders, including a series of stories they wrote about former Dak Lak provincial party secretary Bui Van Cuong.
Cuong, now the secretary general of Vietnam’s National Assembly, had been accused by two lecturers from Ton Duc Thang University of plagiarism in completing work for his PhD degree. The two lecturers were themselves later arrested.
Clean Newspaper journalists had also posted criticisms online of the Jan. 9, 2020 raid by security forces intervening in a land dispute at Dong Tam commune outside Hanoi in which a village elder was shot dead by police.
Other articles had criticized the widely unpopular build-operate-transfer (BOT) highway schemes adopted by Vietnam in recent years that have sparked rare protests over toll collections described by motorists as unfair.
'Not enemies of the state'
Vietnam's government should recognize that citizen journalists and independent media are "allies of good governance, not enemies of the state," Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson said in a statement on Tuesday, a day before the trial began.
"Throwing more citizen journalists into prison is not going to stop people from complaining, or demanding reforms in Vietnam," Robertson said.
In a statement following the trial, Daniel Bastard, head of the Asia-Pacific desk for Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF)—said that Vietnamese authorities have now given “new evidence of their determination to suppress any attempt to provide freely reported news and information.”
“Worse still, by banning them from practicing their trade altogether, [the judges] have shown what little account Vietnam’s leaders take of journalism. These five journalists have no place being in prison,” Bastard said.
Vietnam is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index for 2021.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. Arrests continue in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 5
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 30, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 18, 2021
- Event Description
On 18 October 2021, the indictment against woman human rights defender Pham Doan Trang was made public. She has been charged under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code for “propagandising against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”. The indictment is dated 30 August 2021 but was only made available to the woman human rights defender and her attorneys merely two weeks before her case goes to trial on 4 November 2021.
Pham Doan Trang is a woman human rights defender, blogger and journalist. She is the founder of online law and human rights magazine Luật Khoa, and is a member of the editorial board of The Vietnamese, an independent news website which raises public awareness about human rights and political issues in Vietnam. She recently published “Politics for All”, a book promoting citizen participation, and authored a book in 2008 on the Vietnam’s LGBTIQ+ community’s demands for equal rights.
The indictment, which was made public on 18 October 2021, accuses Pham Doan Trang under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code for which she could face up to 12 years in prison. The indictment stated that the Investigation Unit of Hanoi City’s Police formally opened the investigation on 10 September 2020. The Department of Cyber Security and High Tech Crimes under the Ministry of Public Security and the Department of Information and Communications had petitioned the investigation department to pursue legal proceedings against Pham Doan Trang.
The ‘evidence’ against the woman human rights defender recorded in the indictment includes various reports authored by her on issues such as marine life disaster, right to freedom of religion and belief and human rights situation in Vietnam.
On 6 October 2020, at around 11.30 PM, Ho Chi Minh city police, Hanoi police and Ministry of Public Security (MPS) officials had jointly raided Pham Doan Trang’s rented apartment in Ho Chi Minh. After presenting her with an arrest warrant they brought her to an undisclosed location in Ho Chi Minh where she was not allowed contact her family or lawyers. Authorities also detained her landlord who was released later in the morning of 7 October 2020. The woman human rights defender’s arrest took place just a few hours after the 2020 US-Vietnam Annual Human Rights Dialogue.
Pham Doan Trang has come under frequent harassment, persecution, and physical assault by Vietnamese authorities in recent years. She walks with a pronounced and permanent limp caused by an injury she suffered when attacked by security forces during an environmental protest in Hanoi in April 2015. More recently, she was arrested in November 2017 after meeting the EU delegation in Hanoi and was again detained and beaten in August 2018.
Front Line Defenders is deeply concerned that Pham Doan Trang may face a heavy prison sentence for exercising her legitimate right to freedom of expression. Front Line Defenders believes that the woman human rights defender is being targeted solely for her peaceful work in defence of human rights in Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 21, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 29, 2021
- Event Description
On September 29, citizen journalist Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu’s eight-year sentence under Vietnam’s Penal Code was upheld in the court of appeal in Danang. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the use of the Penal Code to silence critical voices and calls for the immediate release of Tuyet Dieu.
Tuyet Dieu’s appeal was refused in Danang’s court, more than a year after her arrest and detainment on August 21, 2020. She was sentenced on April 23, 2021 for breaching article 117 of the Vietnamese penal code, which criminalises “creating, storing and disseminating information and materials against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”. Reports indicate that Tuyet Dieu endured ongoing harassment by police in the years before her arrest.
Previously an employee of a state-run newspaper, Tuyet Dieu had managed a Facebook and YouTube account where she published 25 articles and nine videos considered ‘anti-state’ by authorities. During a search of Tuyet Dieu’s home, authorities found materials sympathetic to the imprisoned pro-democracy activist Nguyen Viet Dung on her laptop.
According to Tuyet Dieu’s lawyer, Nguyen Kha Thanh, she pleaded innocent at her trial earlier this year. Thanh said that his client’s sentence was harsh given she had an otherwise clean record.
“She did not accept the accusations as the trial failed to find a person harmed by her actions,” Thanh said.“But the court said her actions caused harm to the nation, a common tactic that allows them to not have to show any specific harmed individuals,” he added.
Tuyet Dieu’s communication with her lawyer and relatives was barred for the first three months of her imprisonment. Her original trial was postponed without justification, a change only announced upon her lawyer’s arrival in court.
Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code is a vaguely defined piece of legislation commonly used to silence criticism of the Vietnamese government. Journalists Pham Chi Thanh and Le Van Dung, both vocal critics of Vietnam’s single-party system, were sentenced under the article earlier this year.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Media worker sentenced to 8 years in prison
- Date added
- Oct 14, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 4, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities on Monday arrested a Facebook user, charging him with “abusing freedom and democracy” for writing a series of online posts they said had defamed the country’s leaders, state media reported on Monday.
Vo Hoang Tho, 36 years old and a resident of the Ninh Kieu district of southern Vietnam’s Can Tho City, had published 47 posts on his Minh Long Facebook page criticizing government efforts to prevent and control the spread of COVID-19 in the one-party communist state, media sources said.
Containment efforts, including community lockdowns and other harsh restrictions, are widely unpopular in Vietnam, and Tho’s arrest was just the latest in a continuing crackdown on Facebook users who use the popular social media platform to voice dissenting views.
Can Tho City’s Investigation Agency said Tho had formerly worked as a journalist but did not identify the media organization for which he worked.
RFA has reported nearly 30 cases in which Vietnamese citizens have been arrested for political offenses over social media posts since the beginning of this year. Among those now serving sentences for Facebook posts are journalists, bloggers, and another citizen who had posted complaints about coronavirus policies.
On Sept. 10, Vietnamese authorities arrested and charged a woman with “carrying out activities to overthrow the government,” making her the third person apprehended this year for joining an exile Vietnamese organization called a terrorist group by Hanoi, according to state media reports.
Le Thi Kim Phi, 62, had used a Facebook profile under the name Phi Kim to connect with members of the Provisional Government of Vietnam, a U.S.-based opposition group, said the investigation division of southern An Gian province’s police department.
And on Sept. 8, authorities in Can Tho indicted five journalists from the Bao Sach (Clean Newspaper) Facebook-based news outlet for publishing reports and videos dealing with politically sensitive social issues.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 14, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 23, 2021
- Event Description
A professor and popular Vietnamese dissident said Thursday that he has received death threats by phone after publishing a series of social media posts criticizing the use of China’s coronavirus vaccines in Vietnam.
Mac Van Trang, known for his critical voice on sociopolitical issues in Vietnam, said he received threatening calls after he posted stories on the Chinese vaccines on his Facebook page, including a letter he wrote to the Ho Chi Minh City leaders, advising them not to accept millions of doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.
“One recent evening, an anonymous man called me on the phone, saying that I shouldn’t keep talking about it and should behave myself; otherwise I would put my life in danger,” Trang told RFA. “He also said that people are dying, and it’s good to have vaccines, and it would be a crime to prevent it. Therefore, I should mind my tongue!”
Vietnam is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases with the spread of the more contagious Delta variant, and large areas of the country of more than 98 million people have been under lockdown. Only about seven percent of Vietnamese adults have been fully vaccinated. On Thursday, Vietnam reported a total 728,435 confirmed COVID-19 cases, including nearly 9,500 news ones, and more than 18,000 deaths with 236 new fatalities.
Earlier this week, the Ministry of Health decided to allocate an additional 8 million doses of China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine donated by the Van Thinh Phat Group to 25 cities and provinces, the country’s Tuoi Tre News reported.
But citizens throughout the country have expressed concern, fearing the Sinopharm doses might produce hidden side effects, Ngo Tri Long, former rector of the Ministry of Finance’s Price and Market Research Institute, told RFA in an earlier report.
Trang, 83, was a long-term member of the Communist Party of Vietnam, but he resigned on Oct. 26, 2018, when the party decided to discipline Chu Hao, a well-known intellectual who criticized the government. Trang currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City and posts critiques of sociopolitical issues on his Facebook page.
It was not the first time that he had received such calls, Trang said, adding that threats were made after he spoke out about sensitive incidents in Vietnam, including a deadly land-rights dispute in January 2020. At that time, about 3,000 security officers raided a hamlet in Dong Tam commune to intervene in a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of Vietnam’s capital Hanoi.
“In our society, there are many people who have been indoctrinated for a long time that whatever contradicts the [Communist] Party’s policy and guidelines is considered hostile,” he said of the threats he has received.
“From the general secretary, prime minister, and president to others in the government, they always talk about enemies and hostile forces,” Trang said. “This has created a dangerous mindset among party fanatics who exist when the party exists, and who see anyone who criticizes it as a hostile force.”
In addition to the 8 million new shots, Vietnam has received roughly 50 million vaccine doses, including 20 million Sinopharm doses — more than six million of which were donated by China and five million of which were purchased by Ho Chi Minh City, Tuoi Tre News said.
Before the new allocation, 5.5 million Sinopharm vaccine doses had been administered to people in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Quang Ninh province, Hai Phong city, Binh Duong province, and Dong Nai province, the report said.
Vietnam’s President Nguyen Xuan Phuc traveled to Havana last weekend for an official visit, where he met with Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and finalized a deal for Vietnam to buy 10 million doses of Cuba’s Abdala vaccine.
Italy has also promised to donate 800,000 doses of the British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine to Vietnam, raising Rome’s commitment to Hanoi to over 1.6 million doses through the COVAX program co-led by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance; the World Health Organization; and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Death threat, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Academic, Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Unknown
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Unknown
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 29, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 8, 2021
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam on Wednesday indicted five journalists from the Báo Sạch (Clean Newspaper) Facebook-based news outlet on charges of “abusing democracy and freedom to infringe on state interests,” state media reported.
According to the indictment, issued by the Procuracy of Thoi Lai district, in the southern city of Can Tho, the Clean Newspaper staff posted anti-state and reactionary information and delved into information that was “inappropriate, distorting, against the country’s interests, and slanderous of the people’s administration” in violation of Article 331 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code.
The five indicted journalists are: Truong Chau Huu Danh, Nguyen Thanh Nha, Doan Kien Giang, Nguyen Phuong Trung Bao, and Le The Thang.
Thang has been released on bail and is barred from leaving his house while the others have been arrested and detained.
Danh, meanwhile, was also charged with posting stories that “generated bad interactions between internet users in the cyber environment” and “propagandized, distorted, defamed and seriously slandered Party organizations and local Party committees."
State media reports also said the Clean Newspaper group was paid by businesses to write and publish favorable stories.
According to the indictment, the group’s Facebook fan page, Facebook group, and YouTube channel were created in August 2019. Between the three platforms, the group had published 47 reports or videos dealing with hot-button social issues.
Article 331 and Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code have been criticized by human rights lawyers and organizations as having been used as “a tool to stifle dissenting voices.”
Dang Dinh Manh, a Vietnam-based lawyer, told RFA on Wednesday that the two articles are essentially the same, despite differing text.
“If you want to impose a lighter penalty, go with Article 331 and if you want a more serious one, go with Article 117,” said Manh.
Article 117 imposes penalties for “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items, and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” while Article 331 prohibits “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the interests of the state, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”
Manh said an investigator told him during a meeting that prosecutors will choose which article they want to apply to a case depending on how severe they want the punishment to be.
“In general, both articles are aimed at restricting people’s freedom of expression. These articles should not exist because they contradict Vietnam’s very constitution, which allows Vietnamese people to criticize the policies they deem as detrimental to the interests of the country and the people. What the Clean Newspaper group said should not be seen as anti-State,” Manh said.
In its Freedom in the World 2021 report, Washington D.C.-based Freedom House gave Vietnam an overall score of 19 out of a possible 100, a one-point drop from last year’s rating. Vietnam scored three out of 40 in political rights, and 16 out of 60 in civil liberties.
”Freedom of expression, religious freedom, and civil society activism are tightly restricted [and the] authorities have increasingly cracked down on citizens’ use of social media and the internet,” Freedom House said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 5
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 14, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 2, 2021
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City have fined a local Facebook user for saying that local government has neglected city residents and let them go hungry amid lockdowns aimed at controlling the spread of COVID-19, sources said.
Nguyen Thuy Duong was fined VND 5 million (around $210) on Thursday after saying in a July 22 posting that lockdown measures enforced by authorities in the Binh Truong ward of Thu Duc City, an area under Ho Chi Minh City’s jurisdiction, had left residents unable to receive relief packages.
State media said the fine was imposed by Ho Chi Minh City police and the city’s Department of Information and Communications for violations of Government Decree 15, governing the use of postal services, telecommunications, and other information technologies.
Challenging her fine on Thursday, Duong said in a statement online that authorities told her in a meeting by phone that they had produced four witnesses who said people living in the area had not been left to starve.
“I told them that I had 40 witnesses who could prove that people had been forced to beg for food. And to prove my goodwill, and so as not to argue with them, I suggested they speak to people in the lockdown area in person,” she said.
At the same time, people in the affected area were still calling her to report their problems, she said.
“I turned on my phone speaker, and they agreed to go to the checkpoint to testify, but the police told me to turn off my phone and refused to say anything more,” Duong said. “The minutes of our meeting show that I denied doing anything wrong.”
The fourth wave of Vietnam’s COVID-19 pandemic beginning on April 27 has hit the country hard, as cities and provinces implement strict social distancing measures, restrict people from leaving their homes, and shut down factories and other businesses, leaving many out of work.
Photos and videos posted on Facebook and TikTok show widespread anger at food shortages, unemployment, and lack of government support, and authorities have imposed penalties on people posting allegedly “false information” on social networks about the pandemic’s spread.
When running stories on the penalties imposed for spreading false information, state media sometimes fail to point out which regulations have been violated, though, sources said.
Protecting each other, blaming others
Ordinary people are often left at a disadvantage, Ngoc Binh—a resident of Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Tan district—told RFA, adding that in any dispute involving government officials and ordinary citizens, it is the citizens who are first to be punished.
“Government officials often protect each other and blame others,” she said.
Authorities sometimes also issue documents and then recall them without explanation, said lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, also speaking to RFA.
“Obviously there is inequality between the government sector and the private sector,” he said. “People are immediately sanctioned and fined when allegedly violating the regulations. However, when making mistakes in the public sector, the authorities can withdraw their decisions, and no sanctions are announced.”
The inspection of travel permits and other documents at checkpoints in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi, and other locations has at the same time turned those places into congested areas, violating regulations that require social distancing, sources say.
COVID-19 could easily spread among the thousands of people waiting for their permits to be issued, said Vietnam-based journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, adding, “In communist countries in general, and in Vietnam in particular, governments never admit to being wrong, even if their policies have a lot of errors and shortcomings.”
If their policies show flaws, the authorities simply replace them with new ones and don’t admit their mistakes, he said. “When people violate those policies, they are treated harshly. But for the authorities and cadres, if they make mistakes, they only have to draw the lessons learned.”
“Things have always been this way,” he said.
As of 5:48 p.m. on Friday, Vietnam had recorded 501,649 confirmed cases of COVID-19 infection in the country, according to data tallied by the CDC, WHO, and other sources. The total number of deaths now stands at 12,446.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 6, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 30, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnamese police this week arrested a Facebook user for criticizing the government online, posing as medical workers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic in order to gain quick entry to his house, sources said.
Bui Van Thuan, 40, was taken into custody on Aug. 30 by a large number of police officers after police cut power to his house in the Huu Nhan hamlet of Nghi Son town in northern Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province, Thuan’s wife told RFA on Wednesday.
“The power went off at around 8:15 a.m., and the whole area was blacked out,” Trinh Thi Nhung said. “I then saw three people wearing medical clothes standing at our front gate, and they asked me to let them in to take a statement on our health because we are from another region and only have temporary registration in the area.”
“They said they were in a hurry and urged me to open the door quickly so that they could go to see others, so I invited them to come into the living room,” she said, adding that the disguised officers wanted to know how many people were living in the house and asked to see her husband, who was sleeping.
One of the male officers then asked to use the restroom, Nhung said.
“After I showed him the way to the restroom, he broke into the bedroom and restrained and handcuffed my husband just as he had woken up and was about to come out,” she said.
Thuan was then formally arrested for “using his Facebook account ‘Thuan Van Bui’ to store materials and publications against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code,” Nhung said.
Police then carried out a search of the house, handcuffing both Thuan and Nhung and assigning an officer to comfort their daughter, who began crying when she could not find her parents after she woke, Nhung said.
Both knew that Thuan could be arrested at any time, and were not frightened when the moment came, she said.
“Those who raise their voices against what is bad and evil can be arrested at any time,” she said. “I knew that my husband often speaks out about human rights, so I was mentally prepared and am not afraid of any force sent against us.”
“I trust him and still hold my head high,” she said.
Many officers deployed
An unusually large number of police officers, both in uniform and in plain clothes, had been deployed to secure Thuan’s arrest, a nearby farmer who witnessed the incident told RFA.
“While working in the paddy field in front of my house, I saw three or four cars in front of Thuan’s home, and dozens of other cars were parked along the road. Nearly a hundred people surrounded the house, while those who stayed farther away rode motorbikes and didn’t wear uniforms, ” he said.
Thuan had never been affiliated with any political parties or groups, a friend said, speaking to RFA on condition of anonymity. “But because he spoke up so strongly, some people advised him to keep quiet for a while or to escape to another country.”
“However, he always said no,” his friend said, adding that Thuan felt he would lose his legitimacy as a dissident voice if he left. “He said, ‘I’d rather let [the authorities] hate me than have them look down on me.’”
“He raised his voice because he was upset with social injustices, and what made him special was his level of speaking up. Thuan is famous for his so-called ‘dog-fighting bulletins,’ which revealed many hidden stories from the [government’s] inner sanctums.”
In a Sept. 1 report, the Public Security newspaper of Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security said that police searching Thuan’s house had seized “six computers, three iPads, three mobile phones, and many documents and other items related to his criminal work.”
They also left with a jar of lime-flavored honey and a copy of The Handbook for Families of Prisoners, published by Pham Doan Trang, a human rights activist who was arrested by government authorities in October 2020, Nhung said.
“Our family refused to let them take the honey jar, as it had nothing to with their investigation. But the police said that they would take it anyway, and that was that,” said Nhung.
According to the California-based Vietnam Human Rights Network, Vietnam is currently holding around 300 political prisoners in the country’s prisons, jails, and detention centers.
As of 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday, Vietnam has recorded 473,530 cases of COVID-19 infection in the country, according to data tallied by the CDC, WHO, and other sources. Total number of deaths now stands at 11,868.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 2, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 9, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnam has arrested and prosecuted eight people using Article 117 since the beginning of this year. Human rights groups say the provision allows the government to gag any dissent.
A university in the central coastal city of Danang has fired a lecturer for her “wrong statements” about Vietnam’s COVID-19 fighting measures.
Duy Tan University made the announcement Monday after a student posted on Facebook a video of the lecturer, Tran Thi Tho, part of the university’s English faculty, arguing with the student about government relief for those affected by the pandemic.
Tho said in the video that the government of Vietnam is letting people struggle with very limited help while the pandemic is raging all over the country.
She highlighted how thousands of people are fleeing the country’s southern provinces and Ho Chi Minh City on motorbikes to return to their hometowns thousands of kilometers away, just to escape the virus.
The student in the video accused Tho of disliking Vietnam and promoting negative stereotypes against Asian people.
The university has also reported the lecturer to the Ministry of Police, who said they are investigating the case.
Pham Minh Hoang, a former professor at Ho Chi Minh City Polytechnic, told RFA that dissent should be allowed in academia.
“People who dare to speak their criticisms at a university are a must. Schools, especially universities are obliged to train students into people who have their own opinions, not to become machines just acting on demand,” Hoang said.
“If we continue this way, when everything must be molded and any person who speaks their opinions differently from those of the government and state must face severe consequences, then it means Vietnamese will never strive for anything,” said Hoang.
‘Despicable’ firing
Nguyen Vi Yen, a Vietnamese student studying in Europe, wrote on Facebook that she felt Duy Tan University’s firing of Tho was “despicable.”
“Duy Tan does not deserve to be called a university, let alone its own name ‘Duy Tan,’ which means reform,” she said.
Tho declined to comment to RFA about her case.
Education Minister Nguyen Kim Son told the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper before the firing that “the education system management needs to encourage criticism about social issues in general and educational policies in particular.”
Though the country struggles to effectively contain a fourth wave of the virus, Vietnam had been relatively successful compared to other countries during the first three waves. Of more than 224,000 confirmed cases during the pandemic, more than 220,000 were diagnosed since April 27, the start of the fourth wave.
With Vietnam’s media all following Communist Party orders, “the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution,” the press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.
Measures taken against them now include assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. Arrests continue in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Censorship
- Rights Concerned
- Academic freedom, Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to work
- HRD
- Academic, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 14, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 10, 2021
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam have arrested a Facebook user for posting mild criticism of government COVID-19 policies, while a university fired a lecturer after a student shared on her comments faulting Hanoi’s pandemic response on the social media platform.
The Tien Giang People’s Procuracy announced Tuesday that it would prosecute Tran Hoang Huan, 33, on charges of making, storing and spreading or propagandizing information or documents against the state under in accordance with the Article 117 of the Penal Code, according state media.
Huan, a resident of My Tho city in the far southern province of Tien Giang, had used a Facebook account under the name Huan Tran to post content against the Vietnamese Communist Party and the state on 186 occasions.
His Facebook account remains active and many of his recent posts opposed the use of Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines, which many Vietnamese oppose because of their perceived low quality and because of longstanding animosity toward China over history and territorial issues.
Huan had earlier called on the government to provide relief to citizens by waiving electricity and water bills during the pandemic.
“The arrest and detention of Tran Hoang Huan marks yet another chapter in the grim tale of Vietnam’s crackdown on freedom of expression online,” Ming Yu Hah, the deputy regional director for campaigns at Amnesty International, told RFA.
“Huan had used his Facebook page to share information about COVID-19 vaccines, lockdowns and to call on the Vietnam government to subsidize electricity and water fees while many Vietnamese are facing economic hardships due to the pandemic. The Vietnamese authorities should listen to these calls, not repress them,” she said.
Ming Yu Hah said authorities had used Article 117 to detain Huan on “vague accusations” of causing public confusion or defaming the government so they could prevent dissent.
“Huan’s name now joins an ever-expanding list of Vietnamese activists detained merely for sharing peaceful criticism,” she said, and called for the release of Huan and other detainees.
“It is imperative that Vietnam’s leadership starts taking a radically different approach to human rights, and freedom of expression in particular,” she said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 14, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 20, 2021
- Event Description
Courts in Vietnam on Tuesday handed down prison terms to two Facebook users charged with posting articles opposing the country’s one-party communist state and calling for violence against judicial officials and police officers, according to state media reports.
In north-central Vietnam’s Nghe An province, Nguyen Van Lam, 51, was sentenced to nine years in prison for posting anti-state writings and sharing videos and other content, including broadcasts by RFA, considered politically subversive.
He was charged under Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Criminal Code for “creating, storing, disseminating information and materials against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” a provision of Vietnamese law frequently used by authorities to stifle government critics and other peaceful voices of dissent.
Persons convicted of crimes under the law can be sentenced to from five to 20 years in prison.
According to the Nghe An Police Investigative Agency, Lam had posted numerous stories, images, and videos violating Vietnamese law from 2017 to November 2020, including livestream videos and stories from RFA and other online sources, and 18 stories written by himself on his mobile phone.
Among Lam’s posts available online, several mock authorities with sharp comments on news reports by RFA or other outlets.
On Oct. 26, 2020, Lam wrote: “The Vietnamese people do ask the international organizations, (and) Interpol to monitor the political and economic mechanism (of Vietnam).”
These comments had “smeared the regime, insulted Party and State leaders, called for a multi-party and pluralistic government, and distorted the actual situation in Vietnam,” state media reports said.
News reports did not mention the date of Lam’s arrest or whether he was assisted by a defense lawyer at his trial.
At least 14 Vietnamese people have been imprisoned following conviction on charges filed under Article 117 since January 2021. Pham Chi Dung, president of the Vietnam Independent Journalists Association has drawn the heaviest term so far this year at 15 years, followed by Nguyen Tuong Thuy, vice president of the Association, who was jailed for 11 years.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 1, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 1, 2021
- Event Description
An independent Vietnamese journalist hunted by police for online writings called “anti-State” by authorities has been arrested after evading capture for more than a month, RFA has learned.
Le Van Dung, also known as Le Dung Vova, was taken into custody on Thursday by Hanoi police, state media reports said on July 1, adding that Dung had not resisted arrest and had shown a “cooperative attitude” when taken by police.
Speaking to RFA, Dung’s wife Bui Thi Hue confirmed news of Dung’s arrest, saying she had been informed of his capture by an acquaintance.
“I received the news from someone I know that my husband was arrested this morning,” Hue said. “They only told me about the arrest, though, and did not say they had seen it happen with their own eyes. I am just saying what I was told.”
Dung, also known as Le Dung Vova—owner of the Facebook-based online CHTV news channel—was away from home when police tried on May 25 to place him under arrest on charges under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code for reporting on corruption, land disputes, and other issues deemed politically sensitive by authorities.
Unable to arrest Dung, police left instead with a laptop computer and two mobile phones belonging to his wife Bui Thi Hue, Hue told RFA’s Vietnamese Service on May 25. Vietnamese authorities later issued a special warrant calling for Dung’s arrest, placing notices in major media outlets around the country.
Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code imposes penalties for “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items, and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” and is frequently used by authorities to stifle peaceful critics of the country’s one-party communist state.
Harsh forms of persecution
With Vietnam’s media all following Communist Party orders, “the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution,” the press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.
Measures taken against them now include assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year.
“To justify jailing them, the Party resorts to the criminal codes, especially three articles under which ‘activities aimed at overthrowing the government,’ ‘anti-state propaganda’ and ‘abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state’ are punishable by long prison terms,” the rights group said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: social media activist and journalist charged for reporting on corruption, his house raided
- Date added
- Jul 28, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 30, 2021
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Quang Ngai have arrested three local Facebookers on the allegation of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code for their posts on the social network most popular in the Southeast Asian nation.
Citing the information from the province’s Police Department, the state-controlled media reported that 34-year-old man Bach Van Hien, 38-year-old Phung Thanh Tuyen, and 41-year-old Le Trung Thu were detained on June 30. Their private residency was also searched by the local police.
The three men will be held in the next two months at least for investigation on the allegation of posting statuses with content criticizing the regime’s agencies including the People’s Court, the police, the army, the inspectorate, the Vietnam Central Television (VTV), and the Propaganda agency as well as the regime’s leaders.
Recently, Vietnam’s authoritarian regime has arrested many Facebookers with charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” or “abusing democratic freedom” in a bid to silence the regine’s critics. The first charge may take the convicted ones to between seven and 12 years in prison while the second allegation would take the convicted ones to stay imprisoned up to seven years.
Last month, within a week, Vietnam’s authoritarian regime convicted two Facebookers named Dang Ngoc Minh and Cao Van Dung of “conducting anti-state propaganda” for their posts and sentenced them to seven and nine years in prison, respectively.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 23, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 2, 2021
- Event Description
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate release of Mai Phan Loi, a Vietnamese journalist who once ran an official law magazine but who, for the past five years, has provided his fellow citizens with reliable, independent information about economic, social and environmental issues. All charges against him must be dropped, RSF said. Hanoi police officially announced the investigation against Mai Phan Loi on 2 July, one week after he was initially arrested on 24 June, on a warrant with the extremely vague charge of “tax evasion,” which carries a possible seven-year prison sentence under article 200 of the penal code. It did not specify the nature of the alleged crimes or the amount supposedly evaded.
Loi made a name for himself in the Vietnamese blogosphere thanks above all to a series of interviews he conducted with experts on economic, social and environmental issues in Vietnam. Before that, he was the deputy editor of Phap Luat (The Law), a state-controlled magazine covering legal issues.
The authorities refused to renew Loi’s press card five years ago after he investigated the mysterious circumstances in which CASA 8983, a Vietnamese air force reconnaissance plane, disappeared in June 2016.
“We are not fooled by the tax fraud accusation brought against Mai Phan Loi,” said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk. “Everything indicates that it is just a pretext to silence a journalist who tried to do his job to inform his fellow citizens properly. We demand his immediate release and the withdrawal of this clearly trumped-up charge.”
Editorial freedom
The same charge of tax evasion was also used to arrest another expert on legal issues, Dang Dinh Bach, on the same day as Loi’s arrest.
As well as a journalist, Loi also made a name for himself as a defender of editorial freedom in the Vietnamese media. It was as such that he was included in a group of six civil society representatives who met then US President Barack Obama during Obama’s visit to Hanoi in May 2016.
Loi joins the growing list of Vietnamese journalists who began working for the state media and were arrested after later choosing to work freely and independently. The victims of the wave of arrests of such journalists, which began more than a year ago, include Pham Doan Trang, a recipient of the RSF Press Freedom Prize in 2019.
Vietnam is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2021 World Press Freedom Index.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Vilification
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression Offline, Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 23, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 9, 2021
- Event Description
On July 9, the People’s Court of Hanoi found political blogger Pham Chi Thanh (aka Pham Thanh) guilty of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code for his online posts criticizing the country’s authoritarian regime.
After two and half hours, the first-instance hearing ended with the final judgment of five and half years imprisonment followed by five years of probation, his lawyer Ha Huy Son said on his Facebook page.
According to the indictment, Mr. Thanh’s writing including a book titled Thế thiên hành đạo hay Đại nghịch bất đạo (Holder of Mandate of Heaven or Great Immoral Traitor) and other posts on his blog Bà Đầm Xoè contains the information defaming the authoritarian regime’s leaders and distorting the regime’s policies.
In his defense statement, lawyer Son pointed out a number of shortcomings of the state agencies involved in the case, including the Hanoi City’s Department of Information and Communication which verificated the content of Mr. Thanh’s writing. However, the judge did not pay attention to the lawyer’s defense statement.
Mr. Thanh is a retired reporter and editor of the state-controlled Voice of Vietnam Radio (VOV). He has written several books critical of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam and its leaders, including late President Ho Chi Minh and incumbent General Secretary cum President Nguyen Phu Trong. His posts on his blog Bà Đầm Xoè are mainly critical of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam and its leader Trong. His latest book Holder of Mandate of Heaven or Great Immoral Traitor talked about activities of incumbent General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam, which according to the author are harmful for the nation and beneficial for the red China.
On his blog Bà Đầm Xoè, Thanh also posted his writings on politics and social issues, including China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and the weak response of the Vietnamese Communist regime, systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution, human rights violations, etc.
His arrest on May 21 last year is part of Vietnam’s intensified crackdown on local dissent before and after the 13th National Congress of the ruling party.
One day before the trial, the New York-based rights group Human Rights Watch (HRW) issued a statement calling on Vietnam’s authoritarian state to release Mr. Thanh immediately and unconditionally since Mr. Thanh peacefully exercised his right to freedom of expression.
Mr. Thanh is the 17th activist being sentenced in 2021, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. Among others are President Pham Chi Dung and Vice President Nguyen Tuong Thuy of the unregistered professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam who were also convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and sentenced to 15 years and 11 years in prison, respectively.
According to Amnesty International, Vietnam is the largest jailer of prisoners of conscience with 170 activists being jailed while the latest statistics of Defend the Defenders shows that Hanoi is holding at least 258 prisoners of conscience. Reporters Without Borders regularly ranks Vietnam among the worst five countries on press freedom withhigh number of jailed bloggers. Vietnam’s communist government always denies it has any prisoners of conscience, saying it imprisons only law violators.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: pro-democracy HRD arrested, his house searched for allegedly disseminating information critical of the Government
- Date added
- Jul 13, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 6, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnam’s authoritarian regime continues its crackdown on the local dissent even after the country’s new leadership for the next five years has been formed and the latest victim is former prisoner of conscience and democracy campaigner Do Nam Trung.
According to his girlfriend, Mr. Trung was caught by security officers of Nam Dinh province when he was on his way to a workplace in the morning of July 6. Later, police used his keys to break into his rent apartment in Hanoi which he shares with his girlfriend when she was sleeping. She reported on Facebook that around 20 police officers broke into their private residence, conducting house searches and confiscating some personal items.
Like in other political cases, Mr. Trung will be held incommunicado for at least four months. During the investigation period which may last two years or longer, he will not be permitted to meet with lawyers or his relatives.
According to the police notice, the 40-year-old human rights advocate and democracy campaigner is charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment between seven years and 12 years, even to 20 years in prison.
Trung is among active participants in peaceful demonstrations in Hanoi in the last decade to protest China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and demand human rights and multi-party democracy in the Southeast Asian country.
In 2014, while visiting southern provinces during the anti-China demonstration wave, Trung and two other activists was arrested and charged with “causing public disorder.” Later, he was convicted and sentenced to 14 months in prison.
Trung is a member of Brotherhood for Democracy, an organization co-founded by prominent human rights activist Nguyen Van Dai, who was forced to live in exile in Germany in 2018 after being sentenced to 15 years in prison. The organization was the main target of the persecution of the authoritarian regime in 2015-2020, with a dozen of key members being arrested and convicted of subversion and later were sentenced to between seven and 15 years in prison.
In the past few years, Trung was under constant harassment of security forces both in Hanoi and his home province of Nam Dinh.
Trung has been the 18th activist being arrested since the beginning of this year. Seven of them, including prominent human rights advocate Nguyen Thuy Hanh, were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda.” The remaining 11 were alleged of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code, with potential imprisonment up to seven years.
According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam is holding at least 259 prisoners of conscience. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to property
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jul 12, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 9, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnam’s state media has reported that on June 9, the People’s Court of Quang Ngai province found a local resident named Cao Van Dung guilty of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code.
Mr. Dung, 53, was reportedly sentenced to nine years in prison and three years of probation as the judge decided that from February 2019 he used his Facebook account “Dung Caovan” for writing and sharing many statuses with the content harmful for the regime and affects social orders.
He was said to have formed an online secret group named “Brotherhood for democracy and human rights for Vietnamese.” His hard sentence was likely also due to his participation in the mass demonstration on June 10, 2018 where tens of thousands of people gathered on streets in Ho Chi Minh City and other localities in the southern and central regions to protest the Cyber Security and the Special Economic Zones bills.
It is unclear when Mr. Dung was arrested. It is unknown Mr. Dung had legal assistance during his pre-trial detention and the first-instance hearing.
His conviction is the second within a week. One week earlier, the People’s Court of the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang sentenced Facebooker Dang Hoang Minh to seven years in prison followed by two years of probation. Mr. Minh was said to have posted numerous statuses on his Facebook account with the content harmful for the regime.
Vietnam’s authoritarian regime strictly controls the media and persecutes independent journalists and bloggers. Dozens of Facebookers and bloggers have been imprisoned while others are under regular harassment. The country has been placed in the groups of the countries in the bottom of the Press Freedom Index of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) for many years. In 2020, it was ranked 175th among 180 countries in the index.
In early 2021, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Vietnam is among the world biggest prisons for journalists, with 12 journalists and Facebookers being imprisoned.
According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam is holding at least 262 prisoners of conscience. Hanoi alway denies, saying it has jailed only law violators.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 23, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 2, 2021
- Event Description
A court in southern Vietnam’s southern Hau Giang province on Wednesday sentenced a Facebook user to seven years in prison for posting writings said by prosecutors to have misrepresented state policies, Vietnamese sources said.
Dang Hoang Minh, 28, had been charged with “creating, storing, and disseminating information, items, and materials opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Criminal Code, state media reports said.
Reports by local media did not say when Minh—a resident of the Phu Khoi hamlet in Hau Giang’s Phung Hiep district—had been arrested or whether he had been represented by a lawyer at his trial.
Citing the provincial People’s Procuracy indictment against him, state media said Minh had posted several “untrue stories” concerning current and former leaders of Vietnam’s one-party communist government on his Facebook page from June to December 2020.
Former Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh, founder of the country’s communist party, was among the leaders Minh had defamed, prosecutors said, adding that Minh’s postings had been aimed at opposing the national government and ruling party and had caused “confusion and anxiety” to his readers.
Reporting by RFA shows that at least 21 Vietnamese citizens have been charged with political offenses involving social media posts since the beginning of the year, with 21 now serving prison terms following convictions under Article 117.
Among those jailed this year, former RFA blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy, now in his 70s, was sentenced on Jan. 5 by a court in Ho Chi Minh City to an 11-year prison term following his conviction on charges under Article 117.
On Friday, April 23, a court in coastal Phu Yen province sentenced an independent journalist, Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu, to an eight-year prison term for writing “anti-state” stories and sharing them on social media.
And on May 5, a court in northern Vietnam’s Hoa Binh province sentenced land-rights activist Can Thi Theu and her son Tring Ba Tu to eight years in prison each for posting online articles and livestream videos criticizing the government for its handling of a deadly land-rights clash last year.
Harsh forms of persecution
With Vietnam’s media all following Communist Party orders, “the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution,” the press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.
Measures taken against them now include assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year.
“To justify jailing them, the Party resorts to the criminal codes, especially three articles under which ‘activities aimed at overthrowing the government,’ ‘anti-state propaganda’ and ‘abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state’ are punishable by long prison terms,” the rights group said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jun 5, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 26, 2021
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi tried on Tuesday to arrest an independent journalist charged with reporting on corruption and other issues deemed politically sensitive by authorities, but missed him at home, taking away a laptop computer and two mobile phones instead.
Le Van Dung, also known as Le Dung Vova—owner of the online CHTV news channel—was not at home when officers from the Hanoi Police Department’s Investigation Agency arrived at around 1:30 p.m., Dung’s wife Bui Thi Hue told RFA on Wednesday.
“Around 20 officers came to our house and read a warrant to search our home and to charge and temporarily detain my husband Le Van Dung in accordance with Article 117 [of Vietnam’s Criminal Code],” she said.
Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code imposes penalties for “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” and is frequently used by authorities to stifle peaceful critics of the country’s one-party communist state.
Dung was away from home when the police arrived and is now “temporarily safe,” Hue said, adding that officers searching the house found nothing belonging to her husband, but left with a laptop computer and two mobile phones of her own.
Hue said that she had not touched or looked at the warrant that was read to her and had to stand back from the officers because of COVID concerns.
“They documented their search, but I didn’t sign the document, and therefore they didn’t leave me with any papers,” she added.
Dung’s CHTV channel has used Facebook’s live-broadcast feature to transmit information on social issues such as land disputes and corruption, and to give ordinary citizens a chance to discuss matters of concern, drawing the attention of law enforcement and security agencies.
'Useful and good'
Writing on his Facebook page on May 25, Dung said he had received repeated calls since January to report to local authorities for questioning concerning a denunciation filed against him by the government’s Cybersecurity Department, alleging he had created videos with “anti-State” content.
Half of the 12 videos used by police investigators to accuse him showed signs of outside editing, though, Dung said.
“I think that I’ve done is useful and good for other people and for our country. We need to join hands and work to create a better society,” Dung said, writing on his Facebook page. “What I have done is in line with my responsibilities as a citizen.”
“I understand that by telling the truth, my family and I may suffer. But I will always do this, even if I am imprisoned for doing what my conscience tells me to do,” he said.
With Vietnam’s media all following Communist Party orders, “the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution,” the press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.
Measures taken against them now include assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year.
“To justify jailing them, the Party resorts to the criminal codes, especially three articles under which ‘activities aimed at overthrowing the government,’ ‘anti-state propaganda’ and ‘abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state’ are punishable by long prison terms,” the rights group said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: social media activist and journalist charged for reporting on corruption, his house raided
- Date added
- Jun 4, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 5, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnam’s authoritarian regime has convicted land rights activists and human rights defenders Can Thi Theu and her second son Trinh Ba Tu of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for their peaceful activities which aim to protest illegal land seizure in their locality and human rights advocacy for other victims of legal miscarriage.
The conviction was made by the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province in the first-hearing instance on May 5. The conviction was made by the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province in the first-hearing instance on May 5. The court sentenced them to eight years in prison and three years of probation each.
The province’s government deployed large numbers of riot policemen, police, plainclothes agents and militia to block all roads leading to the court areas. Only Theu’s daughter and daughter-in-law were allowed to enter the courtroom while her husband Trinh Ba Khiem and dozens of other land petitioners were kept in streets far from the court areas.
According to Saigon-based human rights lawyer Dang Dinh Manh who provided legal assistance for the mother and the son, when the judge asked their identity, both answered that they are victims of land grabbers and the communist regime.
Tu, 33, said he was insulted by procuror Vu Binh Minh during the pre-trial detention while Mrs. Theu said she was placed in a 7-square-meter cell with 9 others some of them are infected with HIV in the Hoa Binh temporary detention facility operated by the province’s Police Department.
The procuracy representative in the trial said Theu and Tu posted a number of video clips on their Facebook accounts with the content causing confusion among the public, however, the two activists said any ordinary people have been confused but only the regime’s officials who were involved in land grabbing. Their posts aim to tell the truth about illegal land seizure in Vietnam and the regime’s persecution against farmers who protest the land grabbing so the general public and the international community understand the ongoing situation in the country.
This will be the third time Mrs. Theu was convicted of controversial allegations. In 2014-2018, she was twice imprisoned for a total 35 months for protesting Hanoi’s authorities to grab farming land in Duong Noi commune, Ha Dong district where her family lives. She was imprisoned for “resisting on-duty state officials” or “causign public disorders.” Her husband Khiem was also jailed for “resisting on-duty state officials.”
After her release in 2016, Theu and her family including two sons Tu and Trinh Ba Phuong involved in advocacy for other land petitioners nationwide whose number mounts to thousands and gather in Hanoi to daily go the government agencies to submit their petitions. Before and after the bloody attack of 3,000 riot policemen in Dong Tam commune on January 9, 2020, the trio provided great support for Dong Tam land petitioners, including posting news on the case, meeting with foreign diplomats to update information, and calling for financial supports for the families of detainees after the raid.
In order to suppress the support of local activists given for land petitioners in Dong Tam, Vietnam’s authorities arrested a number of people, including prominent political blogger and world-recognized human rights defender Pham Doan Trang, human rights advocate Nguyen Thuy Hanh who set up and managed the 50K Fund, and four human rights campaigners Theu, Phuong, Tu, and former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Thi Tam, all the four from Duong Noi commune, Ha Dong district, Hanoi.
Mrs. Theu and Mr. Tu were arrested on June 24, 2020 by the police of Ha Son Binh province while Mr. Phuong was detained by the Hanoi Police Department on the same day. The mother and the younger son were held incommunicado since their arrests until a few months ago when they were permitted to meet their lawyers to prepare for defense while Mr. Phuong has yet to be allowed to meet with his relatives or lawyers.
Since their arrests, many foreign governments and international human rights organizations have condemned the Vietnamese government’s acts and urged Hanoi to release them immediately and unconditionally. However, Hanoi claims that they were not arrested for their human rights activities but crime activities harmful for the regime. Two days ahead of their trial, Human Rights Watch issued a statement urging Vietnam’s authoritarian regime to free them, saying Hanoi should not imprison those who tell the trust like Theu and her sons.
The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam conducted its 13th National Congress on January 25-February 1 this year to select the country’s leadership for the next five years. With many conservative figures of the regime such as General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, former Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc now becoming state president, and Minister of Public Security To Lam, it is likely the crackdown on the political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders which has been intensified since late 2015 will continue. Vietnam’s human rights records are unlikely to be improved in coming years after former police general Pham Minh Chinh gained power to become the government leader while other former police generals continue to hold leading positions in the procuracy and the court systems.
Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam has arrested at least ten activists, mostly on controversial allegations in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code. So far, it has convicted 14 activists and sentenced them to a total 106 years in prison and 21 years of probation. The toughest imprisonment of 15 years in prison and three years of probation was given to PhD. Pham Chi Dung, the president of the unregistered professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam who was convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda.”
According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam holds at least 261 prisoners of conscience. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Offline, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Land rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 27, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 5, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnam’s security forces have arrested Mr. Nguyen Bao Tien, a shipper and a collaborator of the unregistered Liberal Publishing House (LPH), and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code.
According to the state-controlled media, the Police Department of the central province of Phu Yen publicized the arrest and the criminal probe on May 5. The security forces were said to conduct a house search and confiscated dozens of books printed by LPH but considered harmful for the authoritarian regime in Vietnam.
According to the Phu Yen police, Mr. Tien, 35, participated in distribution of books illegally printed by LPH in August-October 2019. He was said to have received 68 postal boxes containing the illegally-printed, of which he handed over 24 to readers.
Phu Yen police said he was arrested recently while tried to send the books in a post office in Phu Yen province.
One day after the Phu Yen province’s police announced the arrest of Mr. Tien, LPH issued a statement confirming that Tien was among its collaborators, once time distributing its books when Vietnam’s authorities launched a campaign to halt activities of the unsanctioned publisher. It lost contact with him since early October 2019 while his Facebook and Whatsapp accounts were likely locked. The publisher suspected that the Phu Yen police arrested Tien in early October two years ago and kept him in police custody without informing his family.
Similar to other political cases, Mr. Tien will be held incommunicado for at least next four months.
LPH was established in February 2019 by a group of activists including prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang who wrote a series of dissident books. It printed a dozens of books considered harmful to Vietnam’s authoritarian regime as their content is about human rights and democracy as well as bad nature of communism and communist regimes worldwide. Its uncensored products met great interest of Vietnam’s public. Due to its great work, in 2020, it was honored with Prix Voltaire of the International Publishers’ Association.
However, it met strong persecution from Vietnam’s security forces which detained several contributors of the publisher for interrogation. Some of them were brutally tortured in police custody and they were forced to relocate after being released or escaped from police. In October 7, Vietnam’s police arrested Ms. Pham Doan Trang on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code (1999) and Article 117 of the Criminal Code (2015).
Tien’s arrest may be linked to the detention of Ms. Trang who may face imprisonment of between seven to 12 years in prison, even to 20 years. Due to fierce suppression of the Vietnamese government and its internal issues, LPH was forced to suspend its operation in 2020.
If Tien was truly arrested on May 5 as the Phu Yen police said, he would be 11th activist being detained so far this year and the 5th alleged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” while other six were charged with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. As of May 5, Vietnam’s regime has convicted 14 activists and sentenced them to a total 106 years in prison and 21 years of probation.
With his arrest, the number of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam rose to 261, the latest statistics of Defend the Defenders showed.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 26, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 23, 2021
- Event Description
On April 23, the People’s Court in Phu Yen province convicted Dieu under Article 117 of the penal code, an anti-state provision that bans “creating, storing and disseminating information and materials” against the state, and sentenced her to eight years in prison, according to news reports.
Dieu, a former state newspaper reporter who as an independent journalist posted news and commentary on Facebook at “Tuyet Dieu Babel” “and “Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu Journalist” (which has been taken down), and the YouTube channel “Tuyet Dieu Tran,” was convicted in relation to 25 news stories and nine videos deemed to be anti-state, news reports said.
“Vietnamese authorities should reverse this outrageously harsh sentencing of independent reporter Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu and immediately and unconditionally set her free,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnam must stop treating journalists as criminals and allow them to report freely without fear of cruel and unusual punishment.”
Dieu was first arrested on August 21, 2020, and held in pretrial detention until her court hearing, according to CPJ research. Her lawyer, Nguyen Kha Thanh, said she pleaded innocent to the charges and that the trial lasted only three hours, news reports said. It was not immediately clear from the reports if Dieu plans to appeal the conviction. CPJ could not immediately locate contact information for Thanh.
Dieu’s reports on Facebook and YouTube covered socio-economic topics including corruption, the environment, and human rights, according to The 88 Project, an advocacy group that monitors the status of Vietnamese political prisoners.
The Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on Dieu’s conviction sent through its website.
Vietnam is among the worst jailers of journalists worldwide, with at least 15 behind bars at the time of CPJ’s annual prison census on December 1, 2020.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- May 5, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 13, 2021
- Event Description
Authorities in southern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province arrested and later released an ethnic Khmer Krom youth and labor activist after he released a book about indigenous rights, drawing condemnation from a Khmer Krom advocacy group.
Yoeung Kaiy said in a post to his Facebook account following his release on Wednesday morning that he had been arrested a day earlier by “around 100 police officers” who raided his home allegedly without a warrant and confiscated some 100 books detailing the United Nations’ Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, his cellphone, and his computer.
He said the police returned his cellphone and computer but kept the books and charged him with “publishing without permission” and “tax evasion.”
RFA’s Khmer Service was unable to reach Yoeung Kaiy on Wednesday for further comment but he told the Khmer Krom News outlet that despite his release he remains concerned about his security.
Yoeung Kaiy’s father told RFA on Tuesday that his son had been arrested “because of his activism” and discrimination by Vietnamese authorities. He said that his son has advocated for better working conditions for Khmer Krom workers in Vietnam.
The Khmer Krom—ethnic Khmer who live in what was historically southeastern Cambodia, but now controlled by Vietnam—face serious restrictions on freedom of expression, assembly, association, information, and movement in Vietnam, despite being recognized as one of 53 ethnic minorities in the country, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.
The Vietnamese government has banned Khmer Krom human rights publications and tightly controls the practice of Theravada Buddhism by the minority group, which sees the religion as a foundation of their distinct culture and ethnic identity.
‘Contrary to international obligations’
Venerable Son Yoeng Ratana, information department director for the Khmer Kampuchea Krom Federation rights group, condemned Yoeung Kaiy’s arrest, which he said was ordered because authorities in Vietnam want to bar Khmer Krom from advocating for self-determination.
“This arrest is very unjust for Khmer Krom people because the young man simply disseminated the U.N.’s declaration on indigenous rights, which Vietnam has recognized,” he said.
“The Vietnamese authorities acted contrary to their international obligations. This shows they are continuing to abuse the human rights of Khmer Krom, who are an indigenous people.”
Yoeung Kaiy had recently launched a Facebook page to educate Khmer Krom workers on their labor rights. He also provides pro bono advice to Khmer Krom involved in labor disputes and hopes to set up unions for Khmer Krom factory workers.
Yoeung Kaiy told RFA in March that Khmer Krom workers in Vietnam were being forced to work overtime and refused time off for Khmer national holidays such as the Khmer New Year and the Pchum Ben Festival.
To date, the governments of only two of the 21 provinces Vietnam has claimed from Cambodia since the 17th century allow Khmer Krom workers to take days off during the Khmer New Year.
More recently, Yoeung Kaiy told RFA that that he has been regularly followed by Vietnamese authorities demanding that he stop his advocacy on behalf of the Khmer Krom and assaulted when he refused.
“When we express our views, they threatened to imprison us,” he said.
Recent harassment
At least three Khmer Krom youths were recently fined up to U.S. $300 for posting comments on Facebook about their indigenous history.
Another Khmer Krom youth, To Hoang Chhuong, was fined U.S. $300 for wearing a T-shirt marking the anniversary of the loss of Khmer territory to Vietnam. He recently told RFA that he plans to publish a guide to self-determination and distribute it for free to members of his ethnic minority.
“I am disseminating information on indigenous rights to raise awareness among the Khmer Krom of the laws governing indigenous people,” he said.
The latest harassment follows a March 29 raid by Vietnamese authorities on the printing house of a Khmer Krom man named Thach Sang who had created T-shirts declaring the ethnic group’s support for International Women’s Day on March 8, based on a customer’s order.
Thach Sang told RFA that he is seeking intervention from NGOs and human rights groups against the authorities, whose actions he said had disrupted his business.
“This was a threat and they tried to force me to ‘accept my mistakes,’” he said, noting that police demanded that he thumbprint a document at the time of the raid, but did not allow him to read it, so he refused to do so.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Labour rights defender, Minority rights defender, Youth
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 25, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 23, 2021
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam sentenced a journalist to eight years Friday for writing anti-state stories and sharing them on social media, her lawyer told RFA.
The People’s Court in the south-central coastal province of Phu Yen convicted Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu of violating article 117 of the Vietnamese penal code for “creating, storing and disseminating information and materials against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
“The trial lasted three hours, which is quite fast. The prosecution carried a sentence range of five to 12 years and I think the 8-years is pretty harsh,” Nguyen Kha Thanh, Dieu’s lawyer told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“Ms. Dieu had a clean criminal record. This is her first offense,” Thanh said.
A former employee of a state-run newspaper, Dieu was arrested in August 2020, for managing a Facebook profile called “Tuyết Babel” and a YouTube account under the name “Tuyết Diệu Trần." According to the Vietnam News Agency, which cited the indictment, Dieu had used the websites to disseminate 25 news stories and nine videos deemed to be against the state.
She also stored seven other anti-state stories on her laptop and had published online written materials in support of democracy activist Nguyen Viet Dung, currently serving a six-year sentence for disseminating anti-state materials, including photos of himself in military garb in front of the flag of South Vietnam, defeated when the communist North unified the country in 1975.
After Dieu’s arrest, she was not allowed to contact anyone for months and could not meet her lawyer until November 2020.
“She pleaded innocent, saying that there were no victims of what she did. She did not accept the accusations as the trial failed to find a person harmed by her actions,” said the lawyer.
“But the court said her actions caused harm to the nation, a common tactic that allows them to not have to show any specific harmed individuals,” he said.
Thanh said as a regular citizen, Dieu’s writings were not done with the intention of opposing the government, and an individual’s writings are not strong enough to topple an entire government.
“In my view what she was doing was not in opposition to the authorities. I guess Ms. Dieu wrote those things because she was upset or something. She should have been charged with an administrative violation or for insulting an organization,” Thanh said.
Harsh forms of persecution
With Vietnam’s media all following Communist Party orders, “the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher forms of persecution,” the press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.
Measures taken against them now include assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year.
“To justify jailing them, the Party resorts to the criminal codes, especially three articles under which ‘activities aimed at overthrowing the government,’ ‘anti-state propaganda’ and ‘abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state’ are punishable by long prison terms,” the rights group said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January. But arrests continue in 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 25, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 3, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities should immediately release journalist Nguyen Hoai Nam, drop any pending charges against him, and stop jailing journalists on trumped-up anti-state allegations, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
On April 3, authorities in Ho Chi Minh City detained Nam, an independent journalist who publishes commentary and reporting on Facebook, according to news reports.
On April 10, authorities announced that he was being investigated under Article 331 of the penal code, an anti-state provision that penalizes “abusing democratic freedoms,” and carries maximum seven-year prison terms for convictions, those reports said.
On his personal Facebook page, which has about 7,800 followers, Nam recently wrote about alleged government corruption, and frequently posted criticism of Communist Party officials, according to the U.S. Congress-funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia and CPJ’s review of his page. CPJ could not immediately determine which specific posts authorities cited in their allegations against Nam.
“Vietnamese authorities should immediately release journalist Nguyen Hoai Nam and drop any pending charges against him,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “If Vietnam’s government wants to be viewed internationally as a responsible actor, it must stop treating journalism as a crime, and must stop harassing members of the press over their work.”
Nam, who previously reported for state media outlets including Phap Luat (Law Journal), Thanh Nien (Youth Newspaper), and Voice of Vietnam Radio, will be held in pretrial detention at Ho Chi Minh City’s Chi Hoa Detention Center while authorities investigate his case, those news reports said.
CPJ emailed the Ministry of Public Security for comment, but did not receive any reply.
CPJ’s latest prison census found that Vietnam imprisoned at least 15 journalists for their work as of December 1, 2020, making the nation the second-worst jailer in Asia, trailing only China.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 25, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 20, 2021
- Event Description
Yesterday, police in the southern city of Can Tho arrested the three journalists as part of an ongoing investigation into Truong Chau Huu Danh, founder of the independent Bao Sach (“Clean Newspaper”) Facebook-based news outlet, according to news reports. Authorities also seized documents relating to their work during the arrests, those reports said.
Nha, Giang, and Bao worked as reporters for Bao Sach before its Facebook page was deactivated following Danh’s arrest in December 2020, according to those reports and CPJ documentation from the time.
Danh is accused of violating Article 331 of the penal code, which bans “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State” and carries potential seven-year jail terms, according to CPJ’s coverage from the time, which called for his immediate release.
CPJ could not immediately determine whether Nha, Giang, and Bao are also accused under Article 331 of the penal code.
“Reporters Thanh Nha, Doan Kien Giang, and Nguyen Phuoc Trung Bao should all be immediately and unconditionally released,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Vietnamese authorities must stop jailing journalists for their work, and should ensure that members of the press are able to work for independent outlets without fear of arrest and legal harassment.”
Bao Sach had more than 100,000 followers on Facebook at the time of Danh’s arrest last year; it covered topics including protests over alleged illegal toll collectors on local highway systems, and posted images of government officials arrested over their suspected involvement in such a scheme, as CPJ documented at the time.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to CPJ’s request for comment on the reporters’ arrests and the status of Danh’s case, filed through its website.
Vietnam is among the worst jailers of journalists worldwide, with at least 15 behind bars when CPJ conducted its annual prison census on December 1, 2020.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 23, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 14, 2021
- Event Description
On April 14, authorities in Thu Duc city arrested former police captain Le Chi Thanh on the allegation of “resisting on-duty state officials” under Article 330 of the Criminal Code for his efforts to monitor traffic police forces.
Mr. Thanh, 38, was a police officer of Thu Duc Prison camp. Last year, he was dismissed from the forces after filling denunciations accusing the prison camp’s senior managers of corruption and wrongdoings.
In recent months, he and his friends went on streets to film works of traffic police teams in many places. His activities are considered by the authorities disrupting the works of the traffic police which is seen as one of the most corrupted groups in Vietnam.
The Police Department of Ho Chi Minh City is considering to additionally charge him with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the same code for his numerous Facebook livestreams on which he talked about bribery of traffic policemen.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 23, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 22, 2021
- Event Description
A court in southern Vietnam’s Can Tho City on Thursday sentenced a Facebook user to two years in prison for posting articles and livestream videos criticizing Vietnam’s communist government online, family members and media sources said.
Le Thi Binh, born in 1976, was arrested in December and charged with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code. Her elder brother, Le Minh The, had completed a two-year jail term on the same charge in July.
Binh’s lawyer argued at trial for a reduced sentence of 12 months, Binh’s son Nguyen Chi Thanh told RFA after the trial, “But the prosecutor recommended two and a half years, and my mom was finally sentenced to two years in prison.”
Quoting the indictment against her, state media said Binh had used her Facebook page from October 2019 to November 2020 to livestream, post, and share posts “conveying bad and reactionary viewpoints and ideas” aimed at opposing and defaming Vietnam’s Communist Party and party and state leaders.
Binh had also “seriously insulted” Communist Vietnam’s founding leader Ho Chi Minh in her posts and called for a multiparty and pluralistic state to replace the current political regime, state media said.
Binh’s arrest and jailing is only the latest in a continuing series of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities after authorities began last year to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January.
With Vietnam’s media tightly controlled by the country’s ruling Communist Party, “the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists,” the press freedoms watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in its 2021 Press Freedoms Index.
Measures now taken against them include jailings under vague charges in the criminal code and assaults by plainclothes police, RSF said in its report, which placed Vietnam at 175 out of 180 countries surveyed worldwide, a ranking unchanged from last year’s.
Also ranked low in this year’s survey were Vietnam’s neighbors Laos at 172, Cambodia at 144, and Myanmar, whose ranking at 140 represents a one-point drop from last year’s score, RSF said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 23, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 7, 2021
- Event Description
On 7 April 2021, police officers in Hanoi city arrested woman human rights defender Nguyễn ThúyHạnh under Article 117 of the Criminal Code, which relates to conducting anti-state propaganda.Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh has been the target of judicial harassment since 2016 and arbitrarily detained multiple times for her human rights activities. The woman human rights defender is currently being detained at Prison Camp 2 in Thuong Tin district.Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh is a woman human rights defender and an active advocate for Vietnam’s prisoners of conscience, as well as victims of land appropriation. She frequently visits the families of prisoners of conscience and accompanies them to the detention facilities, and until recently assisted in the collection of funds for their support through the ‘50K Fund’ that she set up for this purpose in 2018. She was forced to shut down the fund just a few months ago, under mounting pressure from the authorities. The woman human rights defender is also active on social media,where she regularly voices her opinions on human rights issues in the country.On 7 April 2021, a group of about 30 police officers arrested woman human rights defender Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh at her home in Hanoi and cordoned off her apartment. She was taken to the Hanoi police department’s Security Investigation Agency and then later moved to Prison Camp 2 in Thuong Tin district. The defender was arrested on charges under Article 117 of the Criminal Code for “making, storing, or spreading information, materials or items for the purpose of opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam”, a charge that could carry a potential prison sentence of up to 20 years. Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh has requested the prison authorities grant her access to a lawyer, however the authorities have not responded to the request and so the woman human rights defender is yet to meet any lawyer or family member.Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh has come under frequent judicial harassment and persecution by Vietnamese authorities in the past several years for her human rights work. Following her efforts to raise funds for the family of a community leader who was killed in a police raid in Dong Tam village in January2020, Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh’s bank accounts were frozen, upon the instruction of the police. In March2018, following her participation in a peaceful protest against the Law on Cybersecurity and the Law on Special Economic Zones, the woman human rights defender was arrested and severely beaten during the interrogation, which resulted in injuries to her face.The woman human rights defender’s arrest comes after the recent sentencing of four other human rights defenders, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, Le Huu Minh Tuan, Pham Chi Dung and woman human rights defender Đinh Thị Thu Thủy, under the same charges under Article 117 of the Penal Code.On 14 January 2020, UN experts condemned the recent arrests in Vietnam and the dangerous and blatant usage of Article 117 of the Penal Code to silence critical voices and further restrict the right to freedom of expression in the country. Front Line Defenders condemns the arrest of woman human rights defender Nguyễn Thúy Hạnhand is seriously concerned by the shrinking space for freely exercising the right to freedom of expression in Vietnam without fear of consequence or retaliation, and the ongoing judicial harassment of human rights defenders. Front Line Defenders believes that Nguyễn Thúy Hạnh,like other human rights defenders recently arrested, is being targeted solely for her peaceful work in defence of human rights in Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: One Activist Beaten, Two Detained while Many Others under House Arrest on 30th Anniversary of Gac Ma Loss to China, Vietnam: WHRD put under de facto house arrest, her bank account frozen
- Date added
- Apr 22, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 15, 2021
- Event Description
On April 15, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City convicted Mr. Quach Duy of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code and sentenced him to four years and six months in prison for his anti-corruption efforts.
Mr. Duy, 38, was an official of the city’s People’s Committee. He was arrested in September last year after posting on Facebook about corruption and wrongdoings of senior officials of the committee, including Vice Chairman Le Vinh Tuyen.
The court judged that his posts have defamed the local leaders and undermined the regime.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Public Servant
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 20, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 27, 2021
- Event Description
On 27 March, authorities in Ha Noi arrested Le Trong Hung under Article 117, who had applied to be an independent (or ‘self-nominated’) candidate for a National Assembly seat in Ha Noi city. Le Trong Hung is a citizen journalist and a member of Chan Hung TV, a media group which broadcasts Facebook livestreams about social and political issues. According to his family, Le Trong Hung was arrested while walking in his neighbourhood and taken to his home by police who then searched the house. It is unknown where he is currently being detained.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to political participation
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 6, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 30, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnam’s communist regime has convicted four activists named Mr. Vu Tien Chi, Ms. Nguyen Thi Cam Thuy, Ms. Ngo Thi Ha Phuong, and Mr. Le Viet Hoa of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for their online activities.
In two separated trials held in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and the central coastal province of Khanh Hoa on March 30, the four activists were sentenced to a combined total 31 years in prison and six years of probation. The People’s Court of Lam Dong gave Mr. Chi 10 years in prison followed by three years of probation while the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa sentenced Ms. Thuy to nine years in prison and three years of probation, Ms. Phuong- seven years and Mr. Hoa- five years in prison.
According to the indictment, from the beginning of 2018, Mr. Chi shared 338 articles and conducted 181 livestreams on his Facebook page with content distorting the regime’s policies and defaming senior communist leaders, including late President Ho Chi Minh, who founded the communist regime. These online posts are harmful for the regime and affected the people’s beliefs in the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam and its government, the trial panel of the People’s Court of Lam Dong concluded.
The People’s Court of Khanh Hoa province concluded that Ms. Thuy, a former school teacher fired for her political opinion, was responsible for 181 livestreams and many posts on her Facebook accounts “Nguyễn Cẩm Thúy” and “Cẩm Thúy Cô” to defame the regime. She was also accused of burning the red flags of the ruling party and the regime as well as cutting portraits of senior leaders, including the regime founder Ho Chi Minh.
On March 29, the Khanh Hoa newspaper, the mouthpiece of the province’s Party Committee reported that the province’s People’s Court will hold the first-instance hearing on March 30-31 to try Ms. Thuy and two others named Ngo Thi Phuong Ha and Le Viet Hoa, however, the state-controlled media has not reported their activities which can be used for their conviction.
The state-run newspapers also reported that Mr. Chi and Ms. Thuy know each other, having a joint plan to expand a network of people sharing the same thoughts to establish a political opposition.
Both Chi and Thuy were arrested on June 24 last year. There is no information about their pre-trial detention. It is unclear whether the four activists have their own lawyers during their trials or not.
They are among 51 activists being imprisoned on the charge of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code 2015 (or Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999) which is condemned by the international community as an effective tool to silence government critics. President of the unregistered professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) PhD. Pham Chi Dung and his deputy Nguyen Tuong Thuy as well as world-recognized human rights defender and well-known political blogger Pham Doan Trang were also arrested on this charge. Mr. Dung and Mr. Thuy were sentenced to 15 years and 11 years in prison, respectively, in early January this year while Ms. Trang is still held incommunicado in pre-trial detention after her arrest on October 7 last year.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Apr 5, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 25, 2021
- Event Description
A jailed Vietnamese blogger serving an 11-year prison term for writing articles criticizing Vietnam’s government is being denied family visits after being transferred to a new prison following his refusal to appeal his sentence, his wife said on Friday.
Nguyen Tuong Thuy, an independent journalist and former RFA blogger, was recently moved from a Ho Chi Minh City Police Investigation Agency detention center and sent to the Bo La prison in Binh Duong province, Thuy’s wife Nguyen Thi Lan said.
“Yesterday I went to the Bo La detention center to visit my husband. I arrived at 11:00 a.m. but couldn’t see him as the doors had been locked, and I had to wait until 1:30 p.m. to send him some food,” Lan said, adding that prison staff accepted her delivery of food but refused to let her visit or speak with Thuy.
“They explained that they were not allowed to do this, as they had to follow instructions from the Ho Chi Minh City police,” she said.
Lan said she was shown a February 2021 police notice suspending prison visits and consular contacts due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19, but insisted that this was still against the law. “The law stipulates that anyone temporarily detained is still allowed to see their family at least once a month.”
Even with concerns over COVID-19, the guards should have allowed her to see her husband at a distance or speak to him on the phone, Lan said.
“However, I had no choice but to accept their decision, as [the detention officers] are the ones who have the authority,” Lan said, adding she had heard that a prisoner being held on a drugs charge at the same facility had been allowed to call and speak to their family.
“I think the guards were just making excuses,” she said. “I don’t know why they would say what they did, but I believe they were just following their superiors’ instructions and not the law.”
Calls seeking comment from the Bo La detention center were not picked up on Friday.
Civil rights, freedom of speech
Nguyen Tuong Thuy, who had blogged on civil rights and freedom of speech issues for RFA’s Vietnamese Service for six years, was sentenced on Jan. 5 with two other bloggers—like Thuy members of the Vietnam Independent Journalists’ Association—who were handed lengthy jail terms at the same time.
Arrested in May 2020, Thuy was indicted along with Pham Chi Dung and Le Huu Minh Tuan on Nov. 10 for “making, storing, and disseminating documents and materials for anti-state purposes” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Sentenced with Thuy, Pham Chi Dung was given a 15-year prison term, while Le Huu Minh Tuan was jailed for 11 years.
Thuy later refused to appeal his sentence, tearing up a petition form given to his after prison guards told him what to write on it, Thuy’s lawyer told RFA in an earlier report.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Vietnam 175 out of 180 in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index. About 25 journalists and bloggers are being held in Vietnam’s jails, “where mistreatment is common,” the Paris-based watchdog group said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger detained for allegedly conducting anti-state propaganda, personal belongings of him and his family are seized
- Date added
- Mar 28, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 21, 2021
- Event Description
Police in north-central Vietnam’s Nghe An province arrested the owner of a private clinic on Monday, accusing the physician of undermining people’s trust in the Communist Party in a series of articles posted on social media, state media sources said.
Nguyen Duy Huong, a 34-year-old medical doctor and owner of the Duy Nhi clinic in the Yen Thanh district’s Vienh Tanh commune, was charged under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with “creating, storing, or disseminating information and documents against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
Security services said that articles posted since 2018 on Huong’s Facebook page included a Feb. 20, 2021 story called “Why Should We Criticize Nguyen Phu Trong,” which criticized the ruling Communist Party general secretary, now serving his third term in office, for turning the party into “a swamp.”
Huong had written in the same article that he was willing to sacrifice even his family and job in order to change the Party and the country, according to a report in the Ministry of Public Security’s official newspaper.
“I have devoted my life to this [cause],” Huong wrote, quoted in the Ministry paper. “Reforms must be carried out so that our people can really be their own masters, the party can be cleaned up, and the country can move forward.”
Huong’s writings had undermined the Vietnamese people’s trust in their ruling party and the socialist regime and had harmed political and ideological unity in the country, and should therefore be “handled strictly,” the ministry paper said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 28, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 15, 2021
- Event Description
Prison wardens in southern Vietnam unleashed a hunting dog on a political prisoner serving an 11-year sentence for subversion to silence his complaints about solitary confinement in a cramped cell, his family told RFA.
Democracy advocate Nguyen Van Duc Do has been incarcerated since late 2018 at the Z30A detention center in Xuan Loc district of Dong Nai province for “activities aimed at overthrowing the government.”
Arrested in November 2016, Do and four other activists were convicted on Oct. 5, 2018 in a Ho Chi Minh City court after being found guilty in a one-day trial of involvement in the Vietnam National Self-Determination Coalition, a group that authorities deemed to have challenged Vietnam’s Communist one-party system.
Do’s inability to exercise in the small eight-square-meter (about 87 square feet) cell resulted in his physical condition deteriorating to the point where he often had chest pains and difficulty breathing, his brother said.
“My brother told me that yesterday, March 15, he banged on the door of his cell to call for help because he had pains in his chest and back that made it hard for him to breathe,” Do’s younger brother, Nguyen Van Duc Hai told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“He said that the prison was very large, so no one can hear you if you don’t shout. This is why he banged on the door shouting ‘Prisoners of conscience also need to live!’” said Hai.
This is when Do said the guards brought in a hunting dog to silence him.
“My brother said the dog was about to pounce on him, so he jumped back inside. Though it didn’t bite him, the dog barked loudly at him while standing at the door,” Hai said.
RFA attempted to contact the prison for comment but telephone calls went unanswered.
Do’s group had been charged under Article 79 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, one of a set of vague provisions in the law used to detain writers, activists, and bloggers, and had been held without trial for almost two years.
The group had previously been active in protesting the government’s handling of a massive chemical spill in April 2016 that devastated the country’s central coast, leaving fishermen and tourism workers jobless in four central provinces.
Group leader Luu Van Vinh was given 15 years. Nguyen Quoc Hoan was sentenced to 13 years, Tu Cong Nghia to 10 years, Phan Trung to 8 years, and Nguyen Van Duc Do to 11 years.
Nguyen Van Duc Hai said his brother Do had been in solitary confinement since May 2020, and since then had not been allowed to go out, even for exercise.
Hai also said that Do was being pressured by prison staff to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence.
“My brother Do said they often bring him papers to file a guilty plea and asked him to sign, but he responded ‘I am innocent. The verdict was wrong. Am only a patriot!’” Hai said.
“They told him that if he pleads guilty, they can reduce his sentence by two months for every five years. But my brother said ‘I am innocent. How can I plead guilty? I was convicted wrongfully,’” said Hai.
Do also told Hai that prisoners at Xuan Loc are often beaten to the point of serious injury.
RFA reported in June 2020 that Do’s family had filed a petition demanding better treatment at Xuan Loc after he told them he had been physically assaulted, spent two days shacked in solitary confinement, then fed prison rations mixed with feces.
In October 2019 RFA reported that Do had joined other prisoners of conscience held at Xuan Loc who had also stopped eating to call for beater treatment at the facility.
According to a friend interviewed in that report, political prisoners at Xuan Loc were being charged four or five times higher for food than other prisoners there.
According to the 88 Project, an Illinois-based NGO that tracks political prisoners, Vietnam is currently holding 240 prisoners of conscience.
Trial for journalist
Authorities have set a trial date for detained journalist Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu on charges of “creating, storing, disseminating information, documents, items and publications against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” as stated in Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code.
Dieu, also known by her pen name Dieu Anh, will stand trial at the Phu Yen People’s Court on March 22.
Dieu was arrested on Aug. 21, 2020 for posting on social media hundreds of stories, images, and video clips that authorities say were “content that opposed the Party, State and People, smearing President Ho Chi Minh and many other leaders of the Party and State.” The People’s Public Security Newspaper accused her of posting the content using multiple accounts on Facebook and other social media websites.
She was also accused of writing stories that ““distorted Vietnam’s Revolutionary history, inciting the overthrow of the people’s government, demanding multi-party pluralism, disseminating wrong information about the activities of law-enforcement bodies, showing uncooperative and opposing attitude when being invited to work with responsible authorities.”
If convicted Dieu could receive a sentence ranging from five to 12 years.
Dieu’s lawyer Nguyen Kha Than told RFA that Dieu will plead innocent and had refused to sign interview records compiled by investigation agencies.
“These days it seems Facebook users who post words that are different than the normal thinking of others are often prosecuted on this charge. Ms. Dieu said she was arrested after having quit Facebook for several months,” Than said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 28, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 1, 2021
- Event Description
Vietnamese land-rights activist Trinh Ba Phuong is being held in a state-run mental hospital after being transferred from his former detention center, according to his wife, who was informed of his whereabouts on Monday.
After visiting Hanoi police on March 22 to ask about her husband, Phuong’s wife Do Thi Thu was told he had been sent to the hospital in Hanoi’s Thuong Tin district for “evaluation” after refusing to cooperate with investigators, Thu told RFA on Monday.
“It was [investigating officer] Le The Bac who told me in person that my husband had been sent to the National Psychiatric Hospital No. 1 on March 1,” Thu said, adding she was told that her husband had been “uncooperative” with police, refusing to look at his interrogators or answer their questions.
“Because of this behavior, prosecutors asked that an assessment of Phuong’s health be carried out for around four to six weeks,” Thu said she was told.
Investigators had previously summoned Phuong’s family members on Sept. 3, 2020 to ask about Phuong’s behavior at home and whether there was a history of mental illness in the family, Thu said. “I told them that when he was at home, Phuong was healthy and loved his wife and children, and that there is no one in my family with mental health problems.”
“Then, in December, Phuong asked someone to call me, and that person told me that Phuong had said he would uphold his right to silence until he could see his lawyer. That person also said that Phuong wanted to remind us not to say anything to police ourselves, as we too have the right to silence.”
Calls seeking comment from the National Psychiatric Hospital No. 1 were answered by a receptionist who said she did not know of any patient there named Trinh Ba Truong and that there were over 600 patients in the hospital.
Calls to the hospital’s General Planning Department were not picked up on Monday.
The right to maintain silence
Speaking to RFA, Phuong’s defense attorney Dang Dinh Manh said his client was within his rights under Vietnam’s Criminal Code “not to give testimony against himself or to plead guilty,” adding that he plans to file a complaint in the case with prosecutors and the Hanoi Security Investigation Office.
“The Criminal Code stipulates that defendants have the right to maintain silence,” the lawyer said. “Thus I was very surprised to hear that not giving responses [to investigators] should be taken as a sign of mental illness and that ‘assessments’ are needed.”
“Because I got this information from Phuong’s family and not in an official notice given to me as his lawyer, I’ll ask the Security Investigation Office to confirm it," he said.
"And if they do, I’ll take further legal steps which could include filing a complaint about Phuong’s transfer for health assessments without legal justification."
A well-known land-rights activist in Hanoi, Trinh Ba Phuong was arrested on June 24, 2020 with his younger brother, Trinh Ba Tu, and his mother, Can Thi Theu, on charges of “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The three family members had been outspoken in social media postings about the Jan. 9, 2020 clash in Dong Tam commune in which 3,000 police stormed barricaded protesters’ homes at a construction site about 25 miles south of the capital, killing a village elder.
They had also offered information to foreign embassies and other international figures to try to raise awareness of the incident.
While all land is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation to farming families displaced by development.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Land rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 25, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 25, 2021
- Event Description
Police in Hanoi at the weekend summoned Trinh Ba Khiem—the husband of detained Dong Tam land-rights activist Can Thi Thieu and father of their two sons—ordering him to remove live-stream postings on Facebook they said were defaming the Communist Party.
“They said that the communist regime would arrest me and punish me harshly if I kept putting videos up on social media,” Khiem told RFA, adding that it’s likely now that he will be jailed following the arrests of his wife and sons.
“My wife and children are already in prison, so I’m not frightened at all, even if they jail me for 20 years or if I die in prison,” he said.
During his meeting with police, Khiem asked to see his son Trinh Ba Phuong, who was transferred from a detention center to a state-run psychiatric hospital in early March for “evaluation” after refusing to speak to police investigators – the third prisoner of conscience known to have been sent for psychiatric treatment.
A well-known land-rights activist in Hanoi, Phuong was arrested on June 24, 2020 with his younger brother, Trinh Ba Tu, and his mother, Can Thi Theu, on charges of “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The three family members had been outspoken in social media postings about the Jan. 9, 2020 clash in Dong Tam commune in which 3,000 police stormed barricaded protesters’ homes at a construction site about 25 miles south of the capital, killing a village elder.
'Mentally strong'
Can Thi Theu meanwhile met on Tuesday with a defense lawyer for the first time since her arrest in June, her attorney, Le Luan, wrote on his Facebook page, describing his client as “mentally strong.”
Speaking to RFA on Wednesday, Theu’s daughter Trinh Thi Thao confirmed the meeting, adding she had given Le Luan a letter she had written to her mother, along with photographs of her mother’s four grandchildren.
“The lawyer said that we would meet with Trinh Ba Tu on another day,” she said.
Can Thi Theu had earlier served a 20-month prison term after being convicted in 2016 of “disturbing public order” for joining protests with others over their loss of land which was taken by the government to give to private companies without payment of adequate compensation.
While all land is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation to farming families displaced by development.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 25, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 24, 2021
- Event Description
An appeals court in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Wednesday upheld the 12-year prison sentence handed to dissident writer Tran Duc Thach in December, sending him back to prison to serve his full term without hearing any arguments from his lawyer.
Thach, 69 and a founder of Vietnam’s online Brotherhood for Democracy, had heard only on Monday that the trial would be held, attorney Ha Huy Son told RFA on Tuesday.
Thach’s appeals hearing lasted just under two hours and was held without arguments between Thach’s defense attorney Ha Huy Son and government prosecutors, Son told RFA’s Vietnamese Service following the trial.
“It seems that the court had arranged its verdict ahead of time, as it was clearly made without any consideration being given to what Thach had actually done,” he said.
Arrested on April 23, 2020 Thach had been charged with “activities aimed at overthrowing the People’s Government” under Article 109 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code for Facebook postings exposing government corruption and human rights abuses.
The Brotherhood for Democracy is not recognized by the Vietnamese government, and many of its members have been imprisoned since its founding in 2013.
Speaking at Wednesday’s trial, a government prosecutor called Thach’s actions “dangerous to society,” saying they had threatened national security and undermined public trust in Vietnam’s political system.
Thach’s first trial had been compromised by “serious violations of legal proceedings,” Thach’s defense team said in a closing statement, noting that Thach had been tried on charges under the 2015 Criminal Code, which came into effect in early January 2018, well after his alleged offenses.
Prosecutors on Wednesday had also enjoyed full access to Thach’s case file, while defense lawyers were not allowed to have a copy of it, attorney Ha Huy Son said.
Thach had previously served a three-year jail term after being convicted in October 2009 of “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” and his return to prison now comes amid a new surge of jailings and convictions following a spate of arrests last year in the run-up to a top-level Communist Party conference in January.
'I'm not frightened at all'
Separately, police in Hanoi at the weekend summoned Trinh Ba Khiem—the husband of detained Dong Tam land-rights activist Can Thi Thieu and father of their two sons—ordering him to remove live-stream postings on Facebook they said were defaming the Communist Party.
“They said that the communist regime would arrest me and punish me harshly if I kept putting videos up on social media,” Khiem told RFA, adding that it’s likely now that he will be jailed following the arrests of his wife and sons.
“My wife and children are already in prison, so I’m not frightened at all, even if they jail me for 20 years or if I die in prison,” he said.
During his meeting with police, Khiem asked to see his son Trinh Ba Phuong, who was transferred from a detention center to a state-run psychiatric hospital in early March for “evaluation” after refusing to speak to police investigators – the third prisoner of conscience known to have been sent for psychiatric treatment.
A well-known land-rights activist in Hanoi, Phuong was arrested on June 24, 2020 with his younger brother, Trinh Ba Tu, and his mother, Can Thi Theu, on charges of “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The three family members had been outspoken in social media postings about the Jan. 9, 2020 clash in Dong Tam commune in which 3,000 police stormed barricaded protesters’ homes at a construction site about 25 miles south of the capital, killing a village elder.
'Mentally strong'
Can Thi Theu meanwhile met on Tuesday with a defense lawyer for the first time since her arrest in June, her attorney, Le Luan, wrote on his Facebook page, describing his client as “mentally strong.”
Speaking to RFA on Wednesday, Theu’s daughter Trinh Thi Thao confirmed the meeting, adding she had given Le Luan a letter she had written to her mother, along with photographs of her mother’s four grandchildren.
“The lawyer said that we would meet with Trinh Ba Tu on another day,” she said.
Can Thi Theu had earlier served a 20-month prison term after being convicted in 2016 of “disturbing public order” for joining protests with others over their loss of land which was taken by the government to give to private companies without payment of adequate compensation.
While all land is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation to farming families displaced by development.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 25, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 10, 2021
- Event Description
Defend the Defenders, March 10, 2021
Authorities in Vietnam’s northern province of Ninh Binh have arrested local Facebooker Tran Quoc Khanh and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for his online posts criticizing the communist regime on various issues.
According to the state-controlled media, Mr. Khanh, 61, was detained by the Ninh Binh police on March 10 and taken him to a provincial detention center. He will be held incommunicado for at least four months and not allowed to meet his defense lawyer and relatives in the pre-trial detention. He will face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years even 20 years in prison if is convicted, according to the current law.
Mr. Khanh has posted his own writings, carrying out many livestreams and sharing numerous articles on his Facebook account Trần Quốc Khánh with the content related on serious human rights violations, systemic corruption among state officials, the Vietnamese communist regime’s weak response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and widespread environmental pollution. The state-controlled media reported that he was arrested due to his posts which defaming the communist regime and distorting its policies.
Recently, Khanh has announced that he would run for a seat in the country’s highest legislative body National Assembly in the general election scheduled in May as an indipendent candidate.
He has been the third Facebooker being arrested for online posts so far this year. One month ago, the authorities of the central province of Quang Trị arrested state newspaper’s journalist Phan Bui Bao Thy and his partner Le Anh Dung and charged them with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code for their online posts to denounce corruption of state officials in the local projects.
In January this year, Vietnam convicted three independent journalists Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Pham Minh Tuan, members of the Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam, and environmentalist Dinh Thi Thu Thuy to between seven years and 15 years in prison on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda.”
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply in recent years with a spate of arrests of hundreds of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebookers. With many conservative figures of the ruling Communist Partybeing re-elected to the country’s leadership in the next five years in the 13th National Congress which ended on February 1, more arrests are expected in future.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 12, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 10, 2021
- Event Description
Two journalists employed by official media are being held by police in central Vietnam’s Quang Tri province on charges of “abusing press freedoms” for posting articles online criticizing provincial leaders, state media and other sources say.
Phan Bui Bao Thy, 56 and bureau chief of the online magazine Age and Education, and an associate, Le Anh Dung, 50, were taken into custody on Feb. 10 after articles appeared on Facebook pages the two men operated accusing provincial officials of corruption, police said.
One article posted in August on Thy’s Facebook page accused Le Quang Than—deputy chairman of Quang Tri’s Huong Hoa district, and a member of the Huong Hoa Communist Party Committee—of falsifying his educational credentials.
State media did not report the contents of the pair’s other allegedly defamatory online postings. Online access to Age and Education is now blocked.
Press freedoms group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) noted on Feb. 16 that on one site, Quang Tri 357, Thy had posted reports of alleged corruption involving the province’s president, Vo Van Hung, and deputy minister of culture, tourism and sports, Nguyen Van Hung.
Thy will now be held for questioning for the next two months, RSF said, adding, “The police, who carried out searches of his home, claim to have found a great deal of information related to this activities as an online reporter.”
In a statement, Daniel Bastard—head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk—called for Thy’s immediate release, saying “he was just trying to serve the general interest in his work as a journalist.”
“His fate highlights the straitjacket enclosing public media journalists in Vietnam, who are persecuted as soon as they stray from the official line imposed by the ruling Communist Party’s propaganda department.”
“In so doing, the Vietnamese authorities violate article 25 of their own constitution,” Bastard said.
Thy’s arrest came five weeks after the sentencing by a Ho Chi Minh City court of three independent journalists—Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Le Huu Minh Tuan—on charges of carrying out propaganda against the state.
Other journalists jailed
Nguyen Tuong Thuy, who had blogged on civil rights and freedom of speech issues for RFA’s Vietnamese Service for six years, was sentenced on Jan. to an 11-year prison term for “making, storing, and disseminating documents and materials for anti-state purposes” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
Sentenced with Thuy, Pam Chi Dung was given a 15-year prison term, while Le Huu Minh Tuan was jailed for 11 years.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Vietnam 175 out of 180 in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index. Around 25 journalists and bloggers are being held in Vietnam’s jails, “where mistreatment is common,” the Paris-based watchdog group said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 27, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 17, 2021
- Event Description
A Vietnamese blogger held in a mental hospital while awaiting trial for criticizing Vietnam’s one-party communist state was refused a visit from supporters on Wednesday, with authorities saying he is being kept in isolation as a “political case.”
Le Anh Hung, a member of the online Brotherhood of Democracy advocacy group who blogged for Voice of America, was arrested on July 5, 2018 on a charge of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s criminal code.
He was later transferred in April 2019 from jail to Hanoi’s Central Mental Hospital No. 1 for “observation and treatment.” If convicted at trial, he could serve up to seven years in prison.
Fellow activist Vu Hung and a group of friends attempted on Feb. 17 to bring gifts to Le at his hospital to celebrate Tet, the start of the Lunar New Year, but were denied permission to visit, Vu told RFA on Thursday.
“Yesterday was the day that the hospital re-opened after Tet, and so we went to see our friend Le Anh Hung and tried to give him New Year gifts,” Vu said.
“But a hospital official told us that Le Anh Hung had been involved in politics, and therefore we were not allowed to meet with him.”
The officer told Vu and his friends that Le was in good health but was being held under “extremely strict conditions,” Vu said, adding, “So we left our gifts for Le Anh Hung and left the hospital.”
Also speaking to RFA, Le’s mother Tran Thi Nhiem said on Thursday she had received a phone call from her son the previous day and was assured he was in good health.
“Yesterday, my son borrowed a cell phone and called me from the hospital to tell me was doing well. He is still completely lucid,” Tran said.
“My son had previously been severely beaten and tortured by the hospital’s officials, but now he does not argue with them anymore. At the same time, I’ve recently been able to send him some money, so his situation is better now,” she said.
Beaten, forcibly injected
Le had been forced in his first years in hospital to take drugs to treat his supposed mental illness, and had once been beaten with a metal folding chair, tied to his bed, and injected with a sedative that left him unconscious, sources told RFA in earlier reports.
Tran called on authorities in June 2019 to release her son from his forced stay in the mental hospital, where she said he was being forced to take medicine and was suffering “both mentally and physically.”
Le, in his mid-30s, had lost weight and looked ragged, gaunt, and depressed, Tran told RFA following a May 2019 visit to her son in the hospital, adding that he had undergone psychiatric assessments twice between October 2018 and April without his family being informed.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January.
Reporters Without Borders ranked Vietnam 175 out of 180 in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index. Around 25 journalists and bloggers are being held in Vietnam’s jails, “where mistreatment is common,” the Paris-based watchdog group said.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 27, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 20, 2021
- Event Description
On 20 January 2021, the People’s Court of Hau Giang sentenced woman human rights defenderĐinh Thị Thu Thủy to seven years in prison. The woman defender was charged under Article 117of the Penal Code, which relates to conducting anti-state propaganda. Đinh Thị Thu Thủy has beenin detention since her arrest from her from her apartment in Ho Chi Minh City on 18 April 2020. Đinh Thị Thu Thủyis a woman human rights defender and an engineer. As a woman human rightsdefender, she has been a strong advocate for freedom of expression and environmental rights, andhas been outspoken against the negative implications of overseas investment projects. On 20 January 2021, at her first- instance hearing, the People’s Court of Hau Giang sentencedĐinh Thị Thu Thủy to seven years in prison. The woman defender has been charged with “making,storing, disseminating or propagandising information, materials and products that aim to opposethe State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under article 117 of the Penal Code of 2015. ĐinhThị Thu Thủy was arrested on 18 April 2020 for allegedly creating several Facebook accounts todisseminate articles to distort Vietnam’s policies and to defame its leadership. She was alsoaccused by authorities of criticizing the communist regime’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.The woman human rights defender was held in incommunicado detention for seven months untilNovember 2020, when she was finally allowed to have contact with her family. Đinh Thị Thu Thủywas granted access to her lawyer for the first time in December 2020, eight months after herdetention. The woman defender is a single mother to a nine year old girl and has been undersevere psychological stress due to lack of visitation and contact with her family. In the past two years, Đinh Thị Thu Thủy has come under frequent judicial harassment,persecution, and surveillance by the Vietnamese authorities. After her participation in a masspeaceful demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 2018, which protested two bills, the SpecialEconomic Zone Bill and the Cyber Security Bill, the woman human rights defender was detained,beaten, interrogated, and fined before being released. The Special Economic Zone bill sought tofavour Chinese investments in the country, in spite of existing disputes amongst the two countriesand the environmental repercussions of such investments. The Cyber Security Bill, which hassince been passed to become law, strives to curb any form of online dissent or criticism against thegovernment. Đinh Thị Thu Thủy’s sentencing comes after the sentencing of three human rights defenders,Nguyen Tuong Thuy, Le Huu Minh Tuan and Pham Chi Dung under the same charges underArticle 117 of the Penal Code. On 14 January 2020, UN experts, in a press release, condemned therecent arrests in Vietnam and the dangerous and blatant usage of Article 117 of the Penal Code tosilence critical voices and further restrict the right to freedom of expression. Front Line Defenders condemns the arrest and sentencing of woman human rights defender ĐinhThị Thu Thủy. It is concerned about the shrinking space for exercising the right to freedom ofexpression in the country and the ongoing judicial harassment of human rights defenders. FrontLine Defenders believes that Đinh Thị Thu Thủy, like other human rights defenders recentlyarrested, is being targeted solely for her peaceful work in defence of human rights in Vietnam.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 23, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 8, 2021
- Event Description
On January 8, the Higher People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City rejected the appeals of four members of the unsanctioned group Hiến Pháp (Constitution), upholding the sentences given by the People’s Court of HCM City at the first-instance hearing on July 31 last year, Defend the Defenders has learned.
According to the court’s decision, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh has to serve eight years in prison and three years of probation while Mr. Ngo Van Dung, Mr. Le Quy Loc and Mr. Ho Dinh Cuong have to spend next five years behind bar followed by two years of probation each. They were arrested in early September 2018 on the allegation of “disruption of security” under Article 118 of the Criminal Code.
Nearly five months ago, at the first-instance hearing, the People’s Court of HCM City convicted eight members of the unsanctioned group Hiến Pháp (Constitution) of “disruption of security” for their active participation in the mass demonstration to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security in HCM City on June 10, 2018 and their plan to hold peaceful protests in early September of the same year. After just one day review, the court gave Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh eight years in prison, Mrs. Hoang Thi Thu Vang- seven, Ms. Doan Thi Hong two and half years, Mr. Ngo Van Dung, Mr. Do The Hoa and Mr. Le Quy Loc five years each, Mr. Ho Dinh Cuong four and half years, and Mr. Tran Thanh Phuong three and half years in prison.
In addition, Mr. Dung, Mr. Cuong, Mr. Phuong, and Ms. Hong were given two years of probation after serving their imprisonment. Four others were given three-year probation.
After the trial, four of them, Ms. Hanh, Mr. Dung, Mr. Loc and Mr. Cuong protested the court’s decisions and appealed.
Hiến Pháp was established in 2017 with the aim of enhancing civil rights in Vietnam by disseminating the country’s Constitution which was ratified by the communist-controlled parliament in 2013. The eight convicted members, together with others of the group were active during the mass demonstration in HCM City on June 10, 2018 in which tens of thousands of people from all social classes rallied on streets to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The first bill is considered to favor Chinese investors to purchase land in Vietnam amid increasing concerns of Beijing’s intensifying aggressiveness in the East Sea (South China Sea). The second which was approved by the communist-controlled parliament and became effective from January 1, 2019, is considered an effective tool to silence online government critics.
Members of the group planned to hold the second peaceful demonstration in early September of the same year on the occasion of Vietnam’s Independence Day (September 2) to protest the socio-economic policies of the communist regime. However, they were abducted by security forces in HCM City a few days before the action date. Their fate and whereabouts remained unknown for months as the police held them incommunicado without informing their families, possibly rising to the level of enforced disappearance under international law, and even after the families had been informed of the detention they remained incommunicado for nearly a year.
In mid-April last year, Mr. Dung and Mr. Loc were brutally beaten by police officers while being held in Phan Dang Luu temporary detention center under the authority of HCM City Police Department. Due to the severe injuries, both were taken to a hospital for urgent treatment for ten days.
Despite doing nothing harmful for the country, Hiến Pháp group has been targeted by Vietnam’s communist regime. Two members of the group Pham Minh The and Huynh Truong Ca were convicted of “abusing democratic freedom” and “anti-state propaganda” with respective imprisonment of two years and five and half years in 2018-2019. Mr. The was released on July 10 last year, three months before his imprisonment term was set to end.
Three other members of the group fled to Thailand to seek political asylum to avoid being punished by the Vietnamese regime.
Ms. Le Thi Binh became the latest activist being arrested last year, got detained on December 22 and charged with “abusing democratic freedom.” Binh is also a member of the Hiến Pháp group.
All of them are listed as prisoners of conscience by Defend the Defenders. According to the Hanoi-based human rights group, Vietnam’s communist regime is holding at least 258 prisoners of conscience.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 15, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 17, 2020
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam arrested a journalist Thursday for social media posts criticizing tollbooths set up under a controversial infrastructure funding program, local media reported.
Truong Chau Huu Danh, a contributor to a popular Facebook page Bao Sach (Clean Newspaper), that discusses Vietnamese social issues, had posted criticism of build-operate-transfer (BOT) highways that Vietnam had adopted in recent years, sparking rare motorist protests over toll collection.
Truong has been active as a journalist for several Vietnamese newspapers, reporting on protests against what activists say is “illegal toll collection” and the “illogical construction of tollbooths” across the country.
He was detained by police in Can Tho, a province-level city in the country’s deep south, on charges of “abusing democratic rights to infringe upon the benefits of other individuals and/or organizations,” under Article 331, the Vietnam 2015 Penal Code.
They transferred Truong to authorities in his hometown in nearby Long An province. If convicted, he could serve up to three years in prison.
The procuracy in Can Tho approved detention of up to three months for investigation.
In his last status update on his Facebook fan page, Truong posted photos of Ho Chi Minh City’s deputy party chief Tat Thanh Cang and former transport minister Dinh La Thang, who were both recently arrested and prosecuted.
The photos had been altered to show them in prison uniforms, and Truong had titled the post “reunion.”
Truong is one of the founders of the Bao Sach Facebook page, which currently has more than 100,000 likes. The page has gained notoriety for raising concerns over a death sentence handed to Ho Duy Hai, who was arrested in March 2008 and convicted nine months later of plundering property and murdering two female postal employees in Long An Province.
Ho’s case has been marred by accusations of procedural errors, including Ho’s contention that he was made to confess while in pretrial detention.
CPJ denial
Also on Thursday, Vietnam rejected a report by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) about detained journalists worldwide.
The report, released Tuesday, said that Hanoi has arrested at least 15 journalists in 2020, not including Truong.
At a press briefing, Le Thi Thu Hang, spokeswoman for Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the report was full of stereotypes about the Vietnamese situation.
“In Viet Nam, just like in other rules-based government across the world, every citizen is equal in front of the law and anyone who commits legal violations will have to be handled in accordance with judiciary procedures as codified in the existing laws,” she said.
Vietnam, with a population of 92 million people, has been consistently rated “not free” in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Vietnam 175 out of 180 in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index. About 25 journalists and bloggers are being held in Vietnam’s jails, “where mistreatment is common,” the Paris-based watchdog group said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply this year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party congress in January.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 7, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 15, 2020
- Event Description
On December 15, the People’s Court of Vietnam’s central province of Nghe An convicted try local human rights defender and democracy fighter Tran Duc Thach on allegation of subversion under Article 109 of the Criminal Code, sentencing him to 12 years in prison and three years of probation.
The first-instance hearing lasted only three hours, said Hanoi-based lawyer Ha Huy Son, adding Mr. Thach’s wife and younger brother were permitted to be in the courtroom to obseve the trial. It is likely no foreign diplomats have been present in the hearing.
The 68-year-old activist did not admit his wrongdoing but declared to appeal the court’s verdict, saying he just exercized his basic rights to protect the country amid China’s increasing aggressiveness in the East Sea (South China Sea) and voice against human rights abuse.
He has not fully recovered from high blood pressure and other diseases, said attorney Son who visited him one day prior to his trial in police custody. His trial was initially scheduled on November 30 but it was cancelled due to his poor health.
Mr. Thach, born in 1952, is a former prisoner of conscience from the central province of Nghe An, the home of late communist leader Ho Chi Minh. Thach is a founding member of the unregistered group Brotherhood for Democracy (BFD).
On April 23, security forces arrested Mr. Thach on allegation of conducting “Activities against the people’s government,” with the highest punishment of 20 years in prison or even death penalty. Police conducted searching for his house, confiscating a laptop, cell phones, a camera as well as VND9 million ($380) and $400, according to his family.
The state-controlled media reported that Mr. Thach has been continuously posting and sharing numerous articles on Facebook with content to distort the regime’s policies with the aim to trigger social disorders amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
He was arrested for the first time in 2009 and sentenced to three years in jail and three years of probation on a charge of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code, Article 117 under the current Penal Code, for claiming Vietnam’s Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratlys), the two archipelagos also claimed by China, and demanding human rights improvement in the communist nation. Particularly, Thach, together with activists Vu Van Hung and Nguyen Xuan Nghia hang out a banner which states “Hoang Sa and Truong Sa belong to Vietnam” at Mai Dich Bridge in the capital city of Hanoi. His fellows were also jailed with lengthy sentences.
Thach was an officer of the communist army participating in the Vietnam War. After leaving the communist army in 1975, Thach wrote a memoir named “Obsessive mass grave” to describe how communist soldiers assaulted innocent civil people while invading South Vietnam during the Vietnam War. In 1976, he self-immolated to protest unfair policies of authorities in Nghe An province and Dien Chau district. Due to the act, his face was deformed.
Vietnam’s communist regime has intensified its crackdown on local dissent from late 2015 when the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam began to prepare for its 12th National Congress. More than 100 activists were arrested and charged with controversial allegations in the National Security provisions of the Penal Code 1999 or the Criminal Code 2015, many of them were sentenced to lengthy imprisonments of between five and 20 years.
BFD is the group that suffered the most from the ongoing persecution campaign of the communist regime. Its nine key members were sentenced to between seven and 15 years in prison, and only two of them, human rights attorney Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thu Ha were freed but forced to live in exile in Germany. Thach’s latest arrest is related to BFD. In 2017, when Vietnam’s police arrested six key members of the group, he was summoned to a police station and interrogated for days about his activities in the organization.
After Thach’s arrest, Vietnam’s communist regime has detained a number of activists and bloggers and charged them with controversial crimes in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code. The detainees included Vice President of the unregistered professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) Nguyen Tuong Thuy and its young editor Le Huu Minh Tuan, well-known blogger Pham Chi Thanh (aka Pham Thanh), and prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang, who was taken into custody on the day Vietnam and the US conducted the 24th Annual Human Rights Dialogue. All of them were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” for their posts critical to the communist regime.
Mr. Thach is likely not the last activist being convicted and sentenced this year. Vietnam’s communist regime has a plan to try two Facebookers Huynh Anh Khoa and Nguyen Dang Thuong on the charge of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code. Mr. Khoa and Mr. Thuong were arrested by security forces in Ho Chi Minh City on June 13 this year in relation to a group on Facebook in which its members held discussions about Vietnam’s socio-economic issues. The two guys are admins of a Facebook group named Bàn luận Kinh tế-Chính trị (Economic-Political Discussion) with 46,000 followers. However, the group was closed immediately after the arrests of its two admins.
According to well-known blogger Le Nguyen Huong Tra who is lives in Germany, Khoa and Thuong are admins of a Facebook group named Bàn luận Kinh tế-Chính trị (Economic-Political Discussion) with 46,000 followers. However, the group was closed immediately after the arrests of its two admins. Their trial was planned on December 7 but suspended due to health issue of one of the two defendants.
As the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam prepares its 13th National Congress scheduled for January 2021, the regime continues its crackdown on local dissent and tightens control on social media, especially Facebook, the largest social network in Vietnam with around 60 million accounts.
So far this year, Vietnam has convicted 17 activists of subversion, “conducting anti-state propaganda” and “abusing democratic freedom” or “causing public disorders,” sentencing them to a total 90 years and three months in prison and 29 years of probation.
The regime is holding 31 other activists in pre-trial detention, most of them have been kept incommunicado since their arrest. Among them are prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang, President of the professional group Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) Pham Chi Dung and his deputy Nguyen Tuong Thuy.
Vietnam is the biggest prison for prisoners of conscience in Southeast Asia. Amnesty International said the number of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam is 170 while according to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistic, the number is 262 as of December 15.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 7, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 21, 2020
- Event Description
On December 21, the People’s Court of District 8 in Ho Chi Minh City found three local Facebookers named Nguyen Dang Thuong, Huynh Anh Khoa, and Tran Trong Khai guilty of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code for administrating an open Facebook group discussing Vietnam’s socio-economic issues.
The jugde concluded that the trio have posted a number of statuses in the group with the content distorting the communist regime and defaming late President Ho Chi Minh and incumbent leaders General Secretary cum State President Nguyen Phu Trong and Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan of the country’s highest legislative body National Assembly. The court decided to sentence Mr. Thuong to 18 months in prison, Mr. Khoa- 15 months and Mr. Khai- one year.
The three Facebookers were without legal assistance during their pre-trial detention and the hearing. It is likely that they were forced by the police to give up legal consultation provided by the lawyers who were hired by their families, said Mrs. Pham Bao Ngoc, the wife of Mr. Khoa.
Mrs. Ngoc also told Defend the Defenders that she and other relatives of the three Facebookers were not permitted to enter the court areas. After fierce argument, police allowed them to enter but stay in the corridor of the courtroom which was filled with policemen and local officials. During the break and after the end of the trial, police prevented the relatives from having physical contacts with the trio, using Covid-19 as an excuse, Ngoc complained.
Along with imprisoning the trio, the judge also decided to confiscate their three computers and two cell phones with which they used to post “anti-state” articles.
Mr. Khoa and Mr. Thuong were arrested by security forces in HCM City on June 13 this year in relation to a group on Facebook in which its members held discussions about Vietnam’s socio-economic issues. It was unclear about the detention of Mr. Khai.
Khoa and Thuong are said to be admins of a Facebook group named Bàn luận Kinh tế-Chính trị (Economic-Political Discussion) with 46,000 followers. However, the group was closed immediately after the arrests of its two admins.
As the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam prepares its 13th National Congress scheduled for January 2021, the regime continues its crackdown on local dissent and tightens control on social media, especially Facebook, the largest social network in Vietnam with around 60 million accounts.
In 2020, Vietnam arrested 27 independent journalists and Facebookers for their online activities and charged them with “abusing democratic freedom,” “conducting anti-state propaganda” and subversion. The communist regime has sentenced ten activists to between nine months and 12 years in prison. In addition, the regime has imposed administrative fines up to VND15 million ($680) on hundreds of Facebookers nationwide for their online posts unfavorable for the regime after requesting them to delete their posts.
In Vietnam, the ruling communist party strictly controls the official media and social networks including Facebook become the main platform for local residents to express their opinions. However, the online crackdown has become more and more fierce.
On December 14, the Paris-based group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) issued a report saying Vietnam is among the first countries in the world holding the largest number of journalists and Facebooker, together with China, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Syria. Particularly, Vietnam holds seven journalists and 21 Facebookers behind the bar, and is listed at the 175th place among 180 countries in the RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also listed Vietnam among the global biggest prisons for journalists with 15 journalists being imprisoned.
Vietnam is also the biggest jail for prisoners of conscience in Southeast Asia. According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam is holding 252 prisoners of conscience as of December 21, 2020.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 7, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 5, 2021
- Event Description
On January 5, 2021, the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City sentenced 3 members of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) to a total of 37 years in prison and nine years of probation on charges of “making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code.
Pham Chi Dung, the IJAVN’s President, was sentenced to 15 years in prison and three years of probation; both Vice President Nguyen Tuong Thuy and another young member, Le Huu Minh Tuan, received 11 years in prison and three years of probation each.
This unjust trial does not comply with international standards for fair trials. The defendants were kept incommunicado for many months from their arrest until December 2020 when they were allowed to see their lawyers for the first time. During their less than 6 hours court trial, the judges did not listen to the lawyers’ arguments and the defendants’ testimonies.
The IJAVN is a civil society organization of independent journalists fighting for press freedom in Vietnam. Since its founding in 2014, its members and collaborators have published thousands of articles about the situation of Vietnam, frankly criticizing the communist regime and officials for their blatant violations of their citizens’ rights and serious socio-economic mismanagement.
This is exactly the reason that the Vietnamese communist authorities want to annihilate the IJAVN and suppress its members for many years, and the arrest and conviction of the three leaders reached the highest point.
Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Le Huu Minh Tuan were sentenced to extremely heavy sentences for exercising their right to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of association. Those are the basic rights stated in the Vietnamese Constitution and international human rights conventions that the Vietnamese communist government has signed and committed to honor.
Vietnam Human Rights Network, Defend the Defenders, and Human Rights Relief Foundation believe that Pham Chi Dung, Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and Le Huu Minh Tuan have not violated any Vietnamese law, and that their arrests, detentions and convictions are completely unjustified.
Therefore, we ask the communist government of Vietnam
To annul the verdicts, eliminate all accusations, and release immediately and unconditionally the three journalists; To immediately stop the suppression of the IJAVN and other independent journalists and Facebookers, guarantee fundamental freedoms, in particular the rights to freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of the press and access to information; To repeal Article 117 of the National Security provision of the Criminal Code which is used to suppress peaceful dissidents.
We call on independent civil society organizations and individuals as well as the international community to speak up for the freedom of the three recently convicted independent journalists.
End of the press release
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Media freedom, Online, Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: three independent journalists in detention are indicted and face long-term imprisonment
- Date added
- Jan 7, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 22, 2020
- Event Description
On December 22, authorities in the Mekong Delta city of Can Tho arrested female activist Le Thi Binh and charged her with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code. They accuse her of posting anti-state statuses on her Facebook page.
According to her family, police and plainclothes agents kidnapped her when she went out. They took her back to her private residence where they conducted a house search without presence of her family.
The state-controlled media reported that the local police confiscated a large amount of evidence with the anti-state content without unvealing the details of what they robbed. Her family told Defend the Defenders that it received no documentation from the local authorities about her arrest, including the arrest order approved by the local Procuracy.
Ms. Binh, born in 1976, is a younger sister of former prisoner of conscience Le Minh The, who was arrested in October 2018 on the same allegation. Both are members of the unregistered group Hiến Pháp (Constitution) which aims to raise citizens’ rights by disseminating the country’s Constitution 2013. He was later sentenced to two years in prison, and completed his imprisonment in July this year.
Like her older brother and other members of Hiến Pháp group, Binh actively participated in the mass demonstration of tens of thousands of Vietnamese in Ho Chi Minh City and other locality on June 10, 2018 to protest the two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security.
After that, she has been under close surveillance of the Can Tho’s security forces, especially after the arrests of her brother and other members of Hiến Pháp in September-October, 2018. One of eight detained members of the group has warned about her arrest as police interrogators often asked them about Ms. Binh during their questioning.
However, Binh continues to post and share numerous articles about the country’s issues such as systemic corruption, widespread human rights abuse, and China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea).
She is likely to be held incommunicado during the pre-trial detention, the common practice applied by the communist regime in political cases. She faces imprisonment up to seven years in prison if she is convicted.
With Binh’s detention, the number of prisoners of conscience rose to 253, according to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 7, 2021
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 24, 2020
- Event Description
Jailed Vietnamese activist Hoang Duc Binh is being refused family visits by prison authorities angered by his insistence on his innocence and refusal to wear prison uniform, Binh’s brother told RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Wednesday.
Binh’s brother Hoang Nguyen went on Tuesday to visit Binh at the An Diem Prison in in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province, where he is serving a 14-year sentence on charges connected with environmental protests four years ago, Nguyen said.
“Yesterday, I went to see my brother at the An Diem detention camp, but the prison guards would not let me in to see him, saying that he was refusing to wear his prison uniform,” Nguyen said, adding that he had been turned away for the same reason in October after last being able to see Binh in June.
Nguyen said authorities’ refusal to allow the visit was recorded in the prison’s visitors log by an officer named Huynh Quang Dai, who noted that Binh was refusing to wear a prison uniform in violation of “Article 6, Circular 14 promulgated on Feb. 10, 2020 by the Minister of Public Security.”
A longtime labor and environmental activist, Binh was arrested on May 15, 2017, by police officers who dragged him from his car more than a year after protests over the government’s response to a waste spill in Vietnam the year before by a Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Group steel plant.
The spill killed an estimated 115 tons of fish and left fishermen jobless in four coastal provinces. Binh was later handed a 14-year prison term in February 2018 for “abusing democratic freedoms” and “obstructing officials in the performance of their duties” under Articles 257 and 258 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
In July 2018, he was transferred without notice given to his family from his prison in his home province Nghe An to the An Diem Prison in Quang Nam province some 300 miles away. Citing ill health behind bars, he has since petitioned to be moved back to a detention facility closer to home.
Binh, a blogger on environmental issues, had also served as vice president of the Independent Viet Labor Movement and is a member of a soccer group that protests China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Vietnam has increasingly rounded up independent journalists, bloggers, and other dissident voices in recent months as authorities already intolerant of dissent seek to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party congress in January.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Labour rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 28, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 6, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam’s communist regime has arrested another Facebooker and accused him of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for his posts on the social network.
According to state-controlled media, police in the central province of Nghe An on November 6 arrested Mr. Nguyen Van Lam for his posts on his Facebook page named “Lâm Thời” with the content considered harmful for the regime.
Newspapers said that the province’s police have launched an investigation after receiving information from the province’s Department of Information and Communication which warned that the content of Facebooker Lâm Thời’s posts are defaming the regime and the local authorities as well as their officials and distort the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s policies.
The police said they found 35 statuses of Facebooker Lâm Thời violating Vietnam’s laws. Of those, 3 are his live streams, 18 were produced by himself while 13 were shared from anti-government pages.
Mr. Lam, 50, will be held incommunicado for at least four months during the investigation period, and face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison, or even up to 20 years, if is convicted.
Looking in his Facebook, Defend the Defenders found his posts cover a wide range of topics, from systemic corruption and widespread environmental pollutions to human rights abuse and China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea). Lam was summoned to a police station in early December last year where he was requested to stop anti-regime posting, according to some newspapers.
He is among 29 activists and Facebookers who have been arrested so far this year for their peaceful activities as the ruling party is intensifying its crackdown on the local dissent prior to the party’s 13th National Congress slated for January next year. Among them, 14 were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and seven were alleged of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code.
Vietnam’s communist regime often uses articles in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code to silence the local political dissidents and social activists who bravely exercise their basic rights including the right to freedom of expression which are enshrined in the country’s 2013 Constitution and the international treaties in which Vietnam is a signatory party.
Vietnam is among the largest prisons of prisoners of conscience in Southeast Asia. According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam’s communist regime is holding 260 prisoners of conscience in hard living conditions.
Vietnam is placed at 175th out of 180 countries in the 2020 World Press Freedom Index of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), imprisoning dozens of journalists and bloggers, including prominent activists Pham Doan Trang and Pham Chi Dung.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 15, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 10, 2020
- Event Description
Prosecutors in Vietnam have indicted three leaders of an independent journalist advocacy group for their writings critical of the one-party communist government, laying charges that could land the men in jail for two decades, RFA has learned.
Three leaders of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) -- president Pham Chi Dung, vice president Nguyen Tuong Thuy, and editor Le Huu Minh Tuan – were charged Tuesday by the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Procuracy with making, storing and spreading information for the purpose of opposing the state.
If convicted of the charges in Article 117 of the Vietnamese Criminal Code, they could face between 10 and 20 years in prison.
Pham was arrested first in Nov. 2019, Nguyen this year in May, and Le in June. Another IJAVN member, independent journalist Pham Chi Thanh, was arrested in May 2020.
Defense attorney Nguyen Van Mieng told RFA Tuesday he met with Pham at the Ho Chi Minh City police detention camp and received the indictment from a procuracy representative named Dao Cong Lu.
“Mr. Dao Cong Lu asked Pham Chi Dung to sign to confirm that he received the indictment, but Pham wrote on it ‘I did not violate Vietnamese law,’ and then signed,” said Nguyen the defense lawyer.
“I also read the indictment… I told Pham Chi Dung that he was prosecuted under Article 117 and could be in jail from 10 to 20 years if he is found guilty. Mr. Pham told me that he did not sign any testimonies except for some, which he wrote that he did not violate Vietnamese law,” the lawyer said.
The lawyer then met with Nguyen Tuong Thuy, who was prior to his arrest a contributor to RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“Mr. Nguyen Tuong Thuy said he would appeal this indictment because he says it has many mistakes,” said the attorney.
“He said the reason is because when they reviewed the stories posted on the Vietnam Times website, they forced him to sign that they were his. From these stories, they accused him of violating Article 117,” the lawyer said.
According to the lawyer, Nguyen said that there was confusion between him and another author because his name is similar to another author’s pen name. Five stories written by “Tuong Thuy” were not his own, he said.
Le Huu Minh Tuan, meanwhile, met with his lawyer Dang Dinh Manh. RFA contacted Dang by phone, but he said he was unable to talk.
According to the indictment, the procuracy accuses the IJAVN leaders of aiding and “abetting discontented individuals and eroding the people’s faith in the ruling party and state, causing confusion in public opinion, and sowing disunity among the party and state members.”
The document says they need to be treated strictly in order to educate and deter others.
The IJAVN was among more than 190 organizations that signed a May 5 letter to U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres to take action to secure the release of jailed journalists worldwide amid the health risks posed to prison populations by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vietnam, whose ruling Communist Party controls all media and tolerates no dissent, ranks 175th of 180 countries on RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index. Many observers say the party is detaining so many writers and bloggers because it appears nervous about a major party congress in January.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger detained for allegedly conducting anti-state propaganda, personal belongings of him and his family are seized, Vietnam: three independent journalists in detention are indicted and face long-term imprisonment
- Date added
- Nov 15, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 21, 2020
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam’s southern province of Dong Nai have arrested local resident Nguyen Quang Khai on the allegation of “Deliberate disclosure of classified information; appropriation, trading, destruction of classified documents” under Article 337 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment of between two and ten years.
According to the notice sent to his family dated October 21, the Security Investigation Agency of the Dong Nai province’s Police Department detained Mr. Khai in an urgent case for the act of copying and disseminating state secrets on his Facebook account Khai Nguyen.
Mr. Khai’s family said that the Dong Nai police detained him to a police station in the morning of October 20 for interrogation and kept him overnight. The next day, police came to his private residence and handed over a notice of arrest to his family. Currently, the 51-year-old freelance worker is held in a temporary detention facility under the authority of the province’s Police Department.
Mr. Khai’s wife has a small food outlet and he helps her run the facility. He often shares and comments on the statuses of other Facebookers, mostly focusing on the corruption of state officials at different levels. He has also participated in charity events to support vulnerable people in their locality.
It is unclear what information he has shared can be classified as state secret information.
Dozens of Vietnamese Facebookers have been arrested or convicted with lengthy imprisonment for their online posts since the communist regime passed the Cyber Security in early 2018, according to Defend the Defenders’ observation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 31, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 6, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam’s security forces have detained prominent human rights defender and democracy campaigner Pham Doan Trang as the communist government has tightened control to clear all political opposition while the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) is preparing for its 13th National Congress scheduled for early 2021.
Ms. Trang was arrested in the late night of October 6, few hours after the 24th Annual Human Rights Dialogue between the US and Vietnam held in Hanoi, when she was in a rent apartment in Ho Chi Minh City, the southern economic hub she has lived in the past three years while being chased by the Vietnamese security forces. According to her landlord, during the arrest, police officers showed the arrest warrant on which she was charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with a maximum punishment of 20 years in prison if she is convicted.
The state-controlled media has yet covered the arrest. It is expected that the Ministry of Public Security will announce the information about her detention soon as she is among high-risk human rights defenders in the Southeast Asian nation.
Ms. Trang, 42, is a former journalist for the official streamlined newswire VietnamNet. She left the outlet and went to study in the US and involved in activism, becoming one of the leading figures working for human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam.
She is a prominent and outspoken journalist, activist, and blogger whose writing covers a wide range of topics including LGBT rights, women’s rights, environmental issues, the territorial conflict between Vietnam and China, police brutality, suppression of activists, and law and human rights. Her book, Chính trị Bình dân (Politics for the Common People), a kind of primer for budding activists, was published in samizdat form in September 2017. She has produced a number of political books such as Phản kháng phi bạo lực (Non-violent Resistance), Politics of Police State, and Cẩm nang nuôi tù (Handbook for Prisoners’ Families). She is one of the authors of Việ Nam & Tranh chấp Biển Đông (Vietnam and the Conflict on the East Sea), published by Tri Thuc Publishing House in Vietnam.
On September 25, she and Vietnamese American Willian Nguyen publicized the 3rd edition of Dong Tam Report, the comprehensive report about the bloody attack of Vietnam’s security forces in Dong Tam commune, Hanoi on January 9 this year and the first-instance hearing to try 29 land petitioners who were charged with “murders” of three police officers and “resisting on-duty state officials” during the raid. It is worth noting that three out of the five co-authors of the first and the second editions of Dong Tam Report, former prisoner of conscience Can Thi Theu and her two sons Trinh Ba Phuong and Trinh Ba Tu were arrested on June 24, also charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda.”
Trang is also a street activist who is committed to peaceful protest. She has joined demonstrations outside police stations and at airports when fellow activists were detained, participated in nationalist protests about China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea), and pro-environmental marches. She has been beaten and detained many times in the past five years.
Trang is the editor for the website Vietnam Right Now, which aims to distribute “objective, accurate, and timely information on the current social and political conditions in Vietnam today.” She is also a co-founder and an editor of the Vietnam Legal Initiative, a US-based NGO working to promote human rights, civil rights, and democracy in Vietnam.
Her writing and activism have addressed a broad human rights agenda, from the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and other rights, including the right to remain silent. As a journalist and blogger, she also focuses on the role of media in social and political life and remains especially concerned with freedom of information on the internet and freedom of the press.
In 2018, Trang was awarded the Homo Homini Award by the Czech-based human rights organization People In Need which considers her “one of the leading figures of the contemporary Vietnamese dissent. She uses plain words to fight the lack of freedom, corruption, and the despotism of the communist regime.”
Last year, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) presented her with Award For Work to Improve Journalistic Freedom. In March this year, the Liberal Publishing House under her leadership was honored with Prix Voltaire by the International Publishers’ Association.
Responding to her arrest, Phil Robertson, deputy chief of Southeast Asia Office of Human Rights Watch stated “Vietnam’s scorched earth response to political dissent is on display for all to see with the arrest of prominent blogger and author Pham Doan Trang. Despite suffering years of systemic government harassment, including severe physical attacks, she has remained faithful to her principles of peaceful advocacy for human rights and democracy. Her thoughtful approach to reforms, and demands for people’s real participation in their governance, are messages the Vietnam government should listen to and respect, not repress. Human Rights Watch strongly condemns Vietnam’s arrest of Pham Doan Trang. Every day she spends behind bars is a grave injustice that violates Vietnam’s international human rights commitments and brings dishonor to the government. Governments around the world and the UN must prioritize her case, speak out loudly and consistently on her behalf, and demand her immediate and unconditional release.”
The ruling Communist Party of Vietnam’s Central Committee is conducting the 13th Plenum in Hanoi on October 5-10 to prepare for the party 13th National Congress slated in early January. Months ahead of the congress which takes for every five years, Vietnam’s security forces have tightened social security and intensified crackdown on political dissidents, social activists, and human rights defenders.
So far this year, Vietnam has arrested 25 activists and 29 Dong Tam land petitioners, raising the number of prisoners of conscience to 258, according to the latest statistics of Defend the Defenders.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Offline, Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 7, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 16, 2020
- Event Description
On September 17, Hanoi security forces detained prominent dissident Nguyen Quang A for several hours in a bid to prevent him from meeting with US Ambassador in Vietnam Daniel Kritenbrink.
Dr. A, who is the head of the unregistered group Vietnam Civil Society, said the American Ambassador invited him to a coffee meeting in his private residence in Hanoi at 3.30 pm on Thursday. He planned to leave his house early to go to a bank before heading to the meeting. However, when he tried to go at 2 pm, he recognized a group of ten policemen staying near his house in Gia Lam district.
Realizing that the policemen were waiting for him, Dr. A intended to go back to his house to inform the diplomat about the police blockade, however, the policemen detained him and took him to a car, and the vehicle headed to the Ngoc Thuy ward police station, where he was held many times before.
Dr. A strongly protested the police’s move, saying his detention is illegal. He knows that their purpose is to block him from meeting with the US Ambassador but the police officers asked him about his posts on Facebook.
A told them that this detention is the 18th in recent years, and he will not answer any question from them. At 5.30 pm, the police released him.
Along with blocking Dr. A from going abroad, Vietnam’s security forces have detained him many times in a bid to prevent him from meeting with foreign diplomats from the EU and the US as well as other Western countries.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 18, 2020
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam have arrested a Facebook user for sharing his grievances about how the local government has handled a dispute over his family’s land, RFA has learned.
Le Van Hai, from Binh Dinh province in the country’s South Central Coast region was charged with “abusing freedom and democratic rights to infringe upon the interests of the state” under Article 33 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code.
Local media outlet Youth Online reported the arrest Friday and it was confirmed by police in Binh Dinh.
According to the report, Le was detained over a period of two months, and police conducted a search of his residence in the coastal city of Qui Nhon.
The police investigation into Le’s case states that he often used his Facebook account to share or post many stories that slandered or offended the prestige of Vietnamese government leaders, including communist party members and provincial officials.
Le had also sent many complaints to Binh Dinh authorities asking for compensation payments because his family’s house and land had been confiscated to build a wastewater treatment plant in Qui Nhon.
When authorities denied the request, he shared his frustration on Facebook.
While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation to farming families displaced by development.
Le’s case came to light after a court in Hanoi sentenced two vilagers to death, and gave several others long sentences, in the trial of 29 villagers over a deadly land-rights clash in January at the Dong Tam commune near Vietnam’s capital.
Three police officers were killed in the Jan. 9 clash when they were attacked by petrol bombs and fell into a concrete shaft while running between two houses. The village elder and father of the two condemned convicts also died in the raid.
Vietnam, with a population of 92 million people, of which 55 million are estimated to be users of Facebook, has been consistently rated “not free” in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group.
Dissent is not tolerated in the communist nation, and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers and bloggers.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 8, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam�s security forces continue the persecution against the unregistered professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) after arresting its key members, conducting summoning some other members for interrogation in recent days.
Mr. Hoang Van Hung from Hanoi said he was summoned by the Security Investigation Agency of the Hanoi Police Department to its office on September 1 for questioning about his membership to the organization and his activities as well as writing for its website vietnamthoibao.org.
During the interrogation, Mr. Hung admitted that he is a member of IJAVN and has some articles posted on its website, however, he did not remember details of his writing. He refused to give other details, including the passwords of his accounts on Gmail and other online applications.
Several days later, Mr. Nguyen Thien Nhan, a member of the IJAVN�s Board Management was also summoned to the Security Investigation Agency of Ho Chi Minh City�s Police Department for questioning on September 8. During the interrogation which lasted from 8 am to 5 pm, police officers gave numerous questions about the IJAVN and his involvement in the organization. However, he did not give details as the investigators requested him to keep the content of the interrogation unpublicized.
Nhan said before going to the questioning meeting, he gave his phones and laptop to his trusted friend so the interrogators had no access to them. Police told him that he has to undergo other interrogations in the future.
The IJAVN was established in 2014 with the aim to work for freedom of the press in the one-party regime. Numerous articles of its members have criticized the regime on various issues, including human rights abuse, systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution due to the regime�s unstable economic development, the government weak response to China�s violations to the country�s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea), bad economic policies, etc.
The communist government probably is affected by such articles so it is striving to silence the IJAVN. Along with using technology to attack IJAVN�s website, Vietnam�s security forces have been implementing series of measures to persecute its members, from preventing them to gather or meet with foreign diplomats to arresting a number of its key members.
In early November last year, HCM City Police Department arrested its President Dr. Pham Chi Dung, who was honored with the Information Hero award of the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and charged with �conducting anti-state propaganda� under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with imprisonment of between seven to 12 years or even up to 20 years. Next year, on May 23, the police arrested acting President Nguyen Tuong Thuy after detaining blogger Pham Chi Thanh (penname Pham Thanh) two days earlier. The two independent writers at their 70-year age were charged with the same allegation. The persecution against the organization continues with the arrest of another member named Le Huu Minh Tuan on June 12, and police threaten to detain more members of the organization in a bid to expand the case.
Vietnam, placed at 175th out of 180 countries in the Press Freedom Index of RSF in 2020, has arrested 18 bloggers so far this year, 12 of them were charged with �conducting anti-state propaganda� and four others were alleged of �abusing democratic freedom� for criticizing the communist government.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Armed forces/ Military
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 16, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 1, 2020
- Event Description
Well-known human rights activist Huynh Thuc Vy has reported that authorities in Vietnam�s Central Highlands province of Dak Lak have requested a local Catholic school not to accept her 4-year-old daughter as a reprisal for her political activities.
On September 1, Vy took her kid to the school to start the academic year. The kid had been enrolled here since the beginning of this year. However, a nun at the school told the young mother that the school cannot accept the kid because �Many people had told me about you, now I can no longer accept Tue Nha in our school.�
The nun added �� the school and I will be negatively affected if we admit your daughter� without specifying who from the local authorities have made the threats.
However, in an interview given to an independent journalist, the nun from the Huong Duong kindergarten in Vinh Duc diocese has rejected all Vy�s accusations, saying she is just concerned about Vy�s current status of being closely chased by the local police.
Vy, who was sentenced to 33 months of prison for �insulting Vietnam�s communist flag� in 2018 but her imprisonment was suspended due to her maternity for their second child, said several years ago, a local policeman threatened them not to permit their first kid to attend local schools. The couple is preparing for that but still want to send their daughter in order to help it make friends with other kids.
Her husband Le Duy has said that the couple was preparing for that so they will teach their kid at home with an American program different from the program offered by the communist regime which is mostly propaganda for the ruling communist party.
Vy is born in a dissident family. Her father Huynh Ngoc Tuan was a former prisoner of conscience, spending ten years in prison after being convicted of �conducting anti-state propaganda� for criticizing the communist regime. She was a co-founder of the unregistered group Vietnam Women for Human Rights and held its presidency for many years in the past.
Due to her human rights activities and political engagement, Vy, who was honored with the Human Rights Watch (HRW)�s Hellman-Hammett award in 2012 for her writing, has been under persecution by the communist regime for years. She was kidnapped and beaten as well as being chased by authorities in Ho Chi Minh City and her native province of Quang Nam. In Lam Dong, she has been regularly summoned for questioning. Authorities have also striving to halt their economic activities.
A number of international human rights groups such as the New York-based Human Rights Watch, the London-based Amnesty International, and the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) have called on Vietnam to stop its persecution against Mrs. Vy, who is considered one of the talented young activists in the Southeast Asian nation.
Vy is among 275 prisoners of conscience to Defend the Defenders� list.
In Vietnam, the communists are striving to keep the country under a one-party regime and make all tricks and measures to silence the local dissent, including long-term imprisonment, de facto under house arrest, summoning to police stations for interrogation and economic blockade as well as harassing their relatives.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Vilification
- Rights Concerned
- Right to education
- HRD
- Family of HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 16, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 27, 2020
- Event Description
The father of a Vietnamese prisoner awaiting trial for his role in a deadly clash over land rights outside Hanoi has been turned away at the city�s police headquarters after he inquired about the condition of his son, who has been on hunger strike for over 20 days, he told RFA.
Trinh Ba Khiem, father of detained activist Trinh Ba Tu, told RFA�s Vietnamese Service on Friday that he and a group of residents from the city�s Duong Noi district visited the Public Security Ministry�s inspection office in Hanoi on Aug 26.
�The police received me along with three Duong Noi residents. I asked the ministry�s officers to allow me to call my son to ask about his health,� said Trinh Ba Khiem.
�If my son is on a hunger strike, I will tell him to stop, but a police officer, Colonel Le Son, said he could not comply with my request,� he said.
Trinh Ba Tu was arrested June 24 in Hoa Binh province, while his mother Can Thi Theu and older brother Trinh Ba Phuong were arrested on the same day in Hanoi. The elder Trinh brother and his mother are detained at the Cham Mat detention center in Hoa Binh, while the older Trinh is being held at the Hanoi No. 1 detention center.
The three are charged having been outspoken in social media postings about the Dong Tam clash, the violent Jan. 9 police raid that involved 3,000 officers intervening in a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of the capital.
During the clash, Dong Tam village elder Le Dinh Kinh, 84, was shot and killed by police, while three officers lost their lives.
The Trinh brothers and their mother are known to have openly offered information to foreign embassies and other international figures to try to raise awareness of the incident.
Commissary records at the Hoa Binh detention camp show that both the younger Trinh and his mother stopped buying food on Aug. 6, the Trinh family patriarch said.
RFA reported that he had Wednesday visited Cham Mat to check on his son, but he was turned away then as well. He said that the Hanoi police on Friday passed the buck back to Hoa Binh.
�After I left the office, Colonel Son told the three others that we should send a form to the Hoa Binh province police office to have an indirect meeting with Trinh Ba Tu, meaning I would be able to see my son through a glass window, but we wouldn�t be allowed to talk to each other,� he said, adding that the group plans to file a petition with Hoa Binh police on Monday.
Defense lawyer Dang Dinh Manh Thursday sent a letter to Hoa Binh�s investigation center and to the detention center in an attempt to confirm that Trinh Ba Tu was on a hunger strike.
�Are there any unusual reasons that have caused Trinh Ba Tu to choose to react with a hunger strike?� Dang wrote in the letter.
Other lawyers petitioned the two agencies to �urgently consider the issue and take the appropriate actions to avoid dangerous consequences that could occur.�
While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation.
Several international organizations have voiced concern about the Dong Tam case, calling on the Vietnamese government to be independent and transparent in their investigation.
A group of 29 detained for their involvement in the clash are set to face trial Sept. 7 on charges of murder or opposing police on duty.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to information
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 16, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 30, 2020
- Event Description
The wife of a Vietnamese activist is refusing to comply with a police summons to discuss the case of her husband, Trinh Ba Phuong, one of three detained members of the Trinh family who are awaiting trial over a deadly land rights clash outside Hanoi, her father-in-law told RFA Monday.
Trinh Ba Phuong�s wife, Do Thi Thu, gave birth to their child around the time of his June 24 arrest along with his brother, Trinh Ba Tu, and mother, Can Thi Theu, for spreading information critical of a police raid early this year to quash a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site at Dong Tam.
Police arrived at Do�s house in Hanoi�s Duong Noi district on Sunday to deliver the summons.
�The communist police yesterday summoned my daughter-in-law again, but she said she would not to go to police station. She refused to receive the summons, no matter what the communists want her to do,� Do�s father in law Trinh Ba Khiem told RFA�s Vietnamese Service.
�I think they want to investigate Trinh Ba Phuong�s case. My daughter-in-law just gave birth two months ago around when her husband was arrested, that�s why she decided not to go to police station,� he said.
Do�s interaction with the police Sunday was livestreamed on her Facebook account. The video showed police officers in plainclothes delivering the summons, which Do refused to sign for. She also told them she would not appear at the local police station on Sept. 3 as requested.
The three detained members of the Trinh family had been outspoken in social media postings about the Jan. 9 Dong Tam clash, in which 3,000 police stormed barricaded protesters� homes at a construction site about 25 miles south of the capital, killing a village elder. Three police officers died in the battle.
The Trinhs openly offered information to foreign embassies and other international figures to try to raise awareness of the incident.
Bureaucratic runaround
Trinh Ba Khiem also told RFA Monday that he encountered yet another stumbling block in his attempt to visit his other detained son, Trinh Ba Tu, after the family was told he had begun a hunger strike in early August.
RFA previously reported that the Trinh family patriarch had attempted to meet his younger son at the Cham Mat detention center in Hoa Binh province where he and his mother are being held.
Joined by an entourage of residents from Hanoi�s Duong Noi district, Trinh was last week turned away by camp police who threatened that they would be beaten by gangsters.
The group later visited the Ministry of Public Security in Hanoi, who told them to submit a letter to the police in Hoa Binh province to request an �indirect meeting� with his son, where they would be able to see each other through a glass window but would not be able to talk.
Trinh Ba Khiem told RFA Monday that the letter alone was not enough.
�This morning around 10 a.m. I and several residents of Duong Noi district arrived at the Hoa Binh province police department. Two residents and I met with an officer named Dinh Le Hoa, who requested an official testimony from the police at the local commune station confirming that [I] and Trinh Ba Tu are in a father-son relationship,� he said.
�I went back home and then to the commune police, but they did not confirm [our relationship] so my letter was not sent to the detention camp and I could not meet with my son,� he added.
The reason for Trinh Ba Tu�s hunger strike remains unclear. RFA first learned of the strike last week from Trinh Ba Tu�s sister Trinh Thi Thao, who said that an unknown person had told her that her brother had stopped eating.
RFA attempted to confirm the hunger strike with the detention camp, but officers there said they were not at liberty to provide information. The detention camp�s commissary records show that Trinh and his mother stopped buying food on Aug. 6.
In an earlier flare up of the Dong Tam dispute that goes back to 1980, farmers detained 38 police officers and local officials during a weeklong standoff in April 2017. Three months later, the Hanoi Inspectorate rejected the farmer�s claims that 47 hectares (116 acres) of their farmland was seized for the military-run Viettel Group�Vietnam�s largest mobile phone operator�without adequate compensation.
While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation.
International organizations have voiced concern about the Dong Tam case, calling on the Vietnamese government to hold an independent and transparent investigation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 16, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Aug 21, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam’s communist regime continues its crackdown on the local dissent prior to the 13th National Congress of the ruling party, arresting freelance journalist Tran Thi Tuyet Dieu and on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code.
According to the state-controlled media, the police in the central province of Phu Yen carried out the arrest on August 21. They also conducted a search of the house of Ms. Dieu’s parents in Tay Hoa district where she lives with them. She will be held incommunicado for at least four months during the investigation period, the common practice Vietnam’s security forces have been applying in most of political cases.
Ms. Dieu graduated journalism from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City). Later, she worked for Phu Yen newspaper, the official voice of the province’s Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s Committee. However, she left the newspaper and focused on criticizing the communist regime’s socio-economic issues such as systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution, human rights violations, and weak response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea).
Phu Yen province’s police have accused her of using Facebook accounts “Tuyết Diệu Babel” and “Trần Thị Tuyết Diệu Journalist” as well as Youtube channel named Tuyết Diệu Trần to disseminate hundreds of articles and videoclips to defame communist leaders, including late President Ho Chi Minh, and distort the party’s policies.
In recent years, she has been harassed many times by the police forces. Once she was kidnapped by police in the central province of Nghe An who tortured her.
Ms. Dieu has been the 12th Facebooker being arrested and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” so far this year. She is facing imprisonment of between seven and 12 years or even up to 20 years if she is convicted.
Her arrest was made one week after the US, the EU and the UK urged Hanoi to ensure its actions are consistent with the human rights provisions of Vietnam’s Constitution and its international obligations and commitments and allow all individuals in Vietnam to express their views freely, without fear of retaliation. The call was made after Vietnam convicted eight members of the unregistered group Constitution of “disruption of security” for their participation in peaceful demonstrations and sentenced them to more than 40 years in prison.
Vietnam is holding at least 275 prisoners of conscience, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. As many as 50 of them were arrested this year, and 55 of them are held in pre-trial detention.
Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam has convicted 15 activists and sentenced them to 66 years and three months and 26 years of probation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 26, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 31, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam�s communist regime has convicted eight members of the unregistered group Hi?n Ph�p (Constitution) of �disruption of security� under Article 118 of the country�s Criminal Code after nearly 23 months after kidnapping them and keeping them incommunicado for many months after that. Their conviction is the regime�s reprisal for their exercising the rights to freedom of expression and assembly.
On July 31, after just one day reviewing, the People�s Court of Ho Chi Minh City found them guilty and gave Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh- eight years in prison, Mrs. Hoang Thi Thu Vang- seven, Ms. Doan Thi Hong- two and half years, Mr. Ngo Van Dung, Mr. Do The Hoa and Mr. Le Quy Loc- five years each, Mr. Ho Dinh Cuong- four and half years, and Mr. Tran Thanh Phuong- three and half years in prison.
In addition, Mr. Dung, Mr. Cuong, Mr. Phuong, and Ms. Hong were given two years of probation after serving their imprisonment. Four others were with a three-year probation.
Authorities in HCM City deployed hundreds of police officers, plainclothes agents, militia, and thugs to block all routes leading to the courtroom to prevent relatives and friends of the defendants from entering the courtroom to observe the so-called open trial. They forced the activists� relatives and supporters to go away and attacked the sons of Mr. Dung. As a result, any relative of the activists was permitted to observe the trial inside but stayed far away from the courtroom.
Defend the Defenders has learned that only a diplomatic representative from the German Embassy in Vietnam was permitted to attend the trial while the requests from the diplomatic missions of the US and other countries were denied.
Hi?n Ph�p was established in 2017 with the aim to enhance civil rights among Vietnamese by disseminating the country�s Constitution approved by the communist-controlled parliament in 2013. The eight convicted members, together with others of the group were active during the mass demonstration in HCM City on June 10, 2018 in which tens of thousands of people from all social classes rallied on streets to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The first is considered to favor Chinese investors to purchase land in Vietnam amid increasing concerns of Beijing�s intensifying aggressiveness in the East Sea (South China Sea). The second which was approved by the communist-controlled parliament and became effective from January 1, 2019, is considered an effective tool to silence online government critics.
They planned to hold the second peaceful demonstration in early September of the same year on the occasion of Vietnam�s Independence Day (September 2) to protest the socio-economic policies of the communist regime. However, they were abducted by security forces in Ho Chi Minh City a few days before the action date.
Their fate and whereabouts remained unknown for months as the police held them incommunicado without informing their families, and even after the families had been informed of the detention they have remained incommunicado for nearly a year.
The first two of the defendants, Ms. Hanh and Mrs. Vang were charged with Clause 1 of Article 118 with imprisonment of between seven and 15 years in prison while the remaining six are accused under Clause 2 of the same article with imprisonment between two and seven years.
A few months ago, Ms. Hong, who was detained when her daughter was about two years old, informed her family that she was held in very severe conditions. Since being arrested, she has been under physical and mental torture constantly, according to the information she gave her older sister.
In mid-April this year, Mr. Dung and Mr. Loc were brutally beaten by police officers while being held in Phan Dang Luu temporary detention center under the authority of HCM City Police Department. Due to the severe injuries, both were taken to a hospital for urgent treatment for ten days.
Despite doing nothing harmful for the country, Hi?n Ph�p group has been targetted by Vietnam�s communist regime. Two members of the group Pham Minh The and Huynh Truong Ca were convicted of �abusing democratic freedom� and �anti-state propaganda� with respective imprisonment of two years and five and half years in 2018-2019. Mr. The was released on July 10 this year, three months before his imprisonment term was set to end.
Three other members of the group fled to Thailand to seek political asylum to avoid being punished by the Vietnamese regime.
All imprisoned members of the group were considered prisoners of conscience by Defend the Defenders.
So far this year, Vietnam has convicted 15 activists to total 66.5 years in prison and 26 years of probation, according to Defend the Defenders� statistics. In addition, the regime has also arrested 49 activists and charged them with controversial allegations in the national security provisions of the Criminal Code for their peaceful exercising their basic rights enshrined in the country�s Constitution and the international human rights treaties Vietnam has signed.
- Impact of Event
- 8
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 7, 2020
- Event Description
On July 7, the People�s Court of Lam Dong province convicted local Facebooker Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong of �Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam� under Article 117 of the country�s Criminal Code, Defend the Defenders has learned.
During the short first-instance hearing lasting only a few hours, the court sentenced him to eight years in prison and three years of probation for using his Facebook account V??ng Nguy?n to conduct 98 video live streams and posted 366 status updates, amounting to content that distorts the regime and defames the communist leadership.
Nguyen Quoc Doanh, an older brother of Vuong, said the local authorities sent uniformed policemen and plainclothes agents to the areas near his family several days prior to the trial date in order to block the family�s members to attend the hearing. So Vuong�s family has learned about the court�s decision from his lawyer�s SMS.
In recent time, prior to the trial, authorities in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong said there are increasing activities of reactionary forces in the locality while the ruling party is preparing for its local and National Congress slated for January next year, so they would punish Mr. Vuong hardly to silence others. And the outcome of the trial has proved it.
Mr. Vuong, born in 1991, was arrested on September 23, 2019. He was kept incommunicado during the investigation period and was permitted to meet his lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng nearly a month before the trial to prepare for his defense.
Vuong is a human rights activist. He participated in the mass demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 in which tens of thousands of people from different social groups rallied on streets to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. He was detained and fined VND750,000 ($32) before being released.
So far this year, the communist regime has sentenced seven activists to total 26 years in prison and six years of probation. Two other Facebookers Nguyen Van Nghiem and Phan Cong Hai were sentenced to six and five years, respectively, also under the allegation of �conducting anti-state propaganda� under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. Two other Facebookers named Chung Hoang Chuong and Ma Phung Ngoc Phu were convicted of �abusing democratic freedom� under Article 331 and sentenced to 18 months and nine months in jail, respectively.
As many as 12 other activists, including prominent journalists Pham Chi Dung and Nguyen Tuong Thuy, the president and the vice president of the unregistered Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, are held and investigated on the same accusation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 29, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnamese police detained and assaulted family members of a jailed democracy activist and Christian pastor before and during U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink�s recent visit to their district in Thanh Hoa province, the political prisoner�s wife said Wednesday.
The house arrest and beating appears to be part of an intensifying crackdown on human rights activists and dissidents six months before the Communist Party of Vietnam�s next five-yearly party congress.
Ahead of the ambassador�s visit, local police visited the Quang Xuong district home of Pastor Nguyen Trung Ton, who is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for his involvement with the Brotherhood for Democracy dissident group.
�On June 26, officers from the Quang Yen commune police department came to my house, ordering all the family members not to go out of the home for the next few days,� Nguyen�s wife Nguyen Thi Lanh told RFA�s Vietnamese Service.
They locked the gate surrounding the house Monday night, as Kritenbrink was arriving in Quang Xuong the next day.
According to a report by Thanh Hoa Radio and Television, the ambassador was leading U.S. delegation to the northern coastal province to attend an opening ceremony for a local project supported by the embassy�s Fund for Cultural Preservation.
Nguyen Thi Lanh said that on Tuesday morning, she used pliers to break the locks so she could sell goods in the market. Police arrested her there and took her to the Quang Yen police station.
At 4:00 p.m. that day her son Nguyen Trung Trong Nghia left the home to meet his mother at the station.
She said that when her son was on his way there he was attacked by two people, believed to be plainclothes police officers.
�My son was ambushed. They blindfolded and bludgeoned my son�s head with an electric baton, causing him injury,� said Nguyen Thi Lanh.
�A police officer took my son to a health clinic for treatment then brought him back to the Quang Yen police office for booking,� she said.
�This morning, my son returned to the health clinic for more treatment. His face was swollen, and he has broken teeth,� she added.
An official at the Quang Yen police station told the family that the reason for the house arrest was because Ambassador Kritenbrink was visiting their district. The ambassador left Quang Xuong at 5:00 p.m. Tuesday, after which the police left their position at the family�s house.
RFA attempted to contact the Quang Xuong district police office for comment, but nobody answered the phone.
Pastor Nguyen Trung Ton was arrested in July 2017 on charges of �attempting to overthrow the people�s government� and was sentenced to 12 years in prison and three years of probation in April 2018.
Vietnamese authorities have in the past taken interest in the family of political prisoners with Christian affiliations meeting with U.S. diplomats.
In 2016, local police subjected Tran Thi Hong, wife of imprisoned Mennonite pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh to an intense interrogation two months after she met with U.S. diplomats to discuss religious freedom.
Estimates of the number of prisoners of conscience now held in Vietnam�s jails vary widely. New York-based Human Rights Watch said that authorities held 138 political prisoners as of October 2019, while Defend the Defenders has suggested that at least 240 are in detention, with 36 convicted last year alone.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Raid, Restrictions on Movement, Surveillance , Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 24, 2020
- Event Description
On June 24, Vietnam�s security forces violently detained Hanoi-based four activists for their voicing to support land petitioners in Dong Tam commune, Hoai Duc district who were brutally suppressed by the communist regime in January this year.
According to a short video clip made by human rights defender Trinh Ba Phuong, a large number of uniformed and plainclothes policemen gathered near his private residence in the early hours of Wednesday. At around 5.30 am, police cut Internet connection in the area and used pliers to cut his house�s lock to break in and arrest him in the front of his wife who gave the birth of their second child four days ago.
Phuong�s mother, former prisoner of conscience Can Thi Theu and his younger brother Trinh Ba Tu were also detained by the police. Theu, who was imprisoned twice a total 35 months for objecting land grabbing, was arrested while staying in her daughter�s house in the northern province of Hoa Binh while Tu was detained in their agricultural field in the province.
Land petitioner and human rights defender Nguyen Thi Tam was the fourth victim of Vietnam�s persecution today. She was kidnaped by security forces while going to a local wet market. She was taken away while the police came to her private residence in Duong Noi village for house searching.
According to their families, the detainees as well as some of their relatives were beaten by police officers during their detention and house search, during which police confiscated a computer set and four cell phones from Mrs. Tam�s house and cell phones from Mrs. Theu and her sons. Police also informed that they also found some books printed by the unsanctioned publisher Liberal Publishing House led by prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang in Mrs. Theu�s family houses.
All of them from Duong Noi village, Ha Dong district, Hanoi where the city�s authorities seized their agricultural land without paying adequate compensation. Theu and her husband Trinh Ba Khiem as well as Phuong, Tu, and Tam were active fighters for their land although they failed.
Later, the state-controlled media reported that all of them were charged with �conducting anti-state propaganda� under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with the imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison but maybe up to 20 years in jail. While Mr. Phuong and Mrs. Tam are held in the Temporary detention center No. 1 (Hoa Lo) under the authority of the Hanoi Police Department, Mrs. Theu and her son Mr. Tu are kept in the temporary detention center under the authority of Hoa Binh province�s Police Department. All of them will be held incommunicado during the investigation period which will last four months at least and may be extended to more than two years.
The detentions are likely related to the brutal massacre on January 9 when the Ministry of Public Security deployed thousands of riot policemen to Dong Tam commune to attack Hoanh villagers. Police killed 84-year-old communist member Le Dinh Kinh, the spiritual leader of the local land petitioners, and arrested nearly 30 people, including his two sons and two grandchildren.
Police said during the attack, three police officers were killed and blamed the local petitioners for their death although there are no solid shreds of evidence for their deaths and even no traces of their bodies.
In its investigation report released recently, the Hanoi Police Department proposed 25 detainees be prosecuted of murders and four others of �resisting on-duty state officials.�
Since the land dispute in Dong Tam commune started in 2017, the four activists have provided strong support for the local petitioners. Right after the massacre in early January this year, Phuong and Tam kept updating their posts about the case on their Facebook accounts. Phuong also met with US diplomat in Hanoi to report the case.
Two days after detaining the four activists, authorities in Hanoi publicized the indictments against 29 Dong Tam land petitioners, paving the way for the city�s People�s Court to hold the first-trial against them. Hard sentences are expected for them. Some sources that they have a plan to impose the death penalty for four of the defendants and lengthy sentences for the remaining.
Tam is a well-known strong woman in Duong Noi. She often criticized Hanoi police for persecuting her. In recent weeks, she made a number of online surveys about the communist regime�s policies and its senior officials.
It is worth noting that Facebooker Chung Hoang Chuong has convicted of �abusing democratic freedom� and sentenced to 18 months in prison for disseminating information about the police�s massacre in Dong Tam.
Along with recent detentions across the country, the arrests on Wednesday prove that the communist regime will apply all measures to crack down on the local dissent in a bid to ensure a �stable environment� for preparation of the 13th National Congress of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam. It is likely that the police generals want to show their power after dozens of police and army generals have been imprisoned for fired for economic wrongdoings.
- Impact of Event
- 5
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Abduction/Kidnapping, Judicial Harassment, Raid, Use of Excessive Force, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Land rights, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Land rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 23, 2020
- Event Description
On June 23, the People�s Court of Vietnam�s northern province of Hoa Binh convicted local resident Nguyen Van Nghiem of �Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam� under Article 117 of the country�s Criminal Code.
At the end of the first-instance hearing which lasted a few hours, the court sentenced the 57-year-old barber to six years in prison, Defend the Defenders has learned.
In an open trial, only the defendant�s wife was permitted to enter the courtroom while his friends and supporters were barred from observing the trial inside.
The defendant had no legal assistance although his wife had signed a contract with Hanoi-based attorney Ha Huy Son. It is likely Nghiem got pressured from the police to deny legal counseling.
Nghiem was arrested on November 5 last year over his posts on Facebook regarding issues such as human rights violations, systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution and China�s violations of the country�s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and the weak response of Vietnam�s communist regime. He also conducted many live streams on his Facebook account Nghiem Nguyen on which criticized the communist regime and its leaders for their failure to deal with these problems.
So far this year, Vietnam has tried activists, four of them were convicted between nine months and six years for their posts on Facebook. In addition, hundreds of Facebookers have been fined up to VND15 million ($680) for their Facebook posts which were considered fake or untrue by the communist authorities, especially about the Covid-19 pandemic.
Vietnam�s communist regime is holding at least 280 prisoners of conscience, according to the latest statistics of Defend the Defenders. More arrests are expected by the end of this year as the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam is preparing its 13th National Congress slated in January 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 12, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam�s communist regime has arrested the third journalist named Le Huu Minh Tuan in an effort to demolish the unregistered group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), Defend the Defenders has learned.
Local activists reported that on June 12, the security forces of Ho Chi Minh City�s Police Department arrested Mr. Tuan, who is a member of IJAVN, and has a number of articles under penname Le Tuan. It is unclear what the charge he is facing, but his arrest is likely related to the previous detentions of IJAVN�s President Ph?m Chi Dung and Vice President Nguyen Tuong Thuy, who were accused of �conducting anti-state propaganda� under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with imprisonment of between seven and 12 years if are convicted.
Tuan was said to be taken to Chi Hoa temporary detention center under the authority of HCM City�s Police Department, where Mr. Dung and Mr. Thuy are held incommunicado since their arrest in November 2019 and May 23 this year, respectively.
Mr. Tuan, 31, joined IJAVN in 2014. He graduated from Da Nang University, majoring in history. He is currently working on a second degree at Hanoi Law University.
In the months after the arrest of Mr. Dung, Tuan was repeatedly summoned by security forces for interrogation about the association. Tuan�s friends advised him to go into hiding to avoid being harassed or detained, however, he refused, saying he didn�t want his studies interrupted. He also acquiesced to these questionings because he believed he hadn�t done anything wrong.
In order to keep the country under a one-party regime, the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam is striving not to allow the formation of opposition groups and civil society organizations. After arresting a dozen of key members of the unsanctioned group Brotherhood for Democracy, Vietnam�s security forces are targeting IJAVN which has more than 50 independent journalists and dissidents who have produced thousands of unbiased articles regarding hot issues of the country such as human rights violations, systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution, China�s violations of the country�s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and the weak response of the communist regime in Hanoi, failures of socio-economic policies of the ruling Communist Party, etc.
Under the communist regime�s provision, IJAVN is a thorny group that should not exist. Since its establishment in 2014, it and its members have been under constant persecution of security forces who strive not to allow its members to gather or meet with foreign diplomats. In November last year, the security forces started their campaign to crack down on the association by arresting its President Dung and a half year later, they detained Acting President Thuy.
A number of its members are under threat and may be arrested at any moment as the security forces want to eradicate the association ahead of the upcoming 13th National Congress scheduled in January 2021.
Vietnam is among the world�s biggest enemies of the press. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, Hanoi held 12 journalists under the bar for their journalism activities as of 2019�s end while the Reporters Without Border (RSF) has placed Vietnam at the bottom of its annual free press indexes in recent years.
So far this year, Vietnam has arrested at least 12 activists, nine of them for their writings. Vietnam is also among the biggest prisons of prisoners of conscience in Southeast Asia, with more than 250 activists being kept behind bars.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 23, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnamese police on Saturday (May 22) detained the acting president of the unsanctioned Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN) six months after the arrest of its president, a rights group and his family said.
Nguyen Tuong Thuy (pic), 68, was arrested on Saturday morning at his house in Hanoi on the charge of "conducting anti-state propaganda," Defend the Defenders, a non-profit NGO working for the promotion of human rights and democracy as well as assisting local activists at risk in Vietnam, reported.
Thuy, a retired veteran and an active blogger, is renowned for commenting on the government's policies and criticizing them for social injustice and corruption.
His family said a group of security officers blocked his private residence in Hanoi, confiscating the mobile phones of all members of the family, and started to search their house. Police seized his computers and other personal items and took him away.
"The recent arrests, including those of Mr Pham Thanh and Mr Nguyen Tuong Thuy, are part of the ongoing crackdown on local dissent prior to the party's 13th National Congress slated in January 2021," Vu Quoc Ngu, director of Defend the Defenders, said.
On Thursday, police arrested Pham Thanh, a former journalist for the Voice of Vietnam, on the same charge as Thuy.
Thanh, 68, has written several books and essays criticizing Vietnam's communist government and leaders, including a book self-published in 2019 harshly criticizing Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
Vietnam, a single party state, broadly bans dissent in its penal code.
The 88 Project, a US-based rights monitoring group, lists more than 200 political prisoners in Vietnam.
The country denies holding political prisoners.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to property
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: blogger detained for allegedly conducting anti-state propaganda, personal belongings of him and his family are seized
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 22, 2020
- Event Description
Police officers from the Ministry of Public Security detained young activist Nguyen Anh Tuan on Friday when he was in a cafeteria in Hanoi.
Police took him to a police station and questioned about his legal writing about the land dispute in Dong Tam commune, Hoai Duc district, Hanoi and the brutal assault by thousands of riot policemen in Hoanh village on January 9 in which police barbarically killed 84-year-old Le Dinh Kinh and arrested around 30 local residents.
Mr. Tuan was released in the late afternoon of the same day.
Mr. Tuan, born in 1990 from the central city of Danang, is a talented young man. He has just completed a master degree in Public Policy at the Vietnam-Japan University of Hanoi National University. He also attended many overseas-based training sessions about campaigning for democracy and human rights. He actively supported victims of the Formosa environmental disaster. He has been illegally detained many times, having a passport confiscated for many months before being returned thanks to pressure from the EU.
After the Dong Tam massacre, Tuan and many individuals as well as independent civil society groups have provided support and legal guidance to Dong Tam villagers, and helped them draft letters to foreign governments and international rights organizations.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 21, 2020
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam�s capital Hanoi arrested a dissident writer and blogger on Thursday on charges of producing and distributing information opposing the government amid a deepening crackdown on freedom of expression in the one-party communist state.
Pham Chi Thanh, also called Pham Thanh, was taken into custody at 8:00 a.m. by a large group of police who burst through the door of his home, his wife Nguyen Thi Nghiem told RFA�s Vietnamese Service by phone.
�While my son was opening the door, many police came into the house, and I heard the noise and came downstairs,� Nguyen said.
�They asked me where my husband was, and I said he was on the fifth floor watering [bonsai] trees. Then they brought my husband downstairs, and the police said they had warrants to arrest him and to search the house.�
After the police read out their warrants, they seized two computers, a printer, and some documents, arrested Pham, and left the house at 10:00 a.m., Nguyen said, adding that she was so weakened and overwhelmed by anxiety during the arrest that she couldn�t hear clearly what Pham had been charged with.
Writing later on his Facebook page, another dissident writer said however that Pham had been arrested under Article 117 of Vietnam�s penal code for �producing, storing, and disseminating information and documents against the Vietnamese state.�
RFA has not been able yet to independently confirm the charge.
Critical books, essays
Born in 1952, Pham Thanh has written a number of books and essays critical of Vietnam�s communist government and leaders, including a book self-published in 2019 harshly criticizing Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong.
Dissent is not tolerated in Vietnam, and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers, bloggers, and activists calling for greater freedoms in the one-party communist state.
Estimates of the number of prisoners of conscience now held in Vietnam�s jails vary widely.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has said that authorities held 138 political prisoners as of October 2019, while Defend the Defenders has suggested that at least 240 are in detention, with 36 convicted last year alone.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to property
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: pro-democracy HRD arrested, his house searched for allegedly disseminating information critical of the Government
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 8, 2020
- Event Description
On May 8, the People�s Court of Soc Son district in Vietnam�s capital city of Hanoi convicted two anti-corruption activists named Dang Thi Hue and Bui Manh Tien on allegation of �causing public disorders� under Article 318 of the country�s Criminal Code.
Specifically, they were sentenced to 15 months in prison each. Due to her 24-month probation sentence earlier, Ms. Hue has to serve her 42-month imprisonment in the coming years.
They were arrested in mid-October last year when they were trying to block the Bac Thang Long-Noi Bai BOT (build-operating-transfer) toll booth to protest its illegal fee collection. Their acts were simply civil but considered as criminal since the BOT toll booths belong to companies backed by senior state officials.
In May last year, Ms. Hue was beaten by plainclothes policemen of Soc Son district. Due to the assault, she suffered a birth miscarriage.
Hue is among dozens of activists speaking up against fee collecting of wrongly-placed BOT toll booths in many places in Vietnam, including the Bac Thang Long-Noi Bai BOT.
Many anti-BOT activists have been persecuted by plainclothes agents and thugs in recent months. Mr. Ha Van Nam and six others were convicted and sentenced to between 18 months and 36 months on the allegation of �disturbing public orders.�
So far this year, Vietnam�s communist regime has convicted four activists with a total of 11 years and three months of imprisonment and three years of probation. In addition, the regime has arrested seven activists, mostly on allegations in the national security provisions of the Criminal Code, raising the number of prisoners of conscience to 247 at least, according to Defend the Defenders� latest statistics.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 28, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities on Tuesday sentenced a young Facebook user to a five-year prison term on charges of spreading propaganda against the state for his online postings amid a deepening crackdown on freedom of expression in the one-party communist state.
Phan Cong Hai, 25, was convicted in the People�s Court of the central province of Nghe An under Article 117 of Vietnam�s 2015 Penal Code following a two-hour trial unattended by lawyers. He was the second Facebook user to be jailed in Vietnam this week and the latest in a heavy-handed campaign to censor what the 65 million users of the social platform can write or read.
Speaking to RFA�s Vietnamese Service following the trial, Phan�s father Phan Cong Binh said that he had seen his son only once following Phan�s Nov. 19 arrest after evading capture by police for almost six months.
�I was able to meet my son briefly on Dec. 24, 2019, but we couldn�t speak freely because the police were standing right next to us,� he said, adding that travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic have made it difficult to see Phan more frequently.
�Now, our family really doesn�t know what to do,� he said.
According to the indictment filed against him, Phan was identified by Nghe An police as the user of a Facebook account set up under the name Hung Manh which described efforts by Vietnamese youth to �offend the image� of the government and of Vietnamese Communist Party founder Ho Chi Minh.
The Facebook page came to the attention of the province�s Do Thanh High School in late 2018, and school authorities contacted police who issued a warrant for Phan�s arrest and began a nationwide search in May last year which ended when Phan returned to his native Ha Tinh province in November after taking refuge in Thailand.
Meanwhile, Vietnam�s Ninh Kieu District Court in Can Tho City on Monday handed another Facebook user an 18-month prison term for sharing a story on Facebook in January about a deadly government crackdown during a politically sensitive land dispute at the Dong Tam commune outside Hanoi.
Chung Hoang Chuong, better known by his nickname Lucky, was found guilty of �abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, lawful rights and interests of organizations and/or citizens� in violation of Article 331 of the Vietnamese Penal Code.
Facebook under fire
Facebook has come under fire from Vietnamese and international rights activists after the social media giant publicly admitted it has agreed to help communist authorities censor posts critical of the government.
On April 21, two Facebook employees told the Reuters news agency that the company�s servers in Vietnam were taken offline for about seven weeks earlier in the year until Facebook agreed to government demands to remove posts considered by authorities to have criticized the communist state.
In a statement condemning Facebook�s decision to comply with government demands, Amnesty International Human Rights Advisor William Nee warned that �governments around the world will see this as an open invitation to enlist Facebook in the service of state censorship.�
�The Vietnamese authorities� ruthless suppression of freedom of expression is nothing new, but Facebook�s shift in policy makes them complicit,� he added.
In an emailed statement to RFA on April 22, Facebook spokesperson Amy Sawitta Lefevre defended her company�s action, saying that though freedom of expression is a fundamental human right, Facebook risked being blocked by authorities in Vietnam if the company refused to comply.
�We have taken this action to ensure our services remain available and usable for millions of people in Vietnam, who rely on them every day,� Lefevre said.
Vietnamese activist Tran Bang said that Facebook�s decision to bow to government demands �will block the ears, mouths, and eyes of Vietnam�s people, just as if there was no Facebook here at all.�
�Tens of millions of Facebook users have posted news from many different sources, helping people access truthful information about politics, society, and the economy," he told RFA on April 27.
"By blocking and removing stories in accordance with the authorities� requirements, [Facebook] is complicit with the dictatorship in violating human rights and freedom of expression in Vietnam."
�This means that Facebook is no different from the communist police,� he said.
Refining repression
In a report this year, the media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said that �as Vietnam�s citizens become increasingly engaged online, the authorities have been refining their digital repressive methods.�
The NGO said Vietnam�s army has created �a 10,000-strong military cyber-warfare department called �Force 47,� which is tasked with defending the Party and targeting dissident bloggers.�
�Under a new cyber-crime law that took effect in 2019, foreign online platforms are required to store their Vietnamese user data on servers in Vietnam and surrender it to the authorities when required,� RSF added.
Facebook user Dinh Van Hai told RFA that Facebook had been forced to cooperate with authorities to avoid being blocked behind a firewall. �But for me, Facebook must continue to prioritize freedom of the news as its top goal,� he said.
Though smaller social media networks have recently been set up in Vietnam, these typically block content widely shared on Facebook and are not widely used, Ha Hoang Hop�a researcher at Singapore�s Institute of Southeast Asian Studies�told RFA in a text message sent on April 27.
�Vietnamese social networks have not attracted as many users as Facebook, and they can�t compete,� he said.
No room for dissent
Vietnam, whose ruling Communist Party controls all media and tolerates no dissent, ranks 175th of 180 countries on the 2020 RSF�s World Press Freedom Index.
�As Vietnam�s media all follow the Communist Party�s orders, the only sources of independently-reported information are bloggers and independent journalists, who are being subjected to ever-harsher harsh forms of persecution,� said RSF.
�To justify jailing them, the Party resorts increasingly to articles 79, 88 and 258 of the criminal code, under which �activities aimed at overthrowing the government,� �anti-state propaganda� and �abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to threaten the interests of the state� are punishable by long prison terms,� it said.
Vietnam has also been consistently rated �not free� in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 27, 2020
- Event Description
The People�s Court of Ninh Kieu district, Can Tho City on April 27 convicted local resident Chung Hoang Chuong of �abusing democratic freedom� under Article 331 of the country�s Criminal Code for his post on Facebook, Defend the Defenders has learned.
The court sentenced him to 18 months in prison in the trial the defendant has not been protected by his own lawyer while his wife was informed about the first-instance hearing just 20 minutes before it started.
Mr. Chuong, 43, was detained on January 11 this year. According to the indictment, Mr. Chuong has conducted online activities on his Facebook account Ch??ng May M?n where he wrote or shared numerous statuses regarding hot issues Vietnam, including human rights abuse, serious nationwide environmental pollution, systemic corruption and the government�s weak response to China�s violations of the country�s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea). His latest statuses on his Facebook page were about the military attack in Dong Tam commune carried out by the Ministry of Public Security and the Hanoi Police Department in the early morning of January 9 in which police killed at least two civilians.
His wife reported on her Facebook page that during the trial, the procuracy representative said Chuong should not write about the Dong Tam assault, because it is the issue of Hanoi and the capital city�s authorities are responsible for settle it.
Mr. Chuong has been the second Facebooker being detained for their online activities amid increasing crackdown on the local dissent. After him, Vietnam�s security forces arrested three others on different allegations. Ms. Ma Phung Ngoc Phu was charged with the same allegation while Ms. Dinh Thi Thu Thuy and Dinh Van Phu were alleged with �conducting anti-state propaganda� under Article 117 while former prisoner of conscience Tran Duc Thach was charged with subversion.
Since the Cyber Security Law become effective in early 2019, Vietnam has arrested more than two dozens of Facebookers on allegations of �conducting anti-state propaganda� and �abusing democratic freedom� in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code, and sentenced 17 of them to between one and 11 years in prison, according to Defend the Defenders� statistics.
Along with arresting Facebookers and charging them with controversial criminal offenses in the national security provisions of the Criminal Code, security forces in different localities have summoned hundreds of local Facebookers for interrogation about their Facebook posts.
Regarding Covid-19 alone, around 300 Facebookers have been fined between VND5 million ($220) and VND15 million for disseminating news on the pandemic which are considered fake news by the communist regime. They were forced to delete their posts and promised not to repeat �wrongdoings,� according to the state-controlled media.
Vietnams� regime has also pressured on Facebook, reducing its local traffic by switching off their serves in the country so the American firm has been agreed to censor political posts in a bid to protect its economic interests in the market with over 65 million accounts, according to the recent report of Reuters.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to information
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 23, 2020
- Event Description
While the whole country is focusing on dealing with the COVID-19 outbreak, Vietnam�s communist regime does not forget to cement its political monopoly by intensifying its crackdown on local dissent, arresting the third activist within two weeks.
This time, its prey is former prisoner of conscience Tran Duc Thach, 68, from the central province of Nghe An, the home of late communist leader Ho Chi Minh. Thach is a founding member of the unregistered group Brotherhood for Democracy.
On April 23, security forces arrested Mr. Thach on allegation of conducting �Activities against the people�s government� under Article 109 of the country�s Criminal Code, with the highest punishment of 20 years in prison or even death penalty. Police conducted searching for his house, confiscating a laptop, cell phones, a camera as well as VND9 million ($380) and $400, according to his family.
According to the state-controlled media, Mr. Thach has been continuously posting and sharing numerous articles on Facebook with content to distort the regime�s policies with the aim to trigger social disorders amid the COVID-19 pandemic.�
He was arrested for the first time in 2009 and sentenced to three years in jail and three years of probation on a charge of �conducting anti-state propaganda� under Article 88 of the same Penal Code for claiming Vietnam�s Hoang Sa (Paracels) and Truong Sa (Spratlys), the two archipelagos also claimed by China, and demanding human rights improvement in the communist nation. Particularly, Thach, together with activists Vu Van Hung and Nguyen Xuan Nghia hang out a banner which states �Hoang Sa and Truong Sa belong to Vietnam� at Mai Dich Bridge in the capital city of Hanoi. His fellows were also jailed with lengthy sentences.
After leaving the army in 1975, Thach wrote a memoir named �Obsessive mass grave� to describe how communist soldiers assaulted innocent civil people while invading South Vietnam during the Vietnam War in which the communist soldiers with the support of China and the Soviet Unions as well as the communist bloc in Eastern Europe defeated South Vietnam backed by the US and its allies and unified the country in 1975. In 1976, he self-immolated to protest unfair policies of authorities in Nghe An province and Dien Chau district. Due to the act, his face was deformed.
The arrest of Thach was made three days after the communist regime rejected the appeal of human rights activist and environmental campaigner Nguyen Nang Tinh, upholding his sentence of 11 years in prison and five years of probation. Both Thach and Tinh are strongly protesting China�s invasions of Vietnam�s sovereignty in the East Sea.
Last week, China sent a diplomatic note to the UN Secretary-General to reaffirm its illegal claim of nearly entire East Sea, including the two archipelagos Paracels and Spratlys that Vietnam has controlled since the 18th century, and demand Vietnam to withdraw its crews and facilities in the resource-rich sea which is also very important for international trade.
Thach is the third activist being arrested within two weeks. On April 10, authorities in Can Tho arrested Ma Phung Ngoc Phu on allegation of �abusing democratic freedom� and eight days later, Dinh Thi Thu Thuy from Hau Giang province was detained and charged with �conducting anti-state propaganda,� both were arrested for their online posts which are considered harmful for the regime. The arrests were made after the call of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet to release prisoners of conscience in a bid to protect their health amid increasing COVID-19 pandemic.
On April 20, the Higher People�s Court in Hanoi upheld the sentence of 11 years in prison and five years of probation against human rights activist Nguyen Nang Tinh, who is also strongly protesting China�s expansionism in the East Sea.
Vietnam�s communist regime has intensified its crackdown on local dissent from late 2015 when the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam prepared for its 12th National Congress. More than 100 activists have been arrested and charged with controversial allegations in the National Security provisions of the Penal Code or the Criminal Code, many of them were sentenced to lengthy imprisonments of between five and 20 years.
BFD is the group that suffered the most from the ongoing persecution campaign of the communist regime. Its nine key members were sentenced to between seven and 15 years in prison, and only two of them, human rights attorney Nguyen Van Dai and his assistant Le Thu Ha were freed but forced to live in exile in Germany. It is unknown Thach�s latest arrest related to BFD. In 2017, when Vietnam�s police arrested six key members of the group, he was summoned to a police station and interrogated for days about his activities in it.
With the new arrests, Vietnam is holding at least 245 prisoners of conscience, according to Defend the Defenders�s statistics. More arrests are expected in the coming months as the ruling party is preparing for its 13th five-year congress slated in early 2021.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 20, 2020
- Event Description
An appeals court in Vietnam on Monday upheld a lower court�s verdict in sentencing a Catholic music teacher to 11 years in jail for posting online criticisms of the one-party communist state and the government, the convicted man�s lawyer told RFA�s Vietnamese Service.
Nguyen Nang Tinh, 45, who teaches at a provincial arts and cultural college, was arrested in May 2019 after he was found writing and sharing what authorities deemed anti-state posts and videos on his Facebook account for seven years.
The posts included protests against Vietnam�s law on special economic zones that many citizens fear will favor Chinese investment in the country, and demonstrations against a Taiwanese company that dumped toxic waste into the ocean that caused an environmental disaster off the nation�s central coast in April 2016.
The Council of Judges of the People�s Court in north-central Vietnam�s Nghe An province upheld the 11-year sentence, plus five years of probation with restricted movement, that teacher Nguyen Nang Tinh was handed for the series of Facebook posts published between 2011 and 2018.
The presiding judge said the sentence served as a warning to those who wanted to capitalize on the rights to democracy and freedom by opposing the state, contradicting achievements in Vietnam�s progress with reform.
�At the appeals trial, Nguyen admitted to using Facebook accounts to share stories but affirmed that those stories were not aimed at opposing Vietnam�s government,� said defense attorney Dang Dinh Manh.
�I think this is an unfair sentence to give Nguyen, based on the defendant�s right to freedom of expression and on guarantees provided in the U.N.�s International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that say everyone is entitled to express their own points of view,� he said.
Vietnam is a signatory to the multilateral treaty that commits its parties to respect the civil and political rights of individuals, including freedom of religion, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, electoral rights, and rights to due process and a fair trial.
Dang noted that in writing the online posts, Nguyen had exercised his right to free speech guaranteed under Vietnam�s constitution and had contributed to improving state policies.
Hunger strike to resume
The teacher had been on a hunger strike while in prison between March 13 and April 17, during which time he was not allowed to pray, read religious books, or meeting with Catholic priests, Dang said.
Thought the music teacher ended the hunger strike when he was informed about his appeals trial, he now will resume it because that process is over, the attorney said.
Dang said that he and another attorney, Nguyen Van Mieng, spent two days traveling by private car from Ho Chi Minh City to Nghe An to take part in the trial.
Nguyen�s wife, Nguyen Thi Tinh, could not attend her husband�s trial on account of lockdowns in Vietnam to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, which on Monday registered 268 confirmed cases but no fatalities.
On April 18, Vietnamese police arrested another social media user, Dinh Thi Thu Thuy, on charges of �smearing leaders,� state media reported.
The resident of Nga Bay in the southern province of Hau Giang has been charged under Section 117 of Vietnam�s Penal Code for making and spreading anti-state information and materials.
Dinh had created many Facebook accounts since 2018 to edit and share hundreds of posts and other materials opposing the state and smearing the Communist Party�s leaders, state media said.
Vietnam police reported in June 2018 that Dinh was also present at a demonstration outside Notre-Dame Cathedral Basilica in Ho Chi Minh City to protest against proposed laws on the creation of special economic zones and on cybersecurity, the latter of which called for restrictions on the internet that would give the state greater surveillance and censorship powers.
Another Dong Tam arrest
Police also have arrested another resident of Hoanh village in the rural commune Dong Tam, where about 3,000 security forces conducted a violent early morning assault on residents during a land protest in early 2019 outside Vietnam�s capital Hanoi, an activist said.
On April 19, authorities picked up Nguyen Van Chung, son of Bui Thi Duc, a woman who is among 28 other villagers arrested during the bloody clash on Jan. 9, activist Trinh Ba Phuong told RFA on Monday.
The villagers apprehended following the incident have been charged with committing murder, illegally possessing weapons, and opposing officers on duty.
Nguyen was not arrested at his home in Dong Tam, but in Ho Chi Minh City, also called Saigon, where he was working as an assistant truck driver, Trinh said.
�Last night, he was arrested and cruelly beaten in Saigon,� Trinh said. �Those who witnessed the arrest questioned police about it, but they said that Nguyen was a dangerous person and had to be arrested.�
During a meeting with Hanoi authorities on the same day as the arrest, Vietnam�s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc told officials to resolve the Dong Tam issue, consolidate the political system and develop new rural policies.
The Dong Tam clash was the latest flare-up in a long-running dispute over a military airport construction site about 25 miles south of Vietnam�s capital Hanoi.
A report drawn from witness accounts and released seven days after the Jan. 9 clash with security forces said that police had attacked first during the deadly incident that claimed the lives of the Dong Tam village chief and three police officers.
Though all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a flashpoint with residents accusing the government of pushing small landholders aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects and of paying too little in compensation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Denial effective remedy, Online, Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 18, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam�s communist regime has not stopped its crackdown on the local dissent amid increasing threat of COVID-19 outbreak nationwide, arresting the 7th activist so far this year.
On April 18, authorities in the Mekong Delta province of Hau Giang arrested female activist Dinh Thi Thu Thuy, charging her with �Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam� under Article 117 of the country�s Criminal Code.
Ms. Thuy will be held incommunicado for at least four months during the investigation period and faces imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison if she is convicted, according to the current Vietnamese law.
Citing information from police, the state-controlled media reported that Ms. Thuy has created a number of Facebook accounts to disseminate numerous articles to distort the communist regime�s policies and defame its leadership. She was also accused of criticizing the communist regime�s measures in dealing with COVID-19.
Thuy is an activist participating in the mass peaceful demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 which aimed to protest two bills on Special Economic Zone and Cyber Security. The first seeks to favor Chinese investors while the two countries are disputing over the East Sea (South China Sea) while the second bill which became law from 2019 strives to silence online government critics. She was detained, beaten and interrogated, and fined with money before being released.
In recent years, she has been under constant persecution of the local police who often summoned her to their station for interrogation about her posts on Facebook.
Thuy is the seventh detained activist and the second Facebooker being arrested since the beginning of 2020 on the allegation of �conducting anti-state propaganda.� The first was Dinh Van Phu, who is from the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong and was arrested on January 9.
In January-April, police in Can Tho City arrested Mr. Chung Hoang Chuong and Ms. Ma Phung Ngoc Phu on allegation of �Abusing democratic freedom� under Article 331 of the Criminal Code for their online posts.
In addition, authorities in Gia Lai detained three religious activists named Ju, Lup, and Kunh in mid-March after chasing them in the past eight years. The trio, who was forced to live in a forest during the past eight years, was likely charged with �Sabotaging implementation of solidarity policies� per Article 116 of the Criminal Code with imprisonment of between seven and 15 years. Vietnam�s communist regime often uses this allegation to imprison religious activists.
With the arrest of Ms. Thuy, Vietnam is holding at least 244 prisoners of conscience, 26 of them are held in pre-trial detention which may last more than two years, according to Defend the Defenders� statistics.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Online, Right to information, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 16, 2020
- Event Description
Ms. Truong Thi Ha reported that police in Quang Binh confiscated her personnel items including passport, diary and cell phone before placing her under quarantine when she returned from Thailand on a bus in late March.
Ha said she was kept by Vietnam�s security when she entered the homeland from Laos. In the past several years, Ha reportedly participated in short courses on human rights in the EU and has recently worked for a human rights group in Bangkok.
Ha said she was allowed to return to her parents� house without having the items confiscated by police. She expects to be summoned by security forces in the coming days for interrogation for her activities in recent years.
Ha is a young activist, participating in peaceful demonstrations in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. She was reportedly beaten by police after being detained and held for several days.
Graduated law in HCM City Law University, Ha has pledged to be a lawyer to assist vulnerable groups. She has done an internship with prominent human rights attorneys Le Cong Dinh and Tran Vu Hai.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 12, 2020
- Event Description
Two prisoners of conscience Ngo Van Dung and Le Quy Loc have reportedly been beaten by police in Phan Dang Luu temporary detention facility under the authority of Ho Chi Minh City Police Department while waiting for their first-instance hearing.
The incident occurred on April 12, according to relatives of other prisoners of conscience who are held in the same facility. The information was passed after the regular visits on Friday which were resumed after months of suspension due to applied measures during the Coronavirus outbreak.
Accordingly, many prisoners of conscience held in the facility said that they saw dozens of policemen brutally assaulted the two men who were arrested in early September 2018 on allegation of �disruption of security� under Article 118 of the country�s Criminal Code for their plan to hold peaceful demonstrations.
In response, the prisoners of conscience and their cellmates protested the attacks by using their personal items and hands to knock their cell doors.
After that, the police took the two men out of the facility. One week later, they returned Loc to his cell and he told them that he suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized for treatment.
Meanwhile, Mr. Dung was transferred to Chi Hoa, another temporary detention facility also under the authority of HCM City Police Department. His relatives have yet to be permitted to visit him since late January.
Mr. Dung, 51, and Mr. Loc, 44, are members of the unregistered group Hi?n Ph�p (Constitution) which strives to educate the public about the human rights they are entitled to under Vietnam�s 2013 Constitution by disseminating the country�s 2013 Constitution among citizens. Its members were active during the mass demonstration in HCM City on June 10, 2018 in which tens of thousands of Vietnamese rallied on streets to protest the communist regime�s plan to approve two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cybersecurity
They were arrested in early September 2018 together with 6 members of the group named Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh, Mrs. Hoang Thi Thu Vang, Mr. Do The Hoa, Mr. Ho Dinh Cuong, Mr. Tran Thanh Phuong, and Ms. Doan Thi Hong. While Hanh and Vang were charged with the allegation of �disruption of security� under Clause 1 of Article 118 of the Criminal Code with imprisonment of between five and 15 years in prison, the other six are subjected to the allegation under Clause 2 of the same article with imprisonment of between two and seven years if are convicted.
All of them were kidnapped by HCM City�s police on September 2-4, 2018, and held incommunicado for months. Their families had not been informed about their detentions and charges for months after they went to different state agencies and police stations to ask for their status and found out that they were kept by the city�s police.
In order to prevent similar protests in early September 2018, Vietnam�s security forces launched a big campaign to persecute local dissent and all members of the Hi?n Ph�p group became their targets. Two other members of the group named Huynh Truong Ca and Le Minh The were arrested and convicted of �conducting anti-state propaganda� and �abusing democratic freedom,� respectively while three others were forced to relocate in Thailand to avoid being arrested.
The People�s Court of HCM City set up the first-instance hearing on their cases in late 2019 and early 2020 but postponed due to the Covid-19 outbreak and other unclear reasons.
It is expected that the activists would be convicted and sentenced to lengthy sentences after Vietnam�s communist regime got all it wants, including the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA). On February 12, the European Parliament approved the pact, ignoring the call for postponing the agreement by numerous international and Vietnamese human rights groups. Although the EU says the pact may be postponed or terminated if Vietnam�s human rights record gets worsened, it is unlikely Hien Phap activists will be freed or receive light sentences.
Vietnam continues to be among the world�s biggest prisons for activists, holding at least 247 prisoners of conscience, including ten members of Hi?n Ph�p group, according to Defend the Defenders� latest statistics.
Meanwhile, torture and inhumane treatment is still systemic in Vietnam although the country ratified the UN Convention on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 2014. Every year, dozens of suspects and inmates die in police custody and the authorities say their deaths were caused by illness, suicide or attacks of other inmates while their families and activists suspect that the real cause is police torture.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Denial effective remedy, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 26, 2020
- Event Description
Ms. Truong Thi Ha reported that police in Quang Binh confiscated her personnel items including passport, diary and cell phone before placing her under quarantine when she returned from Thailand on a bus in late March.
Ha said she was kept by Vietnam�s security when she entered the homeland from Laos. In the past several years, Ha reportedly participated in short courses on human rights in the EU and has recently worked for a human rights group in Bangkok.
Ha said she was allowed to return to her parents� house without having the items confiscated by police. She expects to be summoned by security forces in the coming days for interrogation for her activities in recent years.
Ha is a young activist, participating in peaceful demonstrations in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. She was reportedly beaten by police after being detained and held for several days.
Graduated law in HCM City Law University, Ha has pledged to be a lawyer to assist vulnerable groups. She has done an internship with prominent human rights attorneys Le Cong Dinh and Tran Vu Hai.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- #COVID-19, Freedom of movement, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Aug 21, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 13, 2020
- Event Description
Armed police in south-central Vietnam’s coastal Quang Ngai province attacked a crowd of people blocking garbage trucks from entering a long-disputed waste-processing plant over the weekend, arresting some 20 participants, a local source said Monday.
Citizen video emerged on Facebook over the weekend that claimed to show hundreds of officers armed with shields, batons, and police dogs on March 13 descending on the roadblock outside the plant in La Van village, in Duc Co district’s Pho Thanh commune, which had been in place since 2018.
The footage appeared to show several officers singling out protesters and beating them before taking them away for detention.
On Monday, local residents confirmed the incident in interviews with RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“On March 8, police forces came to La Van village,” one source said, speaking on condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal by local authorities.
“We told them the landfill was under dispute, meaning no garbage trucks were supposed to enter, but the trucks had still come in droves. In the past, we [villagers] were just observing without taking action, but things took a different turn on March 13.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security, Right to Protest
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 24, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 14, 2020
- Event Description
The Higher People’s Court in Hanoi has postponed the appeal of jailed human rights activist and environmental campaigner Nguyen Nang Tinh scheduled on March 18 without giving an explanation.
Mr. Tinh, 44, arrested by Nghe An province’s security forces on May 29, 2019 and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Penal Code. In the first-instance hearing carried out by the People’s Court of Nghe An in November last year, he was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in jail and five years of probation.
Authorities in Nghe An said Mr. Tinh has used his Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh to post and share articles and videos as well as images with content defaming state leaders and distort the ruling communist party’s policies.
Mr. Tinh, who is a lecturer of Nghe An College of Cultural and Art, is very active in promoting human rights and multi-party democracy, and speak out about the country’s issues such as systemic corruption, human rights abuse, widespread environmental pollution, and China’s violations to Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and the weak response of the communist government in Hanoi.
There are some videoclips on Youtube in which Mr. Tinh tough students to sing a number of patriotic songs composed by dissidents in which the government is criticized for suppressing anti-China activists.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Authorities in Nghe An Arrest Local Democracy Activist, Charging Him with "Conducting Anti-state Propaganda"
- Date added
- Mar 24, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 9, 2020
- Event Description
The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City has suddenly postponed the first-instance hearing against eight members of the unregistered group named Hiến Pháp (Constitution), just one day prior to the trial scheduled on March 10 in the country’s biggest economic hub.
The court announced its decision when relatives of the defendants were on their ways heading to HCM City, some of them from provinces hundreds of kilometers to the city, Defend the Defenders has learned.
The court did not point out the reasons for its decision but Covid-19 outbreak in Vietnam may be the concern for it.
Two of the defendants named Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh and Ms. Hoang Thi Thu Vang are charged with Clause 1 of Article 118 “Disruption of security” of the Penal Code and face imprisonment of between seven and 15 years in prison while the six remaining Mr. Ngo Van Dung, Ms. Doan Thi Hong, Mr. Ho Dinh Cuong, Mr. Le Quy Loc, Mr. Tran Thanh Phuong and Mr. Do The Hoa are accused of the same allegation but under Clause 2 with the risk of being sentenced to between two and seven years in jail if are convicted.
All of them were kidnapped by security forces in HCM City in the first days of September 2018 after they had called for street demonstrations on the occasion of the country’s Independence Day (September 2). Police held them incommunicado for months without informing their families and continued keeping them isolated from outside for around one year after their families found them being imprisoned.
The group was established in 2017 with the aim to enhance civil rights among Vietnamese by disseminating the country’s Constitution approved by the communist-controlled parliament in 2013. Its members were active figures of the mass demonstration in HCM City on June 10, 2018 in which tens of thousands of residents rallied on streets to protest two bills on Special Economic zone and Cyber Security. The first seems to favor Chinese investors amid increasing tensions in the East Sea (South China Sea) while the second aims to silence online government critics.
Recently, Ms. Doan Thi Hong, who was detained when her daughter was about two years old, has informed her family that she is held in very severe conditions. Since being arrested, she has been under physical and mental torture constantly, according to the information she gave her older sister.
Despite doing nothing special harmful for the country, Hiến Pháp group has been targetted by Vietnam’s communist regime. Two members of the group Pham Minh The and Huynh Truong Ca were convicted of “abusing democratic freedom” and “anti-state propaganda” with respective imprisonment of two years and five and half years in 2018-2019.
- Impact of Event
- 8
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- NGO staff, Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 24, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 2, 2020
- Event Description
A court in southern Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Monday rejected the appeal of an Australian citizen convicted last year on charges of engaging in terrorism, sending him and two men convicted with him back to prison to serve their full terms.
Chau Van Kham, 70, a resident of Sydney Australia and member of the banned U.S.-based Viet Tan opposition party, was sentenced on Nov. 11, 2019 to a prison term of 12 years. Two men convicted with him—Nguyen Van Vieng and Tran Van Quyen—were handed terms of 11 and 10 years respectively.
Labeled a terrorist group by Vietnam in October 2016, Viet Tan describes itself instead as committed to peaceful, nonviolent struggle to promote democracy and human rights in Vietnam, and all three of those convicted had rejected prosecutors’ accusations of terrorism in appealing their sentences, one of their lawyers said.
Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Monday following the court hearing, defense attorney Nguyen Van Mieng said that the three defendants admitted joining Viet Tan in 2010 but said that terrorism had never been proposed as a tactic in any of the meetings they had attended.
“Chau said that if he had ever thought that Viet Tan promoted terrorism, he would never have joined,” Nguyen said, adding that Nguyen Van Vieng also declared that he had never heard terrorism planned or discussed at any Viet Tan meeting.
‘The latest victims’
In a statement given on Monday by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Australia—where Chau had worked as a baker—voiced disappointment that Chau’s appeal had been rejected.
“We are concerned about the length of Mr Chau’s sentence, particularly given his health and welfare may be severely impacted by serving such a sentence at his age,” DAFTA said in a report by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
“Vietnamese authorities understand our strong interest in his wealth and welfare,” DAFTA said, adding, “Australian officials have raised Mr Chau’s case and will continue to do so.”
Meanwhile, also speaking to ABC, Elaine Pearson of Human Rights Watch called Chau and his co-defendants “the latest victims in a spiraling crackdown on dissent and free speech within Vietnam—they are among hundreds of political prisoners who are currently detained.”
“The Australian Government should redouble its efforts to press strongly for Chau’s return to Australia,” Pearson said.
“On some occasions, Vietnam has allowed political prisoners to be released into exile in Europe or the U.S., but that will only happen if there is strong pressure from the Australian Government,” she said.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Chau Van Kham, Australian citizen and pro-democracy activist, detained in Vietnam
- Date added
- Mar 10, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 9, 2020
- Event Description
This morning, a Hanoi court sentenced Nhat, a blogger with the U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Asia's Vietnamese language service, to ten years in prison after a half-day trial for “abusing his position and power while on duty” as a reporter, a crime under Clause 3, Article 356, of Vietnam’s penal code, according to news reports, a report from his employer, and his daughter Thuc Doan Truong, who communicated with CPJ via messaging app.
Nhat had been held in pre-trial detention in Vietnam since January 28, 2019, two days after he went missing from a shopping mall in Bangkok, Thailand, as CPJ documented at the time. Truong previously told CPJ that she believes Nhat was taken from Thailand against his will.
Truong told CPJ that her father intends to appeal today’s verdict.
“Truong Duy Nhat was convicted for his journalism, not the bogus charges Vietnamese authorities dreamt up to silence his critical voice,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “His appeal must not be contested, and he should be released immediately and unconditionally. Vietnam must stop jailing journalists on arbitrary and trumped-up charges.”
Nhat’s last blog post before his arrest, dated January 23, 2019, was a commentary on protests in Venezuela and prospects for change in Vietnam. Nhat had applied for refugee status at a U.N. office in Bangkok on January 25, Radio Free Asia reported at the time.
Police initially charged Nhat with illegally acquiring property, but later changed those charges after failing to find enough evidence to convict him, according to Radio Free Asia.
“No matter how long they want to imprison my dad, I’m sure that he did nothing wrong,” Truong told CPJ. “[Today’s sentencing] is just an excuse for them to stop him from writing critical articles.”
Nhat previously served two years in prison for "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interest of the state," for his critical blogging on the ruling Communist Party's leadership, CPJ reported at the time.
He is currently being held at Hanoi’s T-16 detention center; it was not immediately clear if he would be transferred to another detention facility after today’s verdict, Truong told CPJ.
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security did not immediately respond to CPJ’s emailed request for comment on today’s ruling.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Thailand: Former Political Prisoner, Truong Duy Nhat, Disappeared In Thailand After Seeking Refugee Status With UN
- Date added
- Mar 10, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 21, 2020
- Event Description
On February 21, the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa province upheld the one year of non-custodial reform on human rights attorney Tran Vu Hai and his wife Ngo Tuyet Phuong on tax evasion charge under Article 161 of the 1999 Penal Code.
After one week, the court issued its final decision to keep the sentences given by the lower court, the People’s Court of Nha Trang City. Accordingly, Mr. Hai and his wife have to pay an administrative fine of VND20 million ($850) each for the crime they have not committed, according to the lawyers providing legal assistance for the experienced couple attorneys.
According to the indictment against them, they were accused of committing a tax evasion worth VND276 million in a property deal in 2014. Mr. Hai and his wife reportedly bought a land parcel from Khanh Hoa province-based citizenNgo Van Lam and Vietnamese Norwegian Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh. The deal value was about VND16 billion but the sellers reported to the local authorities just VND1.8 billion, by that way the sellers paid less tax for the deal. The province’s tax authorities had approved the deal.
Nearly two dozens lawyers took part in the appeal to protect Mr. Hai. Like in the first-instance hearing on November 15 last year, Khanh Hoa province’s authorities deployed a large number of police officers to block all the roads leading to the court areas and the lawyers were under strict security check-up before entering the courtroom. They were requested to leave all electrical devices, including laptops and cell phones outside. A few reporters of the state-run newspapers were allowed to enter the courtroom to cover the trial.
The defense lawyers said as buyers, Mr. Hai and his wife are not subjects for tax payment for the deal, and they are innocent since the province’s tax authorities approved the deal. Ms. Hanh is a citizen of Norway and the house she sold to Mr. Hai was the only house she owned so she is not required to pay tax for the deal, according to current Vietnam’s law.
Mr. Hai reported on his Facebook page that the judge ordered the representative of the Nha Trang tax authorities and the representative of the province’s Procuracy not to answer the questions of lawers.
Authorities in Khanh Hoa probed the case in early July last year and placed the four under restricted travel, including travel abroad. In addition, Khanh Hoa police also conducted searching Mr. Hai’s law office and private residence in Hanoi, in which they allegedly took away a large sum of money and documents from other cases.
It is clear that the allegation and convictions against Mr. Hai and his wife are political as recently the Ministry of Public Security denied Mr. Hai’s request for representing former prisoner of conscience Truong Duy Nhat who is accused of “power abuse” after being kidnapped in Bangkok and taken to Vietnam in late January.
Lawyer Hai is well-known for his participation in sensitive cases to represent victims of injustice, victims of forced land appropriation and political dissidents.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Mar 4, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 20, 2020
- Event Description
Police officers from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security have kidnapped Hanoi-based activist Nguyen Thuy Hanh for interrogation for hours about their assistance given to land petitioners in Dong Tam commune, My Duc district.
On the afternoon of January 20, Mrs. Hanh and her husband Huynh Ngoc Chenh went to the Vietnam Bank for Commerce (Vietcombank)’s branch in Ba Dinh district to question the bank for freezing her account with around VND528 million ($22,500) of donations for the family of Mr. Le Dinh Kinh, a 84-year-old resident of Dong Tam who was killed by police during the raid on January 9.
During a meeting with the bank’s representatives, Mr. Chenh recognized that plainclothes policemen were deployed in the office, probably the bank branch informed police for the presence of the couple.
After receiving unsatisfied answers from the bank’s representatives, the couple left the office to return home with their motorbike. Not far from the bank, they were stopped by police officers in plainclothes who said Hanh must to go with them to their office for “working.” Hanh was forced to go in their car and the vehicle went to the Security Investigation Agency under the Ministry of Public Security at Nguyen Gia Thieu street, Hanoi where many activists were interrogated and beaten.
During the three-hour interrogation, five police officers questioned about the 50K Fund she established last year for assisting prisoners of conscience and activist-at-risks, and the donations from Vietnamese in the country and abroad for Mr. Kinh’s family after the bloody police raid on January 9.
During the interrogation, police officers said they would arrest some other activists, including land petitioner and human rights defender Trinh Ba Phuong for his covering news on the brutal police attack in Dong Tam on January 9, Hanh said.
The abduction and the interrogation against Mrs. Hanh were made few days after her account in Vietcombank was suspended. On January 13, the Ministry of Public Security said on its website that the ministry had ordered local banks to freeze accounts of some activists, including Mrs. Hanh who have been receiving donations for persecuted Dong Tam residents. The ministry said the financial aids from people can help Dong Tam citizens purchase weaponry to deal with the government.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese activists continue to call for a boycott of Vietcombank’s service and ask the Japanese Mizuho to reconsider its investment in the Vietnamese bank. Currently, the Japanese side owns 15% stake in Vietcombank.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Abduction/Kidnapping, Intimidation and Threats, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
[Defend the Defenders](Police officers from Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security have kidnapped Hanoi-based activist Nguyen Thuy Hanh for interrogation)
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 4, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 17, 2020
- Event Description
Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam (Vietcombank), the largest commercial bank in communist-ruled Vietnam, has frozen a bank account of Hanoi-based activist Nguyen Thuy Hanh after she receives a large sum of donations for deceased elderly leader Le Dinh Kinh, who was killed by police in Hanoi on January 9.
On January 17, Mrs. Hanh went to the bank to withdraw the money gift for the family of the Dong Tam commune’s moral leader, the bank told her this account has been frozen. Asked for the reason, the bank refused the answer. It only gave her a copied document, showing VND525.45 million ($22,000) have been frozen.
Hanh, who is managing the 50K Fund for assisting prisoners of conscience and activists-at-risks, called on Vietnamese in the country and abroad to make donations for the family of Mr. Kinh after the deadly raid of Vietnam’s police on January 9 in which they killed him and destroyed his house. In addition, police arrested his two sons and two grandsons as well as his adopted daughter and charged them with “murder.”
After the call, Hanh has received more than thousands of small donations from Vietnamese across the globe. She had been placed in de facto house arrest for more than a week and plainclothes agents were deployed near her private residence in Hanoi until Friday.
Meanwhile, prominent dissident and political writer Pham Doan Trang has alerted that Vietnam’s security forces have been pressuring those people who had sent money support to Dong Tam villagers to admit that they are members of a certain political party when they provided “financial support” to Dong Tam villagers.
The police’s sinister goal is to try with all their might to create the existence of a group of terrorists in Dong Tam, and use that as an excuse to “attack, destroy the terrorists,” with aim to cover up their crime of having mounted a large-scale, organised attack against Dong Tam residents on January 9, said Trang, who has been among activists who established the “Dong Tam taskforce” to compile, verify and announce publicly all information relating to the police brutal attack in the location.
After Mrs. Hanh announced Vietcombank’s act, hundreds of activists have called for a boycott of the bank’s services and urged people to withdraw their money from the bank. They urged the bank to reconsider its decision in Mrs. Hanh’s case otherwise it will face a widespread boycott.
This is the second case of freezing activists’ accounts of Vietcombank. In 2015, it made the same act against prominent political dissident Nguyen Thanh Giang. However, it reopened his account after receiving a threat of boycotts of activists in the capital city at that time.
In response to the call for the boycott against Vietcombank, Deputy Minister of Public Security Luong Tam Quang said the bank’s move was requested by the ministry in a bid to deal with terrorism. He said many contributors to Mr. Kinh’s family have admitted that their donations are for purchasing weapons against Vietnam’s police.
On its website, the ministry has requested people not to send donations for Mr. Kinh’s family. It also admitted that it ordered Vietcombank to freeze the bank account of Mrs. Hanh.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to access to funding, Right to property
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: One Activist Beaten, Two Detained while Many Others under House Arrest on 30th Anniversary of Gac Ma Loss to China, Vietnam: WHRD put under de facto house arrest, her bank account frozen
- Date added
- Feb 4, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 13, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam’s communist regime has postponed the first-instance hearing to try eight members of the unregistered group Hiến Pháp (Constitution) on the allegation “disruption of security” under Article 118 of the country’s Criminal Code” for their intention to participate in a peaceful demonstration in early September last year, Defend the Defenders has learned.
The People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City made the decision to delay the trial on January 13, one day prior to the scheduled date, saying the postpone was due to the request of Mr. Le Quy Loc, one of the defendants, for summoning witness(es).
The court has not set the new date for the trial but it would be within 30 days from the day of canceling.
Some observers have linked the delay with the bloody attack of police in Dong Tam in which land rights activist Le Dinh Kinh was killed by riot police. The communist regime is willing to reduce social dissatisfaction which rose to its peak in the recent day so they don’t want people to get more anger from lengthy sentences which would be given for the group members.
According to the court’s announcement, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh and Mrs. Hoang Thi Thu Vang are charged with the allegation of “disruption of security” under Clause 1 of Article 118 of the Criminal Code with imprisonment of between five and 15 years in prison. Six others named Mr. Do The Hoa, Mr. Ho Dinh Cuong, Mr. Tran Thanh Phuong, Mr. Ngo Van Dung, Mr. Le Quy Loc and Ms. Doan Thi Hong are subjected to the allegation under Clause 2 of the same article with imprisonment of between two and seven years if are convicted.
All of them were kidnapped by HCM City’s police on September 2-4, 2018 and held incommunicado for months. Their families had not been informed about their detentions and charges for months after they went to different state agencies and police stations to ask for their status and found out that they were kept by the city’s police.
Hiến Pháp (Constitution) is a group of activists working to educate the public about the human rights they are entitled to under Vietnam’s 2013 Constitution by disseminating the country’s 2013 Constitution among citizens. Its members were active during the mass demonstration in HCM City on June 10, 2018 in which tens of thousands of Vietnamese rallied on streets to protest the communist regime’s plan to approve two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cybersecurity.
In order to prevent similar protests in early September 2018, Vietnam’s security forces launched a big campaign to persecute local dissent and all members of the Hiến Pháp group became their targets. Two other members of the group named Huynh Truong Ca and Le Minh The were arrested and convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and “abusing democratic freedom,” respectively while three others were forced to relocate in Thailand to avoid being arrested.
Defend the Defenders considers eight jailed members of the group as prisoners of conscience and the accusations against them are groundless.
- Impact of Event
- 8
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: HCM City-based Female Activist Charged with Disruption of Security, Facing Lengthy Imprisonment
- Date added
- Feb 4, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 10, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam’s authorities have freed prisoner of conscience Tran Thi Nga but forced her to live in exile in the US.
Ms. Nga, who was arrested in February 2017 and sentenced to nine years in prison and five years of probation on charge of “conducting anti-state propaganda,” was taken from Gia Trung prison camp in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai to Noi Bai International Airport during the midnight of January 10 where she and her two sons and husband were taking a flight to Atlanta (Georgia, the US). The United States had granted her asylum.
She has always refused to recognize her guilt so she was being subjected to psychological torture, death threats and physical violence by fellow inmates and prison guards.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Deportation, Judicial Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Nguyen Van Oai and Tran Thi Nga Arrested
- Date added
- Feb 4, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 11, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam’s communist regime has detained the second Facebooker so far this year, accusing him of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code.
On January 11, authorities in the Mekong Delta’s economic hub of Can Tho detained a local resident named Chung Hoang Chuong, 43, for his online activities. He will be held incommunicado in next three days for preliminary investigation and the pre-trial detention would be kept longer for months.
According to a notice of Ninh Kieu district’s police, Mr. Chuong has conducted online activities which “Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, lawful rights and interests of organizations and/or citizens.”
His family told Defend the Defenders that he was detained at his cell phone shop in Ninh Kieu commune. Police also came to his private residence to confiscate his wife’s laptop and camera set.
Chuong’s detention came after he wrote and shared a number of articles on his Facebook account Chương May Mắn regarding numerous issues of Vietnam, including human rights abuse, serious nationwide environmental pollution, systemic corruption and the government’s weak response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea). His latest statuses on his Facebook page were about the military attack in Dong Tam commune carried out by the Ministry of Public Security and the Hanoi Police Department in the early morning of January 9 in which police killed at least two civilians.
Mr. Chuong has been the second Facebooker being detained for their online activities amid increasing crackdown on the local dissent.
On January 9, authorities in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong arrested Mr. Dinh Van Phu on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code. Mr. Phu, 47, will be held incommunicado in the next three months and face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years if is convicted.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s government reportedly has pressured Facebook to remove articles criticizing the communist regime.
Since the Cyber Security Law become effective in early 2019, Vietnam has arrested nearly two dozens of Facebookers on allegations of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and “abusing democratic freedom” in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code, and sentenced 17 of them to between one and 11 years in prison, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 4, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 9, 2020
- Event Description
Vietnam’s authorities continue its crackdown on Facebookers for the second year after implementation of the Cyber Security law, arresting the first activist on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code.
State media has reported that on January 9, police in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong arrested local resident Dinh Van Phu for his online activities and will keep him for at least three months for investigation. He will likely be held incommunicado during the pre-trial detention similar to other political cases.
According to the police, Mr. Phu, 47, was used several Facebook accounts such as “Jimy Nguyễn,” “Vinh Nguyễn Jimy,” and “Nguyễn Vinh” to disseminate articles and conduct live streams with content to distort policies of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam and its government as well as defaming its leaders.
He is accused of triggering social dissatisfaction and calling for street demonstrations to protest the communist government regarding human rights violations, environmental pollution, systemic corruption as well as a weak response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea).
Police also mentioned that Mr. Phu participated in the peaceful demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The first was considered to provide privileges for Chinese investors amid Beijing’s increasing aggressiveness in the East Sea while the second aims to silence the local dissent. He was reportedly arrested, beaten and fined with VND750,000 for “causing public disorders.”
Along with targeting groups in order to prevent the formation of political parties and civil society organizations, Vietnam’s communist regime is striving to crack down on online activists. Last year, it arrested 21 Facebookers, 14 of them were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and five of them with “abusing democratic freedom” in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code. As many as 12 Facebookers were sentenced to between five and 11 years in prison on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda,” significant lengthier sentences compared to the same allegation in other cases in the previous decade.
The ruling communist party is preparing its 13th National Congress scheduled in early 2021 and it will tighten social life. It is expected more arrest and harassment against local dissent in coming months.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Feb 4, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 16, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City have rejected to grant a passport for former prisoner of conscience Le Cong Dinh, denying his right to freely travel abroad.
Mr. Dinh, who was imprisoned five years in 2009-2013 on the charge of subversion, applied for a new passport in the Immigration Management Division of HCM City’s Police Department on December 4. Two weeks later, on December 16, he received a denial announcement from an officer from the division who refused to point out the reason for the refusal.
In August last year, the city’s police also rejected his application.
The US-educated lawyer is among the leading pro-democracy activists in Vietnam. He was arrested in 2009 and initially charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and later changed into “subversion” in the same case of prominent activist and entrepreneur Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and Nguyen Tien Trung.
He continues to work for promoting human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam after being released in 203. This year, he is among the three activists winning annual prizes of the US-based Vietnam Human Rights Network.
Dinh is among more than 100 Vietnamese activists being barred from international travel. The Ministry of Public Security often uses government decree No. 136 to prevent political dissidents and human rights activists from going abroad with the common controversial reason “national security.” The communist regime has used a number of ways to halt their international travel by denial of granting passports, blocking at national border gates or confiscating their passports.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Judicial Harassment, Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 9, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 26, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnamese authorities are blocking defense lawyers from speaking with a journalist detained for criticizing Vietnam’s government, saying that their investigation into the writer’s case has not yet finished, one of the two attorneys told RFA on Thursday.
Independent journalist Pham Chi Dung was detained on Nov. 11 by security officers at his home in Ho Chi Minh City and charged with conducting “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code.
According to police, Pham wrote anti-state articles and cooperated with foreign media to deliver “distorted information,” with rights group Defend the Defenders saying that Pham had contributed to Voice of America and the BBC, using different pen names.
Pham will be held in detention for at least the next four months as police finish their investigation, and if convicted could face a sentence of seven to 12 years.
Speaking on Thursday to RFA’s Vietnamese Service, defense attorney Manh Dinh Dang said that prosecutors informed him and fellow lawyer Mieng Van Nguyen on Dec. 16 that they can confer with their client only when investigators have finished their work.
“This limits lawyers’ ability to get involved,” Manh said, adding that lawyers’ access to their clients is typically restricted under Vietnamese law in cases of “national security,” with some cases dragging on for years.
Also speaking to RFA, former political prisoner Dai Van Nguyen, who was arrested on Dec. 16, 2015 on identical charges, said that he had immediately asked for a lawyer’s help when police officers invaded his home to conduct a search.
“But a representative from the prosecutor’s office presented a document saying this would not allowed until the police investigation was completed,” Dai said.
“This practice is stipulated in the Criminal Code, but it violates Vietnam’s constitution, which makes no distinction between ‘national security’ violations and ordinary [criminal] ones."
According to Vietnam’s constitution, detainees have the right to meet with lawyers, and lawyers have the right to defend their clients, Dai said.
“However, the Criminal Code doesn’t allow for this,” he said.
Pressured to admit guilt
Speaking to RFA, activist Kha Nguyen Dinh, who was freed from prison in October 2018 after serving a six-year term for handing out leaflets criticizing government policy over disputed islands in the South China Sea, said he too had been denied the right to see a lawyer following his arrest.
“I was not allowed to contact anyone, and I had no legal consultation,” Kha said.
“Only after I had been led to say things they wanted to hear was I allowed to see a lawyer,” Kha said, adding that barring access to lawyers during police investigations makes it easier for officials to pressure detainees to admit their “guilt” or make other statements against their interests.
Vietnam has been consistently rated “Not Free” in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group.
Dissent is not tolerated in the communist nation, and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers and bloggers.
Estimates of the number of prisoners of conscience now held in Vietnam’s jails vary widely, with Human Rights Watch putting the number in October at 138. The rights group Defend the Defenders meanwhile puts the number as at least 240, with 36 convicted this year alone.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Richard Finney.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Jan 6, 2020
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 8, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam Sunday clashed with citizens over a Christmas nativity scene display in a part of Ho Chi Minh City that has been embroiled in a land dispute.
A group of Catholic residents of the Loc Hung Vegetable Garden settlement in Ward 6, the city’s Tan Binh district, were attempting to set up the nativity scene over the weekend, but police, plainclothes security agents and militia were dispatched to the area to prevent the display.
The residents then began to object, saying that authorities were violating their rights to religious freedom.
According to the Facebook account account ‘Vườn rau Lộc Hưng’ (Loc Hung Vegetable Garden’), the incident occurred at 9 a.m. Sunday when the local authorities pulled down a wooden frame that would have been a part of the display.
The Loc Hung residents resumed building their nativity scene in the afternoon, so the authorities came back to stop them.
This caused the residents to resist and authorities arrested Cao Thi Thu, Pham Trung Hieu and Pham Duy Quang for protesting.
The three were released by 10 p.m. that evening.
The nativity display’s statues of Christian religious figures Mary and Joseph were destroyed in the clash.
“Yesterday’s suppression was so brutal,” Pham Duy Quang told RFA’s Vietnamese Service Monday.
“By 3:30 p.m., we had gathered to pray and prepare to set up the nativity scene. After praying, a large force consisting of various Ward 6 agencies showed up to destroy [it],” He said, adding, “They beat us, drove [us] into corners.”
Pham said that the three were accused of inciting a ‘mass gathering to disrupt social order’ and were asked to cooperate in police reports at the Ward 4 police station.
Cao discussed how she was physically assaulted by authorities prior to her arrest.
“We only gathered there to protect the nativity scene,” she said.
“I stood behind to set up, but then a large force came along. I am 58 years old and I have really weak hearing. But I was beaten in the face and trampled,” said Cao.
“I felt a brick from somewhere hit my foot. It was so painful so I picked up the brick and threw it away and began to flee. That’s when they arrested me and accused me of throwing the brick [at them] which is an administrative violation,” she said.
She added that the police asked her to accept either detention or a 750,000 dong (U.S. $32.35) fine, but she refused.
“I replied ‘Absolutely not, I won’t pay even or you detain me, so I signed the report without any fear. I threw the brick because I was in pain from being beaten by them,” she said.
Pham Trung Hieu told RFA that while in detention the three had been threatened.
“Prior to letting us go, they told us that from that time on we should not follow Cao Ha Chanh (a longtime resident of the settlement) or anyone else [from there],” said Pham.
“In my opinion, they were only threatening us because we have been lodging complaints over the past 20 years [because of the land dispute],” he added.
RFA attempted to contact the Ward 6 People’s Committee and the Tan Binh district police Monday but received no reply.
Early this year, the area was a flashpoint in a controversial two-day operation in which authorities demolished at least 112 houses in the settlement claimed by the Catholic Church, displacing hundreds of residents, who sources say are political dissidents. Meanwhile, veterans of the former Army of South Vietnam made their homes in the settlement.
While all land in Vietnam is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a point of contention as residents accuse the government of pushing small landowners aside in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in compensation to those whose land is taken.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 19, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 24, 2019
- Event Description
Police in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Sunday blocked access to a piano recital held in the city’s Opera House, roughing up a group of environmental activists who had hoped to attend and preventing them from entering, sources said.
The concert, titled “Awake” and performed by pianist Pho An My, featured an environmental theme, the civil society group Green Trees said in a Facebook posting after its members were turned away.
“A large crowd of security forces had gathered outside, just as if they were preparing to disperse a protest, and scores of people were roughed up,” the environmental advocacy group said, adding that paintings about the environment were forbidden from display in the concert hall.
“Security men were stationed every five meters [15 feet] surrounding the theater, and were stopping people from live-streaming or taking pictures. Only the security people were allowed cameras, and they pointed them at concertgoers like they were monitoring criminals,” Green Trees said.
“All gates to the theater were locked right after the concert started, so nobody could leave or enter, and no one could give the artist flowers.”
In its Facebook posting, Green Trees said that police may have thought that concert organizers had received funding from “foreign sources” by way of the environmental group, which also advocates for human rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of assembly in the one-party communist state.
'They were brutal to us'
Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Nov. 15, Green Trees member Cao Vinh Thinh said that she and her husband had arrived at the Opera House at about 7:30 p.m. on the evening of the concert.
“As soon as we stopped our motorbike next to the theater, we were approached by a group of about 10 people, two of whom I recognized because they have followed me around for years,” Thinh said, adding that the group ordered her to return home, later forcing her and her husband into a car and driving them home themselves.
“I’m very upset,” Thinh said. “We had bought two tickets, but the money doesn’t matter. What matters most is how they treated us.”
“They were brutal to us, and they deprived us of our rights as citizens. We hadn’t broken any law or rule,” she said.
Also speaking to RFA, pianist Pho An My said that she had only focused on her performance and was unaware of what was happening outside.
“I’m just an artist, and I want to express my thoughts. I’m not an environmental activist,” she said.
Calls seeking comment from police in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district rang unanswered on Monday.
Civil society groups restricted
Independent civil society organizations are severely restricted by Vietnam’s communist government, which also controls all media, censors the internet, and restricts basic freedoms of expression.
On Oct. 25, Vietnamese authorities detained environmental activist and filmmaker Thinh Nguyen, a member of Green Trees, in what was thought to be the government’s response to a film, “Do Not be Afraid,” about other environmental activists who were detained for their advocacy.
Green Trees had called on Vietnam’s government just two years before to let it help monitor the payment of compensation to citizens affected by a massive toxic-waste spill in 2016 that left thousands jobless in four central coastal provinces.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community), Woman
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 3, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 28, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnam’s communist regime has convicted Mr. Huynh Minh Tam, 41, and his younger sister Huynh Thi To Nga, 36, of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for their online postings critical to the regime, Defend the Defenders has learned.
In the first-instance hearing on November 28, the People’s Court of Dong Nai found Mr. Tam and Ms. Nga guilty of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” sentencing him to nine years and giving her to five years in prison.
According to their relatives, both Tam and Nga had no their own lawyers.
The indictment said they were posting numerous articles on their Facebook accounts criticizing the communist government for failing to deal with the country’s problems such as human rights abuse, systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution, and weak response to China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea).
Ms. Nga, a technician in the Saigon-based Nguyen Tri Phuong Hospital, reportedly to participate in the mass demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security.
Mr. Tam was arrested on February 28 this year while his younger sister was kidnapped in her working place two days later. Police had not informed their families about the allegations against them and kept them incommunicado until their trial. Police also threatened their families, not allowing their relatives to contact with other activists.
Mr. Tam and Ms. Nga are among 21 activists being arrested this year for online activities, 14 of them were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and five were alleged with “abusing democratic freedom” in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code.
Vietnam’s communist regime has arrested 33 political dissidents, social activists and Facebookers so far this year, including prominent dissident journalist Pham Chi Dung. Hanoi has also convicted 39 activists, mostly on controversial allegations in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code, sentencing them to a total 199.5 years in jail and 47 years of probation.
Vietnam is holding at least 240 prisoners of conscience, according to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics. Hanoi always denies of holding any prisoners of conscience, saying it imprisons only law violators.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man, Woman
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 3, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 21, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnamese courts on Thursday sentenced six dissident bloggers and activists to long terms in prison amid a continuing crackdown on online expressions of dissent in the one-party communist state that has seen dozens of people jailed this year, sources said.
In southeastern Vietnam’s Dong Nai province, four men—Doan Viet Hoan, Vo Thuong Trung, Ngo Xuan Thanh, and Nguyen Dinh Khue—were handed prison terms of from 2.5 to three years each on charges of plotting to set explosives, for which no proof was shown in court, a defense attorney said.
“[Prosecutors] had no evidence to prove that the defendants were preparing explosions to go off on April 28, 2019," Nguyen Van Mieng—the lawyer for Nguyen Dinh Khue—told RFA’s Vietnamese Service after the trial.
“If they had wanted to cause explosions, they would have to have had wires, detonators, and material like that. But they had none of those things,” he said, adding, “The police only confiscated their cell phones and messages on the phones.”
Quoted by state media, a report prepared by prosecutors said the four men had gone online to read posts with “anti-state” content and had called for street protests on April 30, but Mieng said the men had wanted only to protest a price hike in electricity and gas and a law on special economic zones that many Vietnamese fear will favor Chinese investment in the country.
“They know nothing about how to make explosive devices,” Mieng said.
Unwarranted, unfair
In a separate case, a court in central Vietnam’s Thanh Hoa province sentenced Facebook user Pham Van Diep to a nine-year prison term for criticizing Vietnam’s government online for its handling of a 2016 toxic-waste spill that devastated the coastal areas of four Vietnamese provinces, leaving thousands jobless.
Speaking to RFA after the trial, attorney Ha Huy Son called Pham’s sentence unwarranted and unfair.
“He only expressed his opinion, and he did nothing to oppose the state,” he said. “He admitted what he did. He is critical of Marxism-Leninism and communism, but [the court] considers that a crime against the state of Vietnam.”
In another case, Facebook user Nguyen Chi Vung was handed a six-year prison term on Thursday by a court in southern Vietnam’s Bac Lieu province on charges of live-streaming anti-state content on his Facebook page and encouraging others to join in protests.
Call to delay trade talks
Meanwhile, prominent independent journalist Pham Chi Dung, who was detained at his home in Ho Chi Minh City on Nov. 21 for his criticism of the communist government, awaits investigation and trial on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code.
In a Nov. 22 statement, European Parliament envoy for trade talks with Vietnam Saskia Bricmont voiced shock at the news of the arrest of the former communist party member, noting that Pham had written earlier to the parliament’s president and to EU trade officials to alert them to Vietnam’s deteriorating human rights situation.
Saskia is now asking for a delay in the ratification of European trade and investment agreements with Vietnam “until a certain number of conditions are fulfilled,” she said.
“The essential condition is a reform of the criminal code and its implementation with United Nations standards,” Saskia said, adding, “To show its good faith, we also demand that Vietnam release [its] political prisoners without delay.”
Writing on Nov. 21, the day of Pham’s arrest, Human Rights Watch deputy Asia director Phil Robertson called on the EU to “speak up for independent journalist Pham Chi Dung who simply called for Europe to demand real improvements in the human rights situation before ratifying the Europe-Vietnam [Free Trade Agreement].”
“By arresting Pham Chi Dung, Vietnam is showing its repressive intolerance of any dissenting voices and its determination to suppress efforts to foster an independent press in the country,” Robertson said.
“The EU, US and other like-minded countries should demand the immediate and unconditional release of Pham Chi Dung and the dropping of all charges against him.”
'Not Free'
Vietnam has been consistently rated “Not Free” in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group.
Dissent is not tolerated in the communist nation, and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers and bloggers.
Estimates of the number of prisoners of conscience now held in Vietnam’s jails vary widely, with Human Rights Watch putting the number in October at 138. The rights group Defend the Defenders meanwhile puts the number as at least 240, with 36 convicted this year alone.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 2, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 26, 2019
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam sentenced a Facebook user to six years in prison on Tuesday for a series of posts he made on the social media platform that the Southeast Asian country's government said were "anti-state".
Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism, and its dissent crackdown has shown signs of intensifying recently.
Nguyen Chi Vung, 38, was accused of "making and spreading anti-state information and materials" at the one-day trial at the People's Court of Bac Lieu province, in the Mekong Delta, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.
It said Vung had held 33 livestream sessions on Facebook "to share distorted information" and "encourage people to participate in protests during national holidays".
Reuters could not reach Vung's lawyers for comment.
Vung will be placed under house arrest for two years after serving his jail term, the statement said.
The court's Tuesday decision came days after a music teacher in the central province of Nghe An was convicted of the same offences and jailed for 11 years.
Facebook is widely used in the country and serves as the main platform for both e-commerce and dissent. Facebook said in May it increased the amount of content it restricted access to in Vietnam by more than 500% in the last half of 2018.
The ministry said in a separate statement on Tuesday that police in Nghe An have arrested a 23-year-old man accused of smearing the image of Ho Chi Minh and spreading anti-state propaganda on Facebook.
Last week, police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested freelance journalist and government critic Pham Chi Dung, accused of "anti-state" propaganda.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Dec 2, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 26, 2019
- Event Description
On November 26, Vietnam’s communist regime convicted five political dissidents and sentenced them to a total 20 years in prison and five years of probation in two separate trials which failed to meet international standards for a fair trial.
In the central province of Thanh Hoa, the provincial People’s Court found local Facebooker Pham Van Diep guilty of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under the country’s 2015 Criminal Code. The court sentenced him to nine years in jail and five years of probation for online postings which were considered as “distortion of the communist regime” and “defamation of communist leaders” which led to social dissatisfaction.
Mr. Diep, 54, was arrested on June 29 this year. He has voiced against the communist regime for its socio-political policies and human rights abuse in the last 17 years.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Vietnamese Blogger Arrested amid Increasing Persecution against Local Dissent
- Date added
- Dec 2, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 20, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnam’s authorities have barred Catholic priest Nguyen Dinh Thuc from leaving the country to Japan where he would participate in welcoming Pope Francis (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) during the Vatican leader’s visit to Tokyo this week.
Speaking with Defend the Defenders, priest Thuc said security officers in Noi Bai International Airport blocked him from taking a flight from Hanoi to Tokyo at midnight on Wednesday [November 20]. Police officers said the blockage is based on the national security concerns under Decree 136 of the communist government.
Security officers in Noi Bai International Airport’s station also wrote in a working minute that the priest can appeal the police’s decision to the Immigration Department under the Ministry of Public Security.
Priest Thuc is from Song Ngoc parish in Vinh diocese. He has been assisting local Catholic followers in demanding the Taiwanese chemical giant Formosa to pay adequate compensation for the consequences caused by its toxic discharge into Vietnam’s central coastal region in 2016 which had devastating negative impacts on the local fishing industry and tourism.
He is among brave priests criticizing the Vietnamese communist regime’s human rights abuses.
He is among many Catholic priests being barred from going abroad for pastoral missions. Last year, Catholic priest Nguyen Ngoc Nam Phong was also not permitted to leave to Australia where he was invited to take a lengthy course on religion.
Along with imprisoning and harassing local activists, Vietnam’s communist regime has also been blocking hundreds of local activists from going abroad for meeting with their international partners and doing international advocacy in the human rights field.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Travel Restriction
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 26, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 21, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam arrested a prominent independent journalist Thursday for his criticism of the communist government.
State media reported that Pham Chi Dung was detained by security officers at his home in Ho Chi Minh City and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code.
According to police, Pham wrote anti-state articles and cooperated with foreign media, to deliver “distorted information.”
The human rights group Defend the Defenders said he contributed to Voice of America and the BBC, under several different pen names.
Pham will be in detention for the next four months as the police investigate, and if convicted could face a sentence of seven to 12 years.
Pham had been arrested once before in 2012 on the same charge but released six months later without being tried. In 2014 he and several other writers founded the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), an unregistered entity which “strives to fight for freedom of the press in the Southeast Asian nation,” according to local rights group Defend the Defenders.
Defend the Defenders reported that the journalists association’s website was shut down shortly after the arrest.
Prior to the arrest, he had been frequently harassed by authorities, forbidden to travel overseas in 2014 and under de-facto house arrest since 2013.
Huynh Ngoc Chenh, an IJAVN member, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service Thursday that the arrest showed Hanoi’s desire to exercise greater control over the freedom of speech.
“Pham is the president of IJAVN. He is one of the most active independent journalists. He’s written a lot and is very knowledgeable,” said Huynh.
“His reports are honest and reveal the truth, something the party does not appreciate,” said Huynh, adding, “They want to eliminate his voice.”
According to Defend the Defenders, Hanoi has arrested 29 activists, including 19 bloggers, for writing posts online, and is currently detaining 238 prisoners of conscience.
The country has been consistently rated “not free” in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group.
Dissent is not tolerated in the communist nation, and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers and bloggers.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 22, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 15, 2019
- Event Description
On November 15, Vietnam’s security forces detained female activist Dinh Thao upon her landing in Noi Bai International Airport after spending the last four years abroad for international advocacy, Defend the Defenders has learned.
Mrs. Thao who has a 16-month baby returned in her home country from Bangkok where she worked for VOICE (Vietnamese Overseas Initiative for Conscience), a U.S.-based rights group working for promoting human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam. She was taken by a group of around ten security officers to a police station for interrogation from the morning of Friday until 5 PM on the same day.
Police confiscated her passport, telling her that they may summon her for further interrogation in the future.
According to VOICE’s press release issued when she was held in police custody, in the past four years, Mrs. Thao has been working to promote human rights in Vietnam by engaging in a number of United Nations (UN)’s human rights mechanisms, advocating the EU and other foreign governments via bilateral agreements with Vietnam.
She has worked closely with international and regional NGOs to enhance knowledge of the international community about Vietnam’s human rights situation, the press release said.
Thao graduated from the prestigious Hanoi Medical University in 2015. She was one of the prominent civil activists in Hanoi before going abroad for human rights advocacy. She was a coordinator of the unregistered environmental group Cây Xanh (Green Trees) during its campaign in 2015 which aims to protest Hanoi’s authorities plan to chop down thousands of aged trees in the capital city’s main streets. She was also among key organizers of a campaign supporting independent candidates for the country’s highest legislative body National Assembly in the general election in 2016.
Thao’s detention was condemned by a number of international rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of movement, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 15, 2019
- Event Description
On November 15, the People’s Court of Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province convicted human rights attorney Tran Vu Hai and his wife Ngo Tuyet Phuong and two local citizens of tax evasion under Article 161 of the 1999 Penal Code, Defend the Defenders has learned.
The couple was sentenced to one year of non-custodial reform and was ordered to pay an administrative fine of VND20 million ($850) each for the crime they have not committed, according to the lawyers providing legal assistance for the experienced couple attorneys.
According to the indictment against them, they were accused of committing a tax evasion worth VND276 million in a property deal in 2014. Mr. Hai and his wife reportedly bought a land parcel from Khanh Hoa province-based citizens Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh and Ngo Van Lam. The deal value was about VND16 billion but they reported to the local authorities just VND1.8 billion, by that way the sellers paid less tax for the deal. The province’s tax authorities had approved the deal.
As many as more than 60 lawyers had been registered to the court to voluntarily defense for the couple. However, many of them were denied and only around 40 were allowed to attend the trial which was treated as a political one since the local authorities deployed a large number of police officers to block all the roads leading to the court areas and the lawyers were under strict security check-up before entering the courtroom. They were requested to leave all electrical devices, including laptops and cell phones outside. A few reporters of the state-run newspapers were allowed to enter the courtroom to cover the trial.
The defense lawyers said as buyers, Mr. Hai and his wife are not subjects for tax payment for the deal, and they are innocent since the province’s tax authorities approved the deal. Ms. Hanh is a citizen of Belgium so the case should be handled by an upper court and the Nha Trang city’s People’s Court is not eligible for the case. In addition, the property Ms. Hanh sold to Mr. Hai was the only house she owned so she is not required to pay tax for the deal, according to current Vietnam’s law.
The trial lasted three days, longer than other cases with similar characters. On the first day, one of the defense attorneys, Nguyen Duy Binh was rudely expelled out of the courtroom and was taken out by two policemen after questioning Ms. Hanh about her legal representation. Binh was interrogated for hours in a local police station.
Authorities in Khanh Hoa probed the case in early July and placed the four under restricted travel, including travel abroad. In addition, Khanh Hoa police also conducted searching Mr. Hai’s law office and a private residence in Hanoi, in which they allegedly took away a large sum of money and documents from other cases.
It is clear that the allegation and convictions against Mr. Hai and his wife are political as recently the Ministry of Public Security denied Mr. Hai’s request for representing former prisoner of conscience Truong Duy Nhat who is accused of “power abuse” after being kidnapped in Bangkok and taken to Vietnam in late January.
Lawyer Hai is well-known for his participation in sensitive cases to represent victims of injustice, victims of forced land appropriation and political dissidents.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Lawyer
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 11, 2019
- Event Description
On November 11, the People’s Court of Vietnam’s central province of Nghe An found local pro-democracy college lecturer Nguyen Nang Tinh guilty of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Clause 1, Article 117 of the country’s 2015 Criminal Code.
After a few hours in Friday morning, the court sentenced him to 11 years in jail and five years of probation, the toughest imprisonment given for anti-state propaganda allegation for decades.
Three lawyers Dang Dinh Manh, Trinh Vinh Phuc, and Nguyen Van Mieng went to the courtroom without documentation for Mr. Tinh’s case since they had not been permitted to get access to the documents, including the indictment as Nghe An province’s authorities said the case’s documents are among top national secret. The attorneys were reportedly requested to leave their laptops and cell phones outside of the courtroom.
In his last words in the trial, before the judge announced the court’s decision, Mr. Tinh said he would repeat his actions to protect the country and promote human rights and democracy even he will be punished severely.
Mr. Tinh was arrested by Nghe An province’s security forces on May 29 who later charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda.” Authorities in Nghe An said Mr. Tinh has used his Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh to post and share articles and videos as well as images with content defaming state leaders and distort the ruling communist party’s policies.
According to his family, his indictment was based on the information on the Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, however, he reportedly denied to have this account.
Local activists said Mr. Tinh, who is a lecturer of Nghe An College of Cultural and Art, is very active in promoting human rights and multi-party democracy, and speak out about the country’s issues such as systemic corruption, human rights abuse, widespread environmental pollution, and China’s violations to Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and the weak response of the communist government in Hanoi.
There are some videoclips on Youtube in which Mr. Tinh tough students to sing a number of patriotic songs composed by dissidents in which the government is criticized for suppressing anti-China activists.
Vietnam continues its political crackdown on local dissent, arresting more than two dozens human rights defenders, bloggers, and social activists so far this year with different allegations, from “disturbing public orders” to subversion and even terrorism. Hanoi has also convicted 31 activists on trumped-up allegations with a total 153.5 years in prison and 35 years of probation.
The communist regime is holding at least 237 prisoners of conscience as of November 15, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. It is a worrying trend that the communist regime has been ging much longer sentences in recent years for the same allegations in the national security provisions of the Criminal Code compared to a decade ago, noted Vu Quoc Ngu, director of Vietnam’s non-profit organization.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Authorities in Nghe An Arrest Local Democracy Activist, Charging Him with "Conducting Anti-state Propaganda"
- Date added
- Nov 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 11, 2019
- Event Description
A court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Monday convicted three men, one of them an Australian citizen, on charges of engaging in terrorist activities, sentencing them to prison terms of from 10 to 12 years, Vietnamese sources said.
Chau Van Kham, Nguyen Van Vien, and Tran Van Quyen were arrested in January and initially charged with “activities attempting to overthrow the state,” charges that were later changed to involvement in “terrorism that aims to oppose the people’s administration.”
Kham, a resident of Sydney, Australia, and member of the banned U.S.-based Viet Tan opposition party, received the heaviest sentence, attorney Trinh Vinh Phuc—who represented Kham in court—told RFA’s Vietnamese Service following the trial.
“The verdict was very harsh, and the sentence was too heavy,” Phuc said, adding that the defendants’ case could have been tried under terms that would have provided for sentences of less than 10 years on conviction.
“But [the court] still proceeded without paying attention to details that would have allowed for this,” he said.
“The verdict was handed down on the grounds that Viet Tan is a terrorist organization,” though no evidence ever was offered that the defendants’ activities and motivations had shown a terrorist intent, Phuc said.
Criminalizing rights advocacy
In a statement Monday, Viet Tan chairman Hoang Diem slammed the convictions and sentences imposed on the defendants, saying Kham had “traveled to Vietnam [only] to gain first-hand insight into the human rights situation in the country.”
”Nguyen Van Vien and Tran Van Quyen are peaceful activists,” Diem added.
“We challenge the Vietnamese government to provide any evidence linking them to ‘terrorism.’ The Vietnamese authorities are criminalizing human rights advocacy,” Diem said.
Born in 1971 in central Vietnam’s Quang Nam province, Vien had been active in environmental protection work following a massive spill in 2016 of toxic waste by the Taiwan-owned Formosa firm, the Brotherhood for Democracy said in a Jan. 25 statement.
The environmental disaster destroyed livelihoods across Vietnam’s central coast and led to widespread protests and arrests in affected provinces.
Tran Van Quyen, a social activist who also took part in the Formosa protests, was taken into custody ten days later in southeastern Vietnam’s Binh Duong province.
Politically motivated charges
In a statement on Monday, Phil Robertson—deputy Asia director for the international rights group Human Rights Watch—said that by sentencing the 70-year-old Kham to 12 years in prison, Vietnam has essentially condemned him to death.
“Given the harsh and unforgiving conditions in Vietnam’s prisons, he will face huge challenges to survive his entire sentence,” Robertson said, adding that Vietnam has now jailed Kham on “bogus, politically motivated charges that demonstrate just how fearful Vietnam is about people exercising their rights and demanding genuine democracy.”
“He should be released immediately and unconditionally, and allowed to return to his family in Australia,” Robertson said.
According to Human Rights Watch, Vietnam’s one-party communist government currently holds an estimated 138 political prisoners, including rights advocates and bloggers deemed threats to national security.
It also controls all media, censors the internet, and restricts basic freedoms of expression.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Chau Van Kham, Australian citizen and pro-democracy activist, detained in Vietnam
- Date added
- Nov 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 6, 2019
- Event Description
In two separate appeal hearings on November 6-7, the Higher People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City upheld the jail sentences for Vietnamese American Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen and two local political activists named Nguyen Ngoc Anh and Huynh Duc Thinh, sending them back to prison, Defend the Defenders has learned.
On the appeal hearing on November 6, the court rejected the appeals of Mr. Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen who was sentenced to 12 years in jail on the allegation of subversion and Mr. Huynh Duc Thinh, who was given one year in prison on the allegation of misprision by the People’s Court of HCM City on June 24 this year. Meanwhile, on November 7, the same court denied the appeal of Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Anh who was sentenced to six years in prison and five years of probation by the People’s Court of Ben Tre province in the first-instance hearing on June 6.
In both appeal hearings, the judges reportedly said the final decisions were based on lack of new evidence proving the defendants’ defense. Both hearings lasted just a few hours in the mornings of Tuesday and Wednesday, observers said.
Mr. Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen visited his home country in late June and went to the central regions together with young activists Huynh Duc Thanh Binh and Tran Long Phi who participated in the mass demonstrations in HCM City on June 6, 2018 in which tens of thousands of residents rallied on streets to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The trio was arrested and charged with subversion upon their return to HCM City on July 7 while Mr. Huynh Duc Thinh, a former political prisoner, and father of Mr. Huynh Duc Thanh Binh, was detained one day later.
Huynh Duc Thanh Binh and Tran Long Phi, who were given ten and eight years in jail by the trial on June 24, respectively, did not appeal for their sentences.
Observers said in the appeal hearing on November 6, relatives of Mr. Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen and Mr. Huynh Duc Thinh were not permitted to enter the courtroom. There were a number of the diplomats from the US’s Embassy in Hanoi and General Consulate in HCM City attended the hearing.
Mr. Nguyen Ngoc Anh, 39, is a shrimp grower in Binh Dai district, Ben Tre province. He was arrested on August 30 last year. He was accused of posting numerous articles and live streams on his Facebook account Nguyễn Ngọc Ánh in which he speaks out about human rights violations, systemic environmental pollution, bad economic management of Vietnam’s communist government, China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and Vietnam’s weak response.
In late September, he was beaten by a criminal inmate who was likely acting on behalf of the authorities of Ben Tre province. Due to the assault, Mr. Anh suffered serious injuries in his right leg, left arm and head, and he feels difficulty in moving. Later, he was placed in an isolated cell where he has no support from other prisoners but serves himself.
Two days prior to his appeal, Human Rights Watch issued a press release calling on Vietnam’s communist regime to immediately and unconditionally release him because he has conducted no crime but exercised his right of freedom of expression on Facebook.
Facing increasing social dissatisfaction, Vietnam’s communist regime has intensified its crackdown on human rights defenders, political dissidents, social activists, and Facebookers in order to keep their political monopoly. So far this year, the regime has arrested at least 28 activists and sentenced 27 to a total 115.5 years in prison and 20 years of probation.
The regime has a plan to try seven others in the coming days and its victims are human rights lawyer Tran Vu Hai and his wife on allegation of tax evasion, pro-democracy activist Nguyen Nang Tinh on accusation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and four individuals named Vo Thuong Trung, Doan Viet Hoan, Nguyen Dinh Khue and Ngo Xuan Thanh who were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” for their plan to participate in peaceful demonstration in late April this year when the country marked the fall of the US-backed Saigon regime.
On November 5, authorities in the northern province of Hoa Binh arrested local resident named Nguyen Van Nghiem on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” for his online postings and live streams on Facebook which were considered harmful for the regime.
Vietnam is holding at least 237 prisoners of conscience in critical conditions, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience, saying it imprisons only law violators.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 18, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 7, 2019
- Event Description
On November 7, the Higher People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City rejected the appeal of human rights defender and environmentalist Nguyen Ngoc Anh, sending him back to prison in the hearing failed to meet the international standards for a fair trial.
Mr. Anh, 39, will have to serve his 6-year imprisonment on the allegation of “Making, storing, disseminating, or propagandizing information, materials, and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for his online posting on his Facebook account. In addition, his imprisonment is followed by five years of probation.
In the hearing which lasted a few hours on the morning of Thursday, his wife, relatives, and friends were not permitted to enter the courtroom to observe it but watched its development via a TV screen in another room, typical for political cases.
Observers said the judge undermined the defense statement of Mr. Anh’s lawyer and from himself. The judge even questioned him why he attended anti-Formosa demonstrations in May 2016 since the Formosa’s spill did not directly affect Ben Tre province where Anh has a shrimp farm. In response, Anh said he wants to speak out to protect the environment everywhere on the earth. He claims that he is innocent.
Mr. Anh was arrested on August 30, 2018 by the authorities in the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre due to his postings and live streams on Facebook which are about prototypical issues of concern to social activists in Vietnam, including the environmental destruction wrought by the Formosa’s toxic waste spill in April 2016, the lack of free choice in elections in 2016, and the welfare of political prisoners. However, Vietnam’s communist regime sees them as harmful and defamation of the regime.
Since being arrested, he has been a subject of inhumane treatment by Ben Tre province’s authorities. He was brutally beaten by an inmate in September who mostly acted under the instruction of the local police as they want him not to appeal the sentence given by the province’s court on June 6.
Authorities in Ben Tre have also persecuted his wife who has to take care of their six-year-old child. They have been placing her under close surveillance and several times summoned her to a police station for questioning.
Two days prior to his appeal, Human Rights Watch issued a press release calling on Vietnam’s communist regime to drop the charge against him and free him immediately and unconditionally. By convicting him, Vietnam clearly violates his right to freedom of speech, said the New York-based rights group.
Mr. Anh is among 237 prisoners of conscience being held by the regime in severe living conditions.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Community-based HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Shrimp Farmer Arrested, Charged with Anti-state Propaganda amid Intensified Crackdown
- Date added
- Nov 18, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 6, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Nghe An have decided to re-schedule the first-instance hearing on November 15 to try local pro-democracy activist Nguyen Nang Tinh on allegation of “Making, storing, spreading information, materials, items for the purpose of opposing the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Clause 1, Article 117 of the country’s 2015 Criminal Code.
The trial will be carried out by the People’s Court of Nghe An province in its headquarters in Vinh city, according to the court’s notice sent to Mr. Tinh’s lawyer Dang Dinh Manh.
The trial, set on October 17 for the first time, was postponed due to the absence of some witnesses, said the court’s announcement on the scheduled day.
It is unclear whether lawyer Manh and other his colleagues have been permitted to have access to the case’s documentation to prepare for his defense. In mid-October, a few days before the scheduled trial, Mr. Tinh’s lawyers asked the court to postpone the trial as they complained that they had a very short time for his defense preparation. One week before the scheduled trial, his lawyers were allowed to meet with him in police custody and got access to his case’s documents, however, they had not permitted to make copies of the indictment and other documents, making their preparation impossible for the serious charge against him.
Mr. Tinh was arrested by Nghe An province’s security forces on May 29 who later charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda.” Authorities in Nghe An said Mr. Tinh has used his Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh to post and share articles and videos as well as images with content defaming state leaders and distort the ruling communist party’s policies.
According to his family, his indictment was based on the information on the Facebook account Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, however, he reportedly denied to have this account.
Local activists said Mr. Tinh, who is a college lecturer, is very active in promoting human rights and multi-party democracy, and speak out about the country’s issues such as systemic corruption, human rights abuse, widespread environmental pollution and China’s violations to Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and the weak response of the communist government in Hanoi.
There are some videoclips on Youtube in which Mr. Tinh tough students to sing a number of patriotic songs composed by dissidents in which the government is criticized for suppressing anti-China activists.
Vietnam continues its political crackdown on local dissent, arresting more than two dozens of human rights defenders, bloggers, and social activists so far this year with different allegations, from “disturbing public orders” to subversion. Hanoi has also convicted 27 activists on trumped-up allegations with a total 115.5 years in prison and 20 years of probation.
The communist regime is holding at least 237 prisoners of conscience as of November 6, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Authorities in Nghe An Arrest Local Democracy Activist, Charging Him with "Conducting Anti-state Propaganda"
- Date added
- Nov 18, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Nov 5, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam’s northern province of Hoa Binh have arrested Mr. Nguyen Van Nghiem on allegation of “Making, storing, disseminating, or propagandizing information, materials, and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code for his online posting on his Facebook account Nghiêm Nguyễn.
On November 5, officers from the Security Investigation Agency under Hoa Binh province’s Police Department carried out his detention and the search of his private residence in Hoa Binh city. They confiscated a number of his items, including two computers, two printers, cameras, and cell phones.
He will be held for 120 days for investigation and face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years if is convicted, according to current Vietnam’s law.
Mr. Nghiem, 56, has posted numerous statuses and conducted many live streams on his Facebook account on which he spoke out about the country’s issues such as systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution, serious human rights abuse, and China’s violations of the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea). He has also criticized the communist regime and its leaders for failure to deal with these problems.
His live streams programs on Facebook have thousands of viewers thanks to his outspoken activities.
Mr. Nghiem has been the 18th Facebooker being arrested so far this year amid Vietnam’s increasing crackdown on local dissent which started in late 2015 with the arrests of prominent human rights lawyer Nguyen Van Dai and his assistant Ms. Le Thu Ha.
Since the beginning of 2019, Vietnam’s communist regime has arrested at least 28 human rights defenders, political dissidents, social activists, and Facebookers, mostly with allegations in the national security provisions in the Criminal Code. It has also sentenced 27 activists with a total of 115.5 years in jail and 20 years of probation.
Vietnam is holding at least 237 prisoners of conscience, including 28 in pre-trial detention which lasts up to 14 months.
Trials of many activists are scheduled in the coming two weeks.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 18, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 30, 2019
- Event Description
On October 30, the People’s Court of Ninh Kieu district in the Mekong Delta’s hub Can Tho City convicted university lecturer Pham Xuan Hao of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code, state media has reported.
Accordingly, the court sentenced Mr. Hao to one year in prison for his postings on his Facebook page. He was said to post and share many articles which distorted the communist regime’s policies and defamed the country’s leadership. It is unclear when he was arrested.
Mr. Hao, 54, is a lecturer of Can Tho University. He graduated architecture and obtained a master’s degree.
He is among a number of Facebookers in Ninh Kieu district being convicted of “abusing democratic freedom” in recent years. In June this year, Quach Nguyen Anh Khoa was sentenced to six months in prison and in September last year, Doan Khanh Vinh Quang was given 27 months in jail for the same allegation. Vietnam’s communist regime is using controversial allegations “abusing democratic freedom” and “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code to silence online dissent. As many as nine activists are being imprisoned between six months and seven years for the first charge and 37 activists are held for the second charge, 30 of them were sentenced to between two and 14 years in jail. Currently, Vietnam is holding 236 prisoners of conscience, according to the latest statistics of Defend the Defenders.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Academic
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Nov 4, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 15, 2019
- Event Description
Saigon-based pro-democracy activist Vu Huy Hoang has been interrogated and beaten by police in Ho Chi Minh City for his attempt to deliver books that were printed by an unregistered publisher called Liberal Publishing House.
Speaking to Defend the Defenders, the 46-year-old activist said he received an order to supply 10 copies of Đại Nghịch Bất Đạo and five copies of Ký Đinh Quang Anh Thái to a retired state official Kha Luong Ngai on October 15. When Hoang arrived at a private resident of the recipient in the morning of last Tuesday by his motorbike, plainclothes agents detained him and took him to a police station in Ward 6, District 3 for interrogation.
Hoang said that in the beginning, plainclothes agents beat him brutally on his head and body in police custody, but they stopped physical torture against him after they had more information about his social activities from the city police’s record.
Hoang was interrogated from 11 AM until 9 PM of the same day by security police officers from District 3, the city’s Police Department and the Ministry of Public Security about the contents of the ordered books and their origin: who and where have printed them.
The experienced activist said he remained silent in most times before police officers escorted him to his house. However, his house was under surveillance during the night and the police said they would summon him for further interrogation in the coming days.
In the early morning of October 16, when the surveillance was loosened, Hoang took his opportunity to leave his house and went into hiding. Now he was forced to stay inside in a secret place far from his family. He said he may have to stay away from his wife and two kids for months although he can communicate with them via secret chat applications such as Whatsapp, Telegram or Signal.
Hoang started his social activities in 2012 when he joined other activists in HCM City, Hanoi and other locations on various issues, including China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and Hanoi’s weak response, human rights violations, serious environmental pollution, and charity programs. He is a member of the unregistered groups named the Vietnam Pathway Movement and the Liberal Publishing House.
In May 2016, local blogger and political writer Pham Doan Trang was invited by the US Embassy in Vietnam to participate in a meeting between local activists and then-President Barack Obama on the sidelines of his official visit to the communist nation. Hoang escorted Trang from HCM City to Hanoi but they were traced and detained by security forces in their midway. Police kept them for several days in a remote motel in the central province of Ninh Binh so Trang was not able to take part in the meeting.
Meanwhile, the Independent Publishing House is trying to produce unique books of political dissidents and writers considered as harmful for the communist regime which strives to halt the house’s works and suppress its staff.
Dozens of unofficial books have been printed by the Liberal Publishing House and their authors include political writers Pham Doan Trang, Pham Thanh and others from foreign countries.
Ký Đinh Quang Anh Thái is a book of the US-based veteran writer Dinh Quang Anh Thai, who is the incumbent editor-in-chief of the Nguoi Viet Daily News (or Người Việt). In this book, he wrote about prominent Vietnamese political dissidents and their activities which aim to promote human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam.
On the other hand, Đại Nghịch Bất Đạo is a book of Hanoi-based veteran journalist Pham Thanh about Vietnamese President Nguyen Phu Trong, who is also the general secretary of the ruling Communist of Vietnam. In his book, Thanh described Trong as the biggest traitor of the Vietnamese nation.
Vietnam’s security forces are striving to demolish the Independent Publishing House and persecute its staff.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Surveillance , Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 28, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 25, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnamese environmental activist and filmmaker Thinh Nguyen, a member of the independent civil group Green Trees, was detained on Friday in Hanoi in what was thought to be the government’s response to a film on other environmental activists who were detained for their advocacy.
Cao Vinh Thinh, a fellow member of Green Trees group, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that Nguyen, who was later released, had been outspoken about the government’s rights abuses.
“I know Mr. [Nguyen] is a brave artist, he specializes in making videos on [about his story] to let people know about the tortuous circumstances of injustice and death row inmates … as well as the right to speak up against the government’s wrong doing in causing people to lose their land unjustly,” she said.
“We heard that he had been arrested, beaten and handcuffed by the police at his own home. Since he has no relatives, no one witnessed the arrest," she added.
Cao said she was upset that the police arrested Nguyen without any prior notice or any search warrant.
“Before [Nguyen], other members of Green Trees like myself and Dang Vu Luong had the same [thing happen to us]. They [came with] no announcements or orders at all. They can just come and arrest people, just like they can ban people from traveling aboard, just like that," she said.
She said she thought that Nguyen got arrested because of his movie “Do Not Be Afraid,” which was released by Green Trees.
According to her, the film "has the sole purpose of protecting the environment, contributing to the voice and light, the truth about people like Hoang Duc Binh, who for standing up to protect the environment was arrested and imprisoned for 14 years".
Hoang was arrested in 2017 and handed the lengthy sentence for his involvement in protests regarding the Formosa disaster, a major toxic spill in central Vietnam’s by a steel plant owned by Formosa Plastics Group, a large Taiwan-owned industrial conglomerate, that devastated more than a hundred miles of coastline in four central provinces of Vietnam.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of Human Rights Watch, said in an email that Nguyen’s arrest should never have happened.
"Vietnam has no good reason to arrest photographer and film-maker Thinh Nguyen for his peaceful advocacy for the environment and human rights,” said Robertson
“Sending squads of police to grab him from his house this morning shows the authorities' incredible intolerance for any sort of criticism. Vietnam should immediately and unconditionally release Thinh Nguyen and end its abusive surveillance and harassment of people exercising their rights," he said.
RFA contacted the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and the Tay Ho District Police in Hanoi by telephone to inquire about the arrest several times but did not receive a response.
In Taiwan, meanwhile, a resolution expressing concern over the human rights situation in Vietnam was unanimously adopted Friday by organizations affiliated with the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH).
The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) submitted the resolution to the 40th FIDH Congress, which met this week in Taipei. The annual congress, held for the first time in Asia this year, was attended by 400 human rights leaders, academics and civil society representatives.
VCHR’s resolution drew attention to the Vietnamese government’s suppression of criticism and peaceful protests, pointing out that activists are routinely detained for long periods of time. It also spoke out against the criminalization of free expression though legislation designed to “create a climate of fear among all those seeking to participate in public affairs.”
The resolution also called upon the European Union to postpone signing of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) “until it ensures the agreement guarantees the Vietnamese people’s fundamental rights.”
The FTA was signed in June this year, but has yet to be approved in the European Parliament.
“This resolution is deeply meaningful for human rights defenders in Vietnam,” said VCHR representative Võ Trần Nhật in a statement released by the organization.
“While the government deploys its vast machinery of repression, censorship, intimidation and imprisonment to suppress their voices, this statement shows that international civil society stands with them in their struggle, and will not be silenced,” he said.
Another resolution on Vietnamese environmental justice was also submitted by the Taiwanese Association for Human Rights at the congress.
The resolution, also unanimously adopted by the FIDH, drew attention to the environmental damage caused by the Formosa toxic spill.
It was critical of Vietnam’s failure in supporting victims and urged them to address human rights concerns including “the right to a clean environment, the right to food and health, the right to work, the rights to freedom of expression, assembly, the right to information and the right to an effective remedy.”
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 28, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 18, 2019
- Event Description
A court in northern Vietnam’s Bac Ninh province on Friday rejected the appeal of a local activist and toll-booth protester, sending him back to jail to serve his 30-month term.
Ha Van Nam was convicted on July 30 on a charge of “causing public disorder” at a toll-booth set up under Vietnam’s controversial Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) scheme, which has drawn protests around the country.
At Nam’s trial, the sentencing court said he had gone to the Pha Lai toll station on Vietnam’s Hwy. 18 with a large crowd on Dec. 29, 2018 to block traffic, causing losses of revenue to the station when station managers were forced to let vehicles pass through free of charge to relieve congestion.
Also sentenced by the court were Nguyen Quynh Phong, Le Van Khiem, Nguyen Tuan Quan, Vu Van Ha, Ngo Quang Hung, and Tran Quang Hai, who drew jail terms of from 18 to 36 months on the same charge.
Speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service, another local activist who was present in the courtroom Friday said prosecutors and judges did not allow Nam to speak in his own defense at the hearing.
“When Ha Van Nam tried to speak up for himself, the procuracy and the judges would not let him present his case,” Tran Thi Thu Thuy, a longtime friend and supporter, said.
“The judges said that Nam’s protest was a deliberate act of instigation, even though he had not encouraged others [to block traffic] but had only encouraged them to assert their rights,” she said, adding that Vietnamese law guarantees the people’s rights to protest wrongdoing.
Defense motions rejected
Prosecutors rejected defense motions to explain the cause of Nam’s protest, insisting that his appeal be judged only against the facts established during his first trial, Thuy said. And after about two hours of court hearing and deliberation, the court ruled to uphold Nam’s sentence.
“This sentence is very unfair. It is unjust for the government to accuse people of causing public disorder simply for insisting on their interests and legal rights,” she said.
Vietnamese citizens have long suspected station operators of falsifying collection records at BOT projects across the country, with citizen volunteers sometimes camping nearby to count cars passing through and ensure that tolls are not collected outside the times allowed.
One form of protest has involved truck drivers paying their tolls with small-denomination coins, slowing down collection and creating huge traffic jams.
Under the BOT model, investors transfer their projects to state ownership after building and operating them for a period of time.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- RTI activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 25, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 17, 2019
- Event Description
On October 17, the People’s Court of Ia Grai district, Gia Lai province, convicted local Facebooker Nguyen Thi Hue on the charge of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code for her online posting.
Ms. Hue, 51, was arrested in early March this year. She was accused of using Facebook accounts named “Nguyễn Thị Huệ,” “Công Lý Về Tôi,” “Nguyễn Huệ,” “Vũ Quỳnh Hương,” and “Den Quang” to disseminate “wrong information” in the period between July 2017 and March 2019 to distort state leaders and local state officials who were dealing with her case.
She was also alleged of insulting local police officers and prosecutors when she came to their offices to file petitions for her case. However, the state media did not disclose what she had petitioned for.
The state media also reported that Ms. Hue was warned of causing public disorders in the Gia Lai province’s Office of Citizens’ handling” in late December 2016. On January 20, 2017, she was fined VND200,000 ($9) for the same accusation.
Meanwhile, Facebooker Duong Thi Lanh, who was sentenced to eight years in jail earlier this year on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code, has refused to appeal the decision of the Dak Nong province’s People’s Court since she feels there are no fair hearings as the court system is controlled by the ruling communists.
There is an increasing tendency in which authorities in many Vietnamese localities are using allegations in the National Security provisions in the Criminal Code such as subversion, “conducting anti-state propaganda” and “abusing democratic freedom” to silence local activists and Facebookers.
So far this year, Vietnam’s communist regime has arrested 25 activists and Facebookers, and convicted 24 for online activists with imprisonment between one and 12 years in prison.
Vietnam is holding 234 prisoners of conscience, according to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics. Hanoi always denies of holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Justice-seeker Nguyen Thi Hue Arrested, Charged with Abusing democratic freedom
- Date added
- Oct 24, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 11, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Quang Binh have kidnapped local pro-democracy activist and tried to charge him with “rape of a person under 16 years old” under Article 142 of the country’s 2015 Criminal Code in a case that many dissidents consider as a trumped-up allegation in a bid to silence him.
Businessman Thanh, 29, was reported missing in the afternoon of October 10 after he informed his family that he went outside to meet with a client for his house repair business. His family couldn’t contact him from early evening of the same day, fearing he may get trouble. One day later, the police in Ba Don town announced that they arrested him and publicized the arrest warrant on allegation of raping dated October 11.
It is likely Thanh will be held for months and no wonder if authorities in Quang Binh will change their charge against him into one of the allegations in the National Security provisions in the Criminal Code, like in other trumped-up cases in the past such as with political dissident Cu Huy Ha Vu and environmentalist Nguyen Nam Phong.
Thanh is a member of the unregistered group Brotherhood for Democracy which is suffering seriously from Vietnam’s ongoing crackdown on the local dissent with ten members being imprisoned for their peaceful activities.
In recent years, Thanh has reportedly worked against local corruption and high unofficial fees imposed by local schools. He has also voiced against the Taiwan-invested Formosa Steel Plant which discharged its industrial waste into the sea and caused the environmental disaster in Vietnam’s central coast in 2016 with hundreds of tons of fisheries died along the 200-kilometer line.
Due to his peaceful activities, he has been harassed by the local authorities who try to block his economic activities. He was detained several times for questioning.
Vietnam is intensifying its crackdown on the local dissent, arresting two dozens of activists so far this year. The communist regime has also convicted 23 bloggers, Facebookers and anti-corruption activists for their peaceful activities to a total 106.5 years in prison and 20 years of probation. A number of activists are held in pre-trial detention.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 15, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 11, 2019
- Event Description
Detained Vietnamese environmental activist Nguyen Ngoc Anh has been placed in solitary confinement after being beaten unconscious at the hands of his cellmate and refused treatment for his injuries, his wife said Friday, adding that he “fears for his life” in jail.
After visiting Anh at the Binh Phu Detention Center in Ben Tre’s Thanh Phu district on Friday morning, his wife, Nguyen Thi Chau, told RFA’s Vietnamese Service that her husband was left with a limp following the attack.
“When I sat down, I saw my husband come out, but he could barely walk,” she said, adding that she had to hold back tears to ask him what had happened.
“My husband told me that last Friday, [prison authorities] invited [his cellmate], a convicted criminal, for a talk. When the [talk] was finished, he walked up to [my husband] pointing his finger at him and said, ‘I can kill you and I won’t have to [answer for it]. I will kill you this time.’”
Chau detailed her husband’s account of the fight that ensued.
“He jumped into the cell and threw a punch, but my husband was able to dodge,” she said.
“[My husband] turned around to grab a bath towel, but the criminal kicked him from behind. My husband fell and hit his head on the [concrete] bunk and he lost consciousness,” she said.
Chau said that after the fight, Anh requested medical attention, but prison authorities refused to help him.
“He was turned down [for medical attention]. They also didn’t arrest the guy that beat my husband, and escorted my husband to a separate cell, like for solitary confinement,” she said.
Anh, a shrimp farming engineer, was arrested in August 2018 in Ben Tre province for making politically charged posts on Facebook.
He was convicted in June 2019 on charges of “making, storing, spreading, and declaring transmitted information and documents to combat the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” according to Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Criminal Code. Anh has rejected the sentence and launched an appeal.
The environmental activist has reported trouble with his cellmate over the past few months, according to his wife.
Last month, Chau told RFA that Anh had detailed physical and mental abuse by his cellmate during an earlier visit, and that he had also been threatened with death.
She also claimed that prison authorities are pressuring her husband to plead guilty and give up his appeal, and that the abuse becomes increasingly severe each time he refuses.
Difficult conditions
Chau described the conditions of Anh’s cell in solitary confinement as extremely difficult, and said guards refuse him basic necessities.
“While he’s in there he doesn’t have [access to] boiled water, he can’t read newspapers, he isn’t allowed to watch TV, or listen to the radio,” she said, adding that the injuries he sustained in the recent attack made the situation nearly intolerable.
“While he was in pain, he was unable to walk or even clean himself. Today he was barely able to walk when we visited him. He said he could not eat, or sleep.”
Chau said that Anh “dare not speak out” about his treatment in prison, because “the more he said, the more difficult it will be for him.”
“He fears for his life,” she said. “I just want the international community and human rights organizations to protect and help save my husband. I need nothing more than that.”
No date has been set for Anh’s appeal trial, and authorities have so far refused him permission to meet with a lawyer.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Administrative Harassment, Intimidation and Threats, Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Shrimp Farmer Arrested, Charged with Anti-state Propaganda amid Intensified Crackdown
- Date added
- Oct 15, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 26, 2019
- Event Description
Anti-corruption reporter Kieu Dinh Lieu of Vietnam Lawyers journal, was brutally beaten by a group of three thugs in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai on September 26.
Due to the assault, he fell into inconscious, suffering from cerebral hemorrhage and traumatic brain injury. Currently, he is under special medical treatment.
He was reported to be stopped and beaten by a group of three thugs when he was in Truong Chinh street in Pleiku city, immediately after he informed the Gia Lai province’s Forest Ranger Department about three trucks full of illegal wood from Duc Co district.
The attackers also destroyed his car in a bid to search for videoclips and other documents regarding illegal forest lodging and trade of illegal timber in Gia Lai province. He was sent to the Central Highlands to investigate the illegal forest lodging in recent weeks.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Raid, Violence (physical), Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Media Worker
- Perpetrator-Non-State
- Suspected non-state
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 3, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 18, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam’s northern province of Yen Bai have convicted a local anti-corruption activist named Tran Dinh Sang of “Resisting a law enforcement officer in performance of his/her official duties” under Article 330 in the country’s 2015 Penal Code in a trumped-up case, state media has reported.
In the first-instance hearing on September 18, the People’s Court of Yen Bai City found the 39-year-old anti-corruption fighter guilty and sentenced him to two years in jail for his attempt to unveil local traffic police’s bribery case.
Mr. Sang was arrested in his private residence in Yen Bai city in early morning of April 9. Police also conducted search of his house. Three weeks earlier, in the evening of March 23, when a patrol unit of the Yen Bai city’s Mobile police was carrying out regular traffic check and imposing administrative fine on traffic violators, Sang stopped his car and filmed the police’s activities because he suspected that the police team took bribery from traffic violators. The two sides held quarrel as the policemen requested Sang to stop filming while Sang insisted that he has a right to observe and witness the police’s activities as a citizen.
The police patrol unit reported that Sang tried to attack one of police officers, however, no solid evidence was shown by the police side.
According to Sang’s post on his Facebook, he wanted to supervise the activities of the mobile police’s unit as a citizen. The policemen tried to take his camera and he resisted. Later, police took him to a police station where he was beaten brutally by police officers. He was left to go home in mid night with broken ribs and other severe injuries on his body.
Mr. Sang is one of Facebookers covering bribery of traffic police and activities against corruption related to the arbitrary placement of toll booths on national highways on his account “Tran Dinh Sang and his friends.”
A number of his fellows have been harassed and persecuted in recent months amid increasing public disatisfaction on systemic corruption, especially in traffic police forces, and the arbitrary placement of tens of toll booths on national highways across the nation.
In early March, Ha Van Nam, one of the most active figures against the fee collection of wrongly-placed toll booths, was arrested and charged with “causing public disorders,” two weeks after being kidnapped and brutally beaten by undercove policemen. In July, he and six others fellows were sentenced to between 18 months and 36 months in prison.
Vietnam’s communist regime verbally encourages citizens to take part in anti-corruption campaign, however, numerous activists have been imprisoned or intimidated after denouncing state officials of taking bribery or stealing state properties.
Sang has been the 8th Vietnamese Facebooker being arrested and charged with criminal offenses so far this year, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics.
Since the beginning of this year, Vietnam’s communist regime has jailed 23 activists with a total 106 years and six months. Currently, the regime is holding 233 prisoners of conscience, said Defend the Defenders.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 2, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 23, 2019
- Event Description
On September 27, 2019, authorities in Vietnam’s Central Highlands province of Lam Dong confirmed the arrest of a local resident named Nguyen Quoc Duc Vuong with the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Penal Code.
The confirmation was made by the Don Duong district police on Friday, three days after authorities in Lam Dong deployed dozens of police and militia to detain him from his parents’ private residence in Hai Duong village, Lac Lam commune. The arrest was conducted by the police from the Security Investigation Agency of the Lam Dong province’s Police Department.
Police also conducted a search of his parent’s house and confiscated his personal computer and cell phones.
Police said he will be held incommunicado for at least four months for investigation. He will face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison if is convicted, according to the current Vietnamese law.
Local media cited police’s information as saying that Mr. Vuong, 28, has used his Facebook account Vượng Nguyễn in the past two years to produce and disseminate information defaming the communist regime and its late leader Ho Chi Minh.
Vuong reportedly participated in the mass demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10, 2018 which aimed to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. He was detained by police from Tan Tao ward, Binh Tan district who imposed a fine of VND750,000 ($32) before releasing him.
Vuong has been among more than a dozen of Facebookers being arrested for their posts on Facebook critical for the communist regime since the beginning of 2018 when Cyber Security Law became effective, according to Defend the Defenders’ statistics. Vietnam’s communist regime has targetted Facebookers in provinces instead of other online activists in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other big cities, noted Defend the Defenders’ Director Vu Quoc Ngu.
So far this year, Vietnam has convicted 23 human rights defenders, online critics, and anti-corruption activists and sentenced them to a total 106 years and six months in prison, said Mr. Vu Quoc Ngu, adding the communist nation is holding at least 234 prisoners of conscience.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Denial Fair Trial, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Raid, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Oct 2, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Event Description
A Vietnamese engineer imprisoned for his activism has been beaten, humiliated and treated like a "slave" in jail after refusing to wear prisoner uniform, his brother and a former inmate said, calling for pressure on the authorities to bring him out of "hell." Dang Xuan Dieu, jailed for 13 years in 2013 on charges of plotting to overthrow the authoritarian government in Hanoi, has also been refused family visits after he sent a letter to the police minister complaining about the mistreatment. "They treated him very badly," Catholic activist Dieu's brother Dang Xuan Ha told RFA's Vietnamese Service. "Dieu said he is innocent so he did not wear the uniform bearing the word "criminal," Ha said. "Dieu protested the fact that his letters sent to the authorities, including the police minister, have not been answered. That was why they did not let him meet his family." Dieu got the biggest jail term among a group of Catholic activists, students, and bloggers convicted for their involvement with Viet Tan, a U.S.-based Vietnamese political group outlawed and considered a terrorist organization in Vietnam. Dieu was incarcerated in No. B4 prison in Hanoi, but was later moved to No. 5 prison in Thanh Hoa province. Prison authorities allowed Dieu's family to visit him only once while the he was in the Hanoi prison, but have not permitted them to see him in the other detention center, Ha said. Truong Minh Tam, a former prisoner who was confined in a cell next to Dieu's told RFA that prison staff humiliated him for several months last year by letting other prisoners beat him and forcing him to serve as a "slave." "He was living in hell because they[prison staff] humiliated him," Tam said. Dieu was not given access to a fan or clean drinking water, said Tam, who had served one-year jail term after he participated in protests against China whose territorial disputes with Vietnam have led to riots and a sharp deterioration in bilateral relations. Prison authorities also forced Dieu to pose as a "model" for other prisoners who were asked to paint him as a "half-human/half-beast figure," Tam said. Dieu had also staged a hunger strike in a campaign for prisoners' rights, Truong said. Dieu's family said that news of his hunger strike in June had been mentioned in petitions sent to foreign embassies in Vietnam and to the U.N. Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. "I would like people from different religions backgrounds to raise their voices in pressing the government to stop the ill treatment of Dieu," Tam said. He added that Dieu's 70-year-old mother was not in good health and dispirited by her son's incarceration. Relatives of Dieu and the other jailed activists had staged a protest march and candlelight vigil outside government offices in 2012 after they were first detained a year earlier. They wanted to submit a petition demanding the activists' releases, but were blocked by police.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 24, 2012
- Event Description
A Vietnamese Catholic activist was freed Thursday after serving more than three years in prison, where he said he had nearly died from a beating and had suffered repeated humiliation by guards who denied him access to the Bible. Dau Van Duong, 26, was among four Catholic youths convicted in May 2012 of "conducting propaganda against the state" following distribution of pro-democracy leaflets. They were punished under Article 88 of Vietnam's penal code-a controversial provision rights groups say is often used arbitrarily to imprison bloggers, legal advocates, and other critics of the state. Duong was ordered jailed for three and a half years but was given an early release Thursday on condition that he serve an additional 18 months of probation. Speaking with RFA's Vietnamese Service shortly after he returned home to Nghe An province's Nam Dan district, Duong said he was lucky to be alive after being subjected to a vicious beating in the Nghi Kim Detention Center, where he was first incarcerated. "When I first came to Nghi Kim[in Nghe An's Vinh city], they let other prisoners beat me-two inmates brutally beat me from 10:00 p.m. to almost 4:00 a.m.," he said. "I thank God that I'm still standing here today. I might have died at that time. My body hurt terribly, but I kept praying and recovered." Later, Duong was transferred to Prison No. 5 in neighboring Thanh Hoa province, where he served the remainder of his jail term. Duong said he was placed in a cell along with "drug dealers, robbers, and murderers," though he also briefly kept quarters with other political prisoners, including members of a group convicted in January 2013 for their involvement with Viet Tan, a U.S.-based pro-democracy organization banned by the Vietnamese government. "They were less restrictive in Prison No. 5," he said. "However, there were some prison guards who humiliated me. I protested and they were changed." But despite the relative leniency of Prison no. 5, devoutly-Catholic Duong said his Bible was confiscated by authorities and not returned to him until after he had held a week-long hunger strike and threatened to continue his protest. A prison officer who confiscated my Bible "told me that all religious books were forbidden and that I could only get it back after I was freed." "He told me that even if I brought the issue to the attention of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, he couldn't do anything about it," Duong said, naming the officer as Dinh Cong Chien. "I told him that he had violated my right to religious freedom-a basic right for everyone-and that I would continue my hunger strike until he returned my Bible. One day after that, the management board convened and they returned my book, so I stopped my strike." Duong had been in detention since August 2011, when he was arrested for passing out flyers urging the public to boycott the Nghe An People's Council elections three months earlier, saying the electoral process did not represent the will of the people.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 23, 2014
- Event Description
A Vietnamese court has ordered seven farmers jailed for up to 22 months on charges of disturbing public order after they resisted land grabs to make way for urban development projects in their village. They were arrested in March and April in Duong Noi village, about 14 kilometers (8.6 miles) southwest of the capital Hanoi, for preventing police from enforcing the land seizures. The court on Tuesday sentenced two of them -- Tran Van Mien and Tran Van Sang --- to 22 months and 20 months in prison, respectively, while the other five were sentenced to between six and 18 months in jail last week. Tran Thu Nam, the lawyer who defended Mien and Sang, told RFA's Vietnamese Service that there were no legal grounds on which to charge them. "The evidence in the file is the testimony of witnesses, but their words were all contradictory," he said, adding that the jury did not accept his arguments when he pointed out the discrepancies. "I think this is a case of injustice," he said. No leniency After the trial, Mien's wife, Tran Van Nhan, told RFA that the prosecutor's office said the court was not lenient towards the two farmers because they did not plead guilty or cooperate with the office. She added that both men were in poor health because of beatings they had received while in custody. Trinh Ba Phuong, the son of two of the five farmers sentenced last week, told RFA that 100 people, including democracy activists, had gathered Tuesday ahead of the court verdict to protest the arrest of "innocent people" and seek justice for Mien and Sang. They were later transported by bus to a police station and confined there for several hours. "The trial is supposed to be open to the public, but[authorities] dispersed us," Phuong said. During their trial, police blocked the road to the courthouse, sources told RFA. A very limited number of people, such as relatives of the defendants, were allowed into the courtroom. The government started taking land in Duong Noi several years ago after farmers there refused to transfer their land rights to Nam Cuong Group, a Vietnamese company developing the area for a complex of residential and office buildings, hotels and schools. The farmers say the land seizures were illegal and they weren't compensated fairly.
- Impact of Event
- 7
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Right to property
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 25, 2014
- Event Description
Vietnam's authoritarian government on Friday placed an unknown number of dissidents in its largest city under virtual house arrest or closely monitored their movements in an apparent attempt to prevent them from meeting with a visiting U.N. envoy on human rights, dissidents said. Some of the dissidents said they were prevented from leaving their homes in Ho Chi Minh city, while others said they were harassed or threatened by government security agents when they went out to do their daily chores. United Nations Special Rapporteur Heiner Bielefeldt arrived in the capital Hanoi on July 21 for an 11-day visit to the country to assess the situation regarding the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of religion or belief, the U.N. said. During the trip, he will meet with various government officials and local authorities, and hold meetings with representatives of religious communities and civil society organizations, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva said. Amid reports that Bielefeldt was traveling to Ho Chi Minh city on Friday, police set up checkpoints a day earlier near the residence of prominent dissident Nguyen Dan Que, who had spoken out on the need for democracy and human rights accountability in Vietnam. Que, who had spent a total of 20 years in prison or under house arrest on various occasions since 1978, said he was blocked by three people on motorcycles, believed to be police in plainclothes, when he wanted to go out for his early morning exercise on Friday. "They did not let me go, but I still opened the door and got out[on my bicycle] just to see what they could do," he told RFA's Vietnamese Service. "They followed me. I went to the yard near my house for exercise; they sat opposite me." "After half an hour, I rode to the swimming pool. They followed me. I swam until 7 o'clock and then rode home. I got home, and the checkpoints were still there. The people who followed me were replaced by others." Que said that ex-political prisoner Pham Ba Hai had also called on Friday informing him that police had confined him indoors. Jailed blogger's wife The wife of prominent blogger Nguyen Van Hai-also known as Dieu Cay-who has been jailed since 2008, said she was also prevented by five people, including a man in a police uniform, from leaving her home on Friday. "I told them if they did not let me leave my house, they were taking away my freedom of travel and that they needed to show me an official order," she told RFA. "Immediately one young guy pointed his finger in my face and cursed. He almost punched me in my face, but the uniformed guy stopped him and pushed him away. They continued cursing at me," Hai said. "I don't understand what kind of education they got that they could behave like that to a citizen." Que said the government was practicing a "doubled-faced" policy by telling the outside world that Vietnam allows freedom of religion and human rights, while it cracks down on those who push for freedom. "We welcome human rights dialogues with other countries. We need such dialogues. But what we are trying to do is to mobilize the strength of the people for democracy and freedom and force the regime to change," he said. Bielefeldt had said that he wanted learn more about the diversity of religions and beliefs in Vietnam during his visit. The work of the Special Rapporteur, as mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council, also requires him to identify "existing and emerging obstacles to the enjoyment of the right to freedom of religion or belief and present specific recommendations to overcome them," the U.N. statement said. He is expected to hold a media conference on his preliminary findings on July 31 at the United Nations Development program (UNDP) office in Hanoi. Vietnam-Australia dialogue Meanwhile, Vietnam will hold its human rights dialogue with Australia in Hanoi on Monday. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch called on the Australian government of Prime Minister Tony Abbott to press the Vietnamese government to make "concrete and measurable improvements in its abysmal human rights record." "Australia should make clear that if Vietnam wants to be considered a responsible international partner, it needs to meet its international human rights obligations," said Elaine Pearson, Australia director at Human Rights Watch. "The countries should use this dialogue to set clear benchmarks for improvements in key areas like freedom of expression, religion, and association." In a seven-page submission to the Australian Foreign Affairs and Trade Department, Human Rights Watch urged Canberra to press the Vietnamese government for progress in three key areas of concern: political prisoners, repression of freedom of religion, and forced labor in drug detention centers. Bloggers in prison Approximately 150 to 200 activists and bloggers are serving prison time in Vietnam simply for exercising their basic rights, it said. During the first half of 2014, the Vietnamese authorities released a number of political prisoners, including Cu Huy Ha Vu, Do Thi Minh Hanh, Lu Van Bay, Nguyen Huu Cau, Nguyen Tien Trung, and Vi Duc Hoi. However, during that same period, at least 14 other activists and critics of the government were jailed, including well-known bloggers Truong Duy Nhat and Pham Viet Dao. In May, the authorities arrested another prominent blogger, Nguyen Huu Vinh, who is also known as Anh Ba Sam, and his assistant, Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, and charged them with violating penal code Article 258 on "abusing freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state." During 2013, Vietnam prosecuted and imprisoned at least 65 peaceful bloggers and activists. "In addition to dialogues with Western governments, Vietnam should hold dialogues with its own citizens even when their opinions differ from the government, instead of silencing them with arrest and prison," Pearson said. "The Vietnamese government needs to realize it can't solve the country's huge social and political problems by throwing all its critics in jail." UPDATE: 26/ 05/ 2105 Popular Vietnamese Blogger Released From Jail After Two Years A prominent Vietnamese blogger and rights campaigner serving a two-year prison sentence for "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state" was released on Tuesday, according to the blogger. Truong Duy Nhat, 51, was sentenced in early March 2014, charged under Article 258 of Vietnam's penal code. Scores of bloggers and dissidents have been charged under Article 258 in recent years, which rights groups say is deliberately vague and used to prosecute critics of Vietnam's one-party communist government. Mainstream media accused Nhat of posting slanderous articles about Communist Party leaders on his blog "Mot Cach Nhin Khac" ("Another Viewpoint"). Following his release, Nhat told RFA's Vietnamese Service that although he now had a herniated cervical disc, "nothing can keep me down." "Now that I'm out of prison, I hope that those who try to destroy this country will be jailed instead of me," he said. "I have nothing to be afraid of," Nhat said about the possibility that Vietnamese authorities might harass or re-incarcerate him for continuing to speak out against the regime. "Even if they send me to a life in prison or execute me, I'm telling you this sentence that you might already have known: They can harass, bully and attack your behavior, but they can't harass your mind." Criticizing the government Nhat used to work for state-owned newspapers, including Dai Doan Ket and Cong An Quang Nam, run by the Danang police force, but abandoned mainstream media to begin writing "Another Viewpoint" in 2011. The blog, which became widely known for its criticism of the government, was one of the most popular blogs in Vietnam before it was taken off the Internet after police arrested Nhat in May 2013. Police had searched his home in Danang city on the south central coast of Vietnam as part of a crackdown by authorities on online dissent. Authorities accused Nhat of posting articles that "were not true[and] defamed leaders of the party and state," according to his indictment. They took him into custody for posting articles on his blog calling for the resignations of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and Vietnamese Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong. Nhat also had conducted an online opinion poll ahead of a first-ever confidence vote on senior officials that the country's parliament held at a session in June 2013. On March 4, 2014, Nhat received a two-year jail sentence, prompting outrage from rights groups and an expression of "deep concern" from the U.S. embassy in Hanoi, which called on Vietnam to release Nhat and "allow all Vietnamese to peacefully express their political views." Overseas rights groups condemned the ruling as part of a relentless drive to squelch online dissent, with global press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders saying it was "outraged" by the conviction. Vietnam has jailed dozens of bloggers and rights advocates in recent years over their online posts, with rights groups accusing the government of using vague national security provisions against them to silence dissent. According to New York-based Human Rights Watch, approximately 150 to 200 activists and bloggers are serving prison time in Vietnam simply for exercising their basic rights.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats, Sexual Violence, Surveillance , Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Freedom of movement, Internet freedom, Women's rights
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jul 30, 2014
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam on Wednesday prevented several dissident bloggers and activists from attending a social media conference held at the Australian Embassy in the capital Hanoi, according to a former prisoner who was among those blocked. The Australian Foreign Ministry had invited an equal number of civil society and government representatives to attend Wednesday's seminar on "Modern Non-State Media in Vietnam"-the first by Australia to include participants from both sides, said Nguyen Van Dai, of the Former Vietnamese Prisoners of Conscience group. "Recently, the Australian Embassy sent out many invitations, including to Pham Ba Hai from the Former Vietnamese Prisoners of Conscience as well as to three members of the Brotherhood for Democracy," said Dai, who is also the founder of the Brotherhood. "Pham Ba Hai was prevented from attending. The Brotherhood for Democracy had two members blocked from attending, and only one person was able to go," he told RFA's Vietnamese Service. Dai said that the two members of The Brotherhood for Democracy who were prevented by authorities from attending the seminar were students Nguyen Van Trang and Ta Minh Thu. "Yesterday morning, a group of three to five security officers entered[Trang's] dorm room and monitored him. During the middle of the night, they pressured the landlord to kick him out. Without a place to stay, he had to return ... to his hometown[in Thanh Hoa province]," he said. "Also yesterday, security officers approached[Ta Minh Thu's] family and asked her parents to make her stay at home during the seminar." According to media reports, in addition to the members of the Former Vietnamese Prisoners of Conscience and The Brotherhood for Democracy, representatives from other civil societies were also prevented from attending. The reports said Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, known as Me Nam, and part of the network of Vietnamese Bloggers, was blocked by police, while Nguyen Thi Nga and Huynh Phuoc Ngoc from Vietnamese Women for Human Rights were surrounded by security forces at the Truc Son motel in Hanoi and prevented from leaving. According to Dai, the seminar, which was sponsored and organized by foreign diplomatic agencies, was created through funds annually put aside by the Australian government to improve the standards of law and human rights in Vietnam. He said that setting up seminars and study trips which include both government and civil society representatives had been part of his recommendations to Australia's Foreign Ministry when approached "some time ago" for suggestions on how to appropriate the budget. Activists targeted Dai said that Wednesday's seminar was not the first event organized by a foreign agency or international organization in which invited members of Vietnam's civil society groups were prevented from attending. "Just yesterday, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief planned to visit the wife of[jailed] Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh in Gia Lai, but Gia Lai officials did not allow him to visit her home," he said. Chinh, who is also an activist, was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2012 for "undermining unity" by maintaining ties with dissident groups and distributing material deemed to have "slandered" government authorities. According to Dai, the Vietnamese government still maintains ties with international organizations while persecuting local activists because "the nature of Communism ... is monopoly on power." "[The authorities] stop everything and anything that they cannot oversee and manage," he said. "Civil societies exist because Vietnamese citizens see an indispensable need, so they volunteer. This lies outside the government's scope of inspection and control so the regime does not want them." He said the authorities in Vietnam also fear that civil societies will form strong bonds with international organizations, which could give them the ability to influence the country's people. "According to the nature of the Communist Party, they would never want that. Therefore, they find every way possible to prevent[foreign] influence or prevent civil societies from participating in both international and local events." Developing civil society Dai said that government methods to block civil society groups from participating in events like Wednesday's seminar are gradually losing their effectiveness because improving technologies allow people greater access to information. "The people of Vietnam and civil societies can, in one way or another, still have access to such knowledge. And they can interact and communicate with representatives of foreign governments or international organizations through social media or the Internet," he said. "To me, these blockages are becoming less and less effective every day, and at some point the government must also become aware of this and abandon these methods." Dai added that civil society groups are increasingly learning how to harness technology to promote their own information about democracy and human rights in Vietnam. "This is a revolution changing ideology and knowledge. At the same time, links are being created via websites. Originally, individuals raised their voices for action in isolation, but gradually they formed groups and organizations," Dai said. "When you have many groups and organizations,[a movement] can create the potential to spread across society, forming larger groups, larger organizations, and even forming alliances. Only when we achieve this higher level can we create change in society," he said. "Civil societies and movements have yet to meet people's expectations. But I have hope that in the days to come, they will take steps to develop faster and more powerfully to provide for a better Vietnam."
- Impact of Event
- 6
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Freedom of movement, Internet freedom, Women's rights
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 1, 2014
- Event Description
In recent weeks, well-known Vietnamese activists have found themselves suddenly unable to log in to their Facebook accounts. Their personal pages have been suspended for "abuse" even though there was no apparent violation of any Facebook policy. According to Angelina Trang Huynh, who temporarily lost access to her Facebook account earlier this month, the culprit is the Vietnamese government's online army, known as "opinion shapers" (d? lu?n vi�_n). These opinion shapers used Facebook's "report abuse" system to orchestrate an onslaught of reports that likely led Facebook to suspend the targeted accounts. With 25 million Vietnamese users, Facebook is the social network in the country. Since Facebook took off in Vietnam in 2009, authorities have tried unsuccessfully to restrict its explosive growth and role as a medium for free expression. Early attempts by authorities to block Facebook did not succeed and only encouraged netizens to learn how to circumvent and became versed in civil disobedience. In 2013, 30-year old Dinh Nhat Uy was the first Vietnamese activist known to be arrested for his activities on Facebook. He was convicted for "abusing democratic freedoms" through status updates calling for the release of his younger brother who also used social media to express dissent. Uy's arrest sparked widespread attention but did not temper enthusiasm for using the social network for political discussion and organizing. It appears that Vietnamese authorities have given up on totally blocking Facebook. The country's economy and image depend on authorities maintaining some semblance of an open Internet. However, through "opinion shapers" authorities apparently hope to achieve their goal of stifling free speech. This online army has been blamed for creating an environment of intimidation and harassment, as evidenced by their tidal wave of toxic and profanity-laden comments. By flagging an account en masse, not unlike a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, these government henchmen can quickly trigger the takedown of a Facebook profile or community page with content critical of the Hanoi government. Facebooker Trinh Huu Long posted a list of accounts taken down recently. It reads like a list of who's who in the Vietnamese online activist community: 1. Angelina Trang Huynh - an administrator of Viet Tan page 2. Ba Ngoai Xi Tin - blogger 3. Bach Hong Quyen - human rights activist. Member of the Vietnam Path Movement 4. Ch�_ T?u - blogger, writer. Real name is Nguyen Xuan Dien 5. C�_ G��i ?? Long - blogger, journalist. Real name is Le Nguyen Huong Tra 6. ?inh Nh?t Uy - former prisoner of conscience, currently serving a suspended sentence for a conviction under Article 258 of Vietnam's Penal Code for postings on Facebook objecting to the government's unfair treatment of his brother, ?inh Nguy�_n Kha, another prisoner of conscience. Mr. ?inh Nh?t Uy was the first person ever to be convicted criminally for postings on Facebook. 7. ?? Trung Qu��n - writer, poet 8. Doan Trang 9. H?i Ph? N? Nh��n Quy?n - a community organization page 10. JB Nguyen Huu Vinh - blogger 11. Lacgiua Saigon - blogger 12. Lan Tuong Thuy - blogger 13. L�_ ?? VN 14. Ng��n An - blogger 15. Nguyen L��n Th?ng - blogger 16. Nguyen Tien Trung - former prisoner of conscience, recently released on April 12, 2014 17. Nguyen Tuong Thuy - blogger 18. Nh?t K�_ Y�_u N??c - a news/media page 19. Pham Thanh Nghien - blogger, former prisoner of conscience 20. Qu�_ Choa - blogger, writer. Real name is Nguyen Quang Lap 21. T?p h?p D��n Ch? ?a Nguy�_n - a community organization page 22. Thuy Nga - blogger, human rights activist 23. Trinity Hong Thuan - an administrator of Viet Tan page 24. Vi?t T��n or Viet Tan - community organization page Expect Vietnamese netizens to strike back, says Angelina Trang Huynh: Offline, the authorities wield security police to physically abuse peaceful activists. Online, they use "opinion shapers' to silence bloggers. Does the Vietnamese government really think they can get away with this abuse?
- Impact of Event
- 24
- Violation
- Censorship, Intimidation and Threats, Reprisal as Result of Communication
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Apr 3, 2014
- Event Description
A prominent Vietnamese former political prisoner who received a presidential amnesty two weeks ago has died of cancer, according to his family, in what an international rights group said was a tragedy that should be a "wake-up call" for the country. Dinh Dang Dinh, 50, an environmental activist and blogger who had spent two years in jail on anti-state charges, died Thursday night at his home in southern Vietnam's Dak Nong province, his daughter Dinh Thi Phuong Thao said. "My father died at 9:35 p.m. We were all here-my two siblings, myself, my mother, aunts, and uncles," she told RFA's Vietnamese Service. "He passed away in peace, with no pain," she said, adding that for the past two weeks he had been too weak to speak. Dinh had been hospitalized since January, after being diagnosed with stomach cancer while serving a six-year prison term for "conducting propaganda against the state." After receiving a temporary suspension of his sentence in February, last month he was ordered permanently released in an amnesty signed by President Truong Tan Sang. But the amnesty, which his family had asked for months earlier, came too late to make much difference in his chances of survival, his wife told RFA at the time. The amnesty also followed repeated calls for his release from rights groups and foreign diplomats. Last years 'stolen' Global advocacy group Amnesty International issued a statement Friday expressing its condolences over his death and demanding the release of scores of political prisoners still held in Vietnam. "The tragedy of Dinh Dang Dinh's passing should be a wake-up call for Viet Nam," the group's Asia-Pacific director Rupert Abbott said. "It is a tragedy that the Vietnamese authorities stole the last years of Dinh Dang Dinh's life, locking him up away from his loved ones," he said. The group called on the Vietnamese government to release all of the country's political prisoners, saying that, like Dinh, all had "done no more than peacefully express their opinion" and many were held under harsh conditions. A former high school chemistry teacher and army officer, Dinh was arrested in October 2011 after starting an online petition against a politically sensitive bauxite mining project given to a Chinese developer in Vietnam's Central Highlands. He was sentenced in August 2012 under Article 88 of the penal code-a charge rights groups say Hanoi routinely uses to silence dissent. Relatives called his sentence "a serious abuse of human rights," saying he was jailed for "telling the truth" about issues of concern to Vietnam. He was diagnosed while in the An Phuoc prison in Binh Duong province, where relatives said he was denied access to proper treatment.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- Death, Killing, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Access to justice, Right to life
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 22, 2010
- Event Description
On 23 February 2010, Ms. Hanh was allegedly arrested because of her involvement in a strike from 28 January to 1 February 2010 at the My Phong Leather Shoes factory in Tra Vinh province. It is reported that Ms. Hanh was arrested when she went to renew her identity card at the Di Linh Public Security Office and was not initially informed of the reason for her arrest. It is alleged that upon her arrest Ms. Hanh was beaten in the head by security guards until she bled and lost hearing in one ear. Messrs. Doan Huy Chuong and Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung were also arrested on 13 February and 24 February 2010, respectively, due to their alleged role as organizers of the strike. Ms. Hanh was initially held in Prison B34 in Ho Chi Minh City. She was later transferred to a prison in Tra Vinh province. It is reported that Ms. Hanh was subject to intimidation, harassment and pressure to admit her culpability, which she resisted. She was reportedly not permitted to seek any legal counsel during her pre-trial detention. After being held for eight months without charge, Ms. Hanh was charged on 18 October 2010 for disrupting national security in violation of Article 89 of the Penal Code of Viet Nam. She was also accused of receiving funding from the Warsaw-based "Committee to Protect Vietnamese Workers' to print and distribute anti- Government leaflets and facilitate labour strikes. On 28 October 2010, Ms. Hanh, together with Messrs. Doan Huy Chuong and Nguyen Hoang Quoc Hung, received a one-day trial in the People's Court of Tra Vinh. Reports indicated that they were not provided with legal counsel, were interrupted when speaking in their defense, and were only permitted to answer "yes' or "no' to questions. Ms.Hanh was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison. Mr. Doan was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, and Mr.Hung to nine years. Following the trial, Ms. Hanh continued to be held in Tra Vinh province. Reportedly, she continued to suffer mistreatment, intimidation and pressure to admit her guilt, including being forced to use dirty water and being prevented from using mosquito nets given to her by her family. It is alleged that during monthly visits with her family she was permitted to speak about her health, but not about seeking legal advice or appealing her case. On 31 December 2010 an appeal case was initiated on behalf of the three defendants. It is alleged that their lawyer's repeated requests to see his clients were denied by prison authorities. The initial appeal date was set for 24 January 2011 but was delayed as they had not been allowed to meet. On 5 March 2011, Ms.Hanh's lawyer was granted an audience with her. They were permitted two meetings before the appeal hearing on 18 March 2011. The Appeals Court upheld the original verdict, despite allegations that Ms.Hanh's recorded statements had been distorted. On 27 April 2011, Ms.Hanh's mother was informed that her daughter's visitation rights had been suspended for disciplinary reasons. It was alleged that Ms. Hanh had sung a song about the injustice and cruelty of the Communist Party and that 3 prison staff had instructed other prisoners to enter her cell and beat her up. Reportedly, Ms. Hanh continued to be pressured into admitting her "guilt'. At the end of April 2011, Ms. Hanh was transferred to a prison in Ben Luc, Long An province where she was allegedly placed in solitary confinement and not allowed to receive money from her family to buy food. Furthermore, she was reportedly forced to sleep on a bare floor, endure physical assault and intimidation, and was continually pressured to plead guilty to the crimes she has been convicted of. On 5 May 2011, Ms.Hanh was transferred to Prison Z30D in Binh Thuan province. It is alleged that there she was forced to perform hard labour, and when refusing to perform such work, she was assigned a space mea suring 62cm wide to live, eat and sleep. It is further reported that the prison authorities in this prison use a widespread practice of using detainees to discipline other detainees. This "discipline' reportedly involves physical abuse such as being beaten, kicked, dragged down stairs, and locked in a cage. It is alleged that in one incident in which her fellow inmates were made responsible for disciplining her that Ms. Hanh was kicked all over her body, struck on the head with a water scoop, dragged out of her cell, locked in a cart and then pushed to the entrance of the camp for others to see her. Further allegations detail discipline by prison staff,such as being tied to a post in the sun for several hours. In late April 2013, Ms. Hanh was moved to Prison Z30A in Xuan Loc, Dong Nai province. It is alleged that mistreatment of Ms. Hanh has continued there. Allegations indicate that Ms. Hanh has lost a considerable amount of weight, is covered in skin lesions, and is experiencing pain in one breast which has shrunk in size. It is believed that her breast pain may be due to cancer and that she has repeatedly asked staff to access medical treatment but that these requests have been denied. On 15 August 2013, three letters were sent by Ms. Hanh's family to authorities in Vietnam requesting that she be granted access to health treatment. No reply has been received to date.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment, Sexual Violence, Torture, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to Protest, Right to work, Women's rights
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jun 30, 2012
- Event Description
During the crackdown on the anti-China protestors across the country in June and July 2012, Mr. Le Cong Cau was prohibited from joining the demonstrations. It is reported that, on 30 June 2012, he was subjected to police interrogation for seven hours from 3:30pm to 10:30pm in Thua Thien- Hue. Throughout the night, his house was surrounded by the police. The next morning of 1 July 2012, as he was leaving his house, he was forcibly escorted home and forbidden from participating in the demonstrations.2 Sources further inform that on 12 March 2013, Mr. Le Cong Cau was summoned by the Security Police for another interrogation at the Truong An district police station. From 8.00am on 13 March 2013, he was subjected to intensive interrogations for the next two and a half days. Contrary to usual practice, the police interrogation was conducted by officials from the Provincial and Municipal-level Security Police, not by local police. During the interrogation, they presented Mr. Le Cong Cau with several articles from the Internet and accused him of "slandering the regime and spreading propaganda about an illegal organization named the UBCV". Before releasing him on 15 March 2013, the police declared that they had obtained "sufficient evidence" to prosecute him under Articles 87 and 88 of the Criminal Code, allegedly after forcing him to write a statement admitting the illegal nature of his online articles. It is further reported that while Mr. Le Cong Cau wrote the statement, he denied that writing his opinions online was a criminal act. He tried to add to the statement: "I stand by my convictions and ideals. Everything I have done is in line with the rights enshrined in the Vietnamese Constitution. All those who try to prevent me are violating our Constitution. I refuse to collaborate with those who trample on the Vietnamese Constitution". However, the Security Police deleted these lines from his statement. On 12 April 2013, a Joint Allegation Letter was sent to Vietnam by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. On 2 July 2014, Vietnam provided a substantive response to the Joint Allegation Letter, claiming that Mr. Le Cong Cau has a history of inciting inter-communal and inter-religious violence and that he was a threat to public order, national security and social stability. UPDATE 1/1/2014: Mr. Le Cong Cau was arrested at Phu Bai Airport near Hue, subjected to a 13-hour investigation, and prevented from leaving his house for one night. Police seized two laptops, two flash drives and two mobile phones. No reasons for his detention were given and no charges were laid, in contravention of international law. His arrest is likely related to his planned visit to an elderly monk under house arrest in Ho Chi Minh City.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of movement, Freedom of Religion and Belief, Internet freedom, Right to Protest
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 1, 2012
- Event Description
On 1 February 2013, the People's Court in the Phu Yen province convicted 22 members of the "Bia Son Council for Public Law and Affairs". The alleged leader of the group Mr. Phan Van Thu, 65 years old, who was arrested in February 2012, was sentenced to life in prison, and the 21 others were sentenced to between 10 and 17 years in prison. The authorities had previously charged them under article 79 of the Criminal Code ("activities aimed at subverting the people's power"), accusing them of producing documents that distorted government policies and slandering the regime. It is reported that the 22 defendants did not enjoy a fair trial as their lawyers, appointed by the Court, did not challenge the sentences proposed by the People's prosecutor. Serious concerns are expressed that the harsh sentences pronounced against the 22 members of the "Bia Son Council for Public Law and Affairs" may be linked to the exercise of their right to freedom of association. Further concerns are expressed for their physical and psychological integrity while in detention.
- Impact of Event
- 22
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 24, 2013
- Event Description
At 10:15 a.m. on 24 January 2013, six security agents appeared at the workplace of Mr. Le Anh Hung in Hung Yen and informed his boss that they needed to see him on issues concerning temporary residence papers. He was subsequently forced into a car and taken to an unknown location. His friends later found out that he had been interned in Social Support Centre No. 2 in Ung Hoa, Hanoi, a mental health institution. The director of the mental health institution prevented Mr. Le Anh Hung?s friends from visiting him and stipulated that he is being interned there upon request from his mother, which she has subsequently denied. It is reported that Mr. Le Anh Hung may be detained in Support Centre No. 2 under Ordinance 44 of 2002 on Handling of Administrative Violations, which allows for the detention of individuals without trial for up to two years under house arrest (probationary detention); in reformatories; educational institutions; rehabilitation centres or medical treatment establishments, including psychiatric wards. The provisions of the Ordinance relate to those who commit acts of violating legislation on security, public order and safety, but not to the extent of penal liability (Art 1.3 of Ordinance 44). On 1 February 2013, a Joint Urgent Appeal was filed by the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. UPDATE 05/02/2013: Vietnamese blogger Le Anh Hung was released on February 5, 2013, about 12 days after he was arrested and held against his will in a psychiatric institution in Hanoi, the national capital, according to news reports. Hung was initially arrested on January 24 in the northern city of Hung Yen. Security agents said they needed to question him over his "temporary residence papers" but later detained him at Social Support Center No. 2, a mental health institution. The institution's director told Hung's colleagues that he had been admitted at the request of his mother and was not allowed to see visitors. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a coalition of three international rights groups, said in a public statement that Hung's mother had made no such request. Hung told Radio Free Asia after his release that he had been treated "normally" while held in the facility. He said he believed his detention was in connection with 71 critical blog posts he had written over the past five years about government corruption. The Observatory also reported that Hung had been subjected to repeated interrogations, threats, and harassment by police before his arrest. RFA reported that Hung had faced prior harassment for his online writings, which included critical blog entries on the abuse of power inside the ruling Communist Party.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Abduction/Kidnapping
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom, Right to information
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 9, 2013
- Event Description
Vietnamese police have summoned bloggers for questions and accused them of holding "illegal gatherings" at the U.S. and Swedish embassies in Hanoi. The bloggers are conducting a campaign of meetings at foreign embassies to lobby against Article 258, which makes it a crime to speak or write in a way that infringes upon Vietnam's state interests. The bloggers say the law is meant to curb free speech and dissent and they want western governments to pressure Hanoi to repeal the measure. Police say the gatherings at the embassies are illegal because they did not have permits. No one has been formally detained yet. Blogger Nguyen Dinh Ha, a participant in the campaign, told VOA's Vietnamese service the questioning shows how severely human rights are violated in Vietnam. "The reason stated for the summon violates freedom of movement and the basic civil rights of the people in this country. For so long, we've been protesting against those regulations banning 'gatherings without permission' because they violate basic human rights. Those rules are nonsense and severely violate our rights," he said. The bloggers stress that their campaign will keep going with more stops at foreign embassies. The U.S. and other western governments have been critical of Vietnam's human rights record, including its suppression of free speech and dissent.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Internet freedom, Right to Protest
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 11, 2013
- Event Description
Reporters Without Borders is appalled to learn that a people's court in the south-central province of Phu Yen sentenced 65-year-old dissident activist Ngo Hao to 15 years in prison on 11 September on a charge of trying to overthrow the government. Hao's harsh sentence came just weeks after appeal court in the southern province of Long An commuted the sentences of two bloggers, Nguyen Phuong Uyen and Dinh Nguyen Kha. "This long jail term has dashed the hope of less repressive policies that was raised by Uyen's release," Reporters Without Borders said. "As was the case with Uyen's and Kha's appeal, the court did not allow Hao to exercise his right to a fair defence and, except for his son, did not allow his family to attend the hearing." Reporters Without Borders added: "We call on the authorities to overturn this conviction and release Hao at once. We also reiterate our call for the release of all the cyber-dissidents currently detained in Vietnam." Arrested on 8 February, Hao was accused of writing and circulating false information about the government and defaming its leaders from 2008 to 2012. He was also accused of using peaceful means to promote a revolution similar to the Arab Spring uprisings, and of working with Bloc 8406, a dissident group formed in 2006 that wants multi-party democracy. His son, Ngo Minh Tam, has voiced concern about his father's health, which he says is critical. The hearing had to be paused for several minutes because Hao felt very tired but the judges did not agree to the request for an adjournment. Hao's wife, Nguyen Thi Kim Lan, yesterday published an open letter to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon asking the international community to help obtain her husband's release. Ranked 172nd out of 179 countries in the 2013 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index, Vietnam has been criticized by the international community several times in recent months for its treatment of bloggers and dissidents. The European Union has also expressed its concern about freedom of expression in Vietnam, most recently at a meeting held in Hanoi on 11 September under a cooperation and partnership accord that the EU and Vietnam concluded in June 2012. During this meeting, the EU's representatives relayed the concerns expressed by Reporters Without Borders. A Franco-Vietnamese association is organizing a human rights march in France ahead of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's visit at the end of September. To draw attention to the crackdown on news providers and human rights defenders in Vietnam, they will begin their march in Nantes on 16 September and plan to reach Paris on 24 September.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom, Right to fair trial
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 27, 2012
- Event Description
Nguyen Cong Chinh, 43, allegedly wrote and distributed material that slandered government authorities and "distorted Vietnam's domestic situation". His sentence was made worse by ties with anti-government groups. For Human Rights Watch, his conviction is "yet another demonstration" that Vietnam violates freedom of religion. A Vietnamese court has sentenced the pastor of a banned Mennonite church to 11 years in prison for undermining national unity. State media today reported Tuesday that Nguyen Cong Chinh was found guilty of writing and spreading material that slandered government authorities and "distorted Vietnam's domestic situation." He was also accused of ties with anti-government groups. Rev Chinh's conviction is the latest case of religious repression in Vietnam but not the only one. Yesterday, Vietnamese authorities denied entry to a Vatican commission working on the cause of beatification of Card V?n Thu?n. Rev Nguyen Cong Chinh, a 43-year-old Mennonite clergyman, was accused of sending documents to anti-government organisations in Vietnam and overseas. "He distorted the domestic situation, calumniating the government, the state and the army in interviews with the foreign media," the English-language Vietnam News daily said, quoting the court. His one-day trial was held yesterday in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai, where Chinh was arrested in April 2011. For Human Rights Watch, Chinh's conviction is "yet another demonstration" that Vietnam disregards freedom of religion. Government repression is especially hard on small minority groups and sects that are not affiliated with state-sanctioned religious associations. Mennonites are the largest Anabaptist group, with about 1.5 million members around the world, especially in the United States, Canada, Africa and India. In Vietnam, they have no official status. Today's conviction comes after the authorities cancelled entry visas for a Vatican commission travelling to the Southeast Asian nation to hear the cause of beatification of Card Francis Xavier Nguyen V?n Thu?n. Card Peter Turkson, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, and was due to visit Vietnam from 23 March to 9 April, was scheduled to lead the Holy See delegation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief, Right to fair trial
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 24, 2013
- Event Description
A group of Vietnamese dissidents and their families detailed on Thursday their harrowing experience when police broke up a dinner party at a blogger's house, violently beat them, and dragged them away on the ground in pouring rain. All eight of them have been released following the raid on blogger Nguyen Tuong Thuy's house on Wednesday night but have yet to recover from the shocking experience, accusing the police of brutality and abusing their legal authority. "They broke the door and entered the house without any notice or papers for legal order," Nguyen Thi Nhung, the mother of activist Nguyen Phuong Uyen, told RFA's Vietnamese Service. "They went upstairs where we were and held our hair and pushed us against the wall violently. It was very cruel." "It was raining very hard but they threw us on the ground and dragged us to the car," Nhung said. "We were all soaked, without shoes. It was like an abduction." Uyen, a 21-year-old student activist who was released earlier this year after her sentence for spreading "anti-state propaganda" was reversed, has gotten a fever after beatings that made her nose bleed and left her face swollen, her mother said. Farewell dinner The group had gathered at Thuy's house to have a farewell dinner for Uyen and her mother, who were about to fly back to their home in southern Vietnam's Long An province following a visit to Hanoi. Also herded away to the police station in Hanoi's Thanh Tri district were Thuy's wife and daughter as well as Duong Thi Tan - the ex-wife of jailed popular blogger Nguyen Van Hai - and Le Quoc Quyet, the brother of prominent rights lawyer Le Quoc Quan, who is set to stand trial next week on tax evasion charges. Police took Nhung and daughter Uyen to the airport and forced them on a plane home late Wednesday night. Nhung said police dragged them across the floor and assaulted them. "Her feet are still bleeding," she said of Uyen. Tan said she went to the airport with a small group of people to try to see the pair off, but police and plainclothesmen forcibly stopped her from meeting them. "[The police] pushed me down on the floor. I don't know what they used but after that I saw my hand bleeding profusely, my body ached," she said. "When I got home, I checked and saw many bruises. I don't know how they did it but I know policemen were trained very well to beat people," she said. Le Quoc Quyet injured Quyet was also beaten harshly in the raid. "They kicked him on both sides of his torso," his mother Nguyen Thi Tram told RFA, saying she was caring for his injuries and she was concerned he was severely injured. "I'm worried that he might have some internal injuries," she said. Quyet has been campaigning for the release of his brother, an outspoken blogger actively involved in a string of anti-China demonstrations last year over Beijing's territorial claims in the South China Sea. "I saw[police] grabbing his[Quyet's] neck and throwing him out," said Tan, who was also not spared beatings. "I saw them kicking him.... They kicked him in the face a lot," she said. "I was in terrible pain myself and could not think much." Activists said they were given no legal reason for the raid and police carried no papers for the detention. Unwarranted Thuy said the raid on his house was unwarranted and that only a few of those who carried it out were police in uniform while most were in plainclothes. "According to the law, officers on duty have to wear uniforms and name badges and have to show their papers to prove they are from the government and what agency they come from," he told RFA. "It was wrong. Even a child would know that." The blogger, who has written critically of the government and been interrogated by police six times, said the incident was not the first time he had faced harassment from local authorities. "Now this time they came to destroy my house," he said. Hanoi police director Nguyen Duc Chung refused to comment when contacted by RFA on Thursday. The Thanh Tri district police chief could not be reached. Police surveillance and harassment is a common experience for dissident bloggers and dissidents in Vietnam, where dozens have been jailed for speaking out online since the one-party communist state stepped up a crackdown three years ago.
- Impact of Event
- 8
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association
- Source
Radio Free Asia?searchterm=activist)
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Sep 1, 2013
- Event Description
The Vietnamese government adopted the Decree on Management, Provision, and Use of Internet Services and Information Content Online (Decree 72/2013-ND-CP) on July 15, 2013; it became effective on September 1, 2013. (English translation of the Decree, Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade website (July 15, 2013) | [scroll down page to file attachment].) The Decree has been criticized as censoring the Internet. (Peter Shadbolt, Rights Groups Take Aim at Vietnam's New Internet Laws, CNN (Sept. 2, 2013).) Under the Decree, use of the Internet is subject to restrictions that vary depending on the purpose or effect of the use. The Decree prohibits use of Internet services and online information to oppose the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; threaten the national security, social order, and safety; sabotage the "national fraternity"; arouse animosity among races and religions; or contradict national traditions, among other acts. (Decree 72/2013-ND-CP, art. 5.) The Decree classifies websites into five different types: (1) electronic newspapers in the form of websites, (2) general information websites, (3) internal information websites, (4) personal websites, and (5) specialized websites. Personal websites cannot provide general information. (Id. art. 20.) "General information is information collected from multiple sources about politics, economics, culture, or society." (Id. art. 3, item 19.) The Decree limits blogs and social websites to exchanging "personal information," which is explained in the CNN article as original material generated by the users. (Shadbolt, supra.) Foreign organizations, enterprises, and individuals that provide public information across the border that is accessed by Vietnamese people or through people in Vietnam must comply with Vietnam's law, the Decree states. (Id. art. 22.) One Hanoi-based law firm commented, "[a]ccording to some Vietnamese newspapers, this new provision would hopefully help control such organizations as Facebook, Google and other foreign suppliers of cross border public information, as they actually are not at all regulated in Vietnam." (New Decree No. 72-2013/ND-CP on Management, Supply and Use of Internet Services and Network Information, D&N INTERNATIONAL (Aug. 31, 2013).) The United States Embassy in Vietnam issued a statement on August 6, 2013, that expressed concern about "the decree's provisions that appear to limit the types of information individuals can share via personal social media accounts and on websites." (Statement: Internet Content Decree, Embassy of the United States, Hanoi, Vietnam (Aug. 6, 2013).) The Freedom Online Coalition also released a statement expressing its concern, as the Decree "impose(s) further restrictions on the way the Internet is accessed and used in Vietnam." (Press Release, Marie Harf, U.S. Department of State, Freedom Online Coalition Joint Statement on the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's Decree 72 (Aug. 26, 2013).) On 1 October 2013, a Joint Allegation Letter (JAL) was issued by the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association; and the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. On 10 October 2013, Vietnam briefly responded to the JAL, claiming that "the allegations on restrictions by the Decree 72 are baseless."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- Censorship
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom, Right to information
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 5, 2013
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam detained for questioning a dozen young activists on their return from a training stint with a civil society organization in the Philippines amid suspicion in Hanoi that they might be involved in anti-government activities, according to friends and family. The 12 youths had attended the two-week 2013 Civil Society study program with rights organization Asian Bridge Philippines in Manila and were taken into police custody in three separate groups on their return to Vietnam, beginning late last week. "When I arrived at the airport, there were many policemen, which I already anticipated," said blogger Bui Tuan Lam, among four activists held at the Ho Chi Minh City's Tan Son Nhat Airport after deplaning on Oct. 5. "[They] took me to a room at the airport with seven or eight people in it ... and kept me there for 16 hours," Lam told RFA's Vietnamese Service. The others held with him included blogger Yeu Nuoc Viet and activist Tran Hoai Bao. "They asked me ... about the course, how many people attended, who organized it, if I knew that "hostile forces' were behind it ... I told them I didn't care about that[and that] all I cared about was that it was a good course about civil society, which is very weak in our country." The second group of five was detained on Oct. 6 at Hanoi's Noibai Airport and included Do Van Thuong, Nguyen Viet Hung and Dang Hai Di, while the third group detained two days later at Tan Son Nhat Airport comprised Pham Tran Quan, Truong Quynh Nhu and Bui Thi Dien. All nine activists detained in the first two groups were released late in the evening on Oct. 6 while the third group was released on Thursday, Lam said. He said the 12 had met with Philippine NGOs and lawmakers, and representatives of the United Nations' Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and the Asian Development Bank. He said that he decided to return home although he learned about the detention of some of his colleagues earlier "because I did not do anything wrong-I only went to learn some new things for the benefit of our country." Told to sign Lam said that his interrogators treated him well but repeatedly asked him to sign documents, including photos of people who attended the course and a letter asking for leniency. "I did not sign because it wasn't right ... I only signed to acknowledge the minutes of the meeting, but I would not sign any other document promising that I would not attend any similar courses or make public the content of our meeting," he said. "They said civil society is good, but as it develops there will be interest groups and parties which[will call for the] overthrow of the regime ... I told them that their argument is ridiculous. Nobody is against them and if they do good things the people will support them." He was finally informed he would be "summoned again when needed" before being freed. "Committed to learn' Asian Bridge Philippines had expressed concern in a statement that the Vietnamese government had decided to detain the 12, saying the group found it "unsettling" that they were held "without any explanation or notice." "To Asian Bridge Philippines, it is highly commendable that these young individuals from Vietnam are committed to learn about what civil society means and how it has developed in the Philippines," the statement said. It urged the Vietnamese authorities to respect the "basic rights" of all Vietnamese "to freely travel and learn about the development of civil society in other nations in the region." The group said that as part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc of ten nations, Vietnam should "encourage their citizens to learn about other nations' history and society, instead of instilling fear, so that the mission of ASEAN can be soon achieved." Aside from Vietnam, ASEAN comprises Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
- Impact of Event
- 12
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of association, Freedom of movement
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 29, 2013
- Event Description
A Vietnamese court today sentenced independent blogger Dinh Nhat Uy to a 15-month suspended prison term and one year of house arrest in connection with his posts on Facebook, according to news reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the verdict and calls on Vietnamese authorities to end their escalating campaign of harassment against independent bloggers. In a one-day trial, a Long An province court ruled that Uy's use of Facebook to campaign for his brother's release from prison on anti-state propaganda charges was in breach of Article 258 in the criminal code, a vague charge that bans "abusing democratic freedoms." News reports said Uy's conviction was the first against a blogger or dissident specifically for using Facebook. Most independent bloggers in Vietnam use Facebook as their blogging platform. A new decree for governing the Internet that came into effect on September 1 restricts the types of content that foreign companies are allowed to host on their Vietnam-related websites or social media platforms. Uy had been calling for the release of his brother, Dinh Nguyen Kha, a computer technician, who was sentenced in June to eight years in prison--reduced to four years on appeal--for anti-government propaganda. Uy had faced a potential seven years in prison under the charges. Agence France-Presse reported that suspended prison sentences in Vietnam generally entail severe restrictions on the individual's movements, with requirements to check in regularly with police. Uy was first arrested on June 15 for "compiling and publishing distorted and untrue articles and pictures on his blog, tarnishing the prestige of state bodies," according to state-run news reports. Computers, phones, flash drives, books, and laptops were confiscated from his home,reports said. He had been summoned by the police several times since his brother was arrested. "While blogger Dinh Nhat Uy's sentencing today was lighter than the punishment handed down to other critical bloggers, it will necessarily have a chilling effect on all bloggers who use Facebook as their preferred platform," said Shawn Crispin, CPJ's senior Southeast Asia representative. "Vietnamese authorities should stop harassing bloggers and scrap all laws that restrict online reporting and commentary." It was not immediately clear if authorities intended to hold Facebook accountable for the materials, now ruled illegal, that Uy posted to his Facebook page. Two other prominent bloggers, Pham Viet Dao and Truong Duy Nhat, were arrested respectively in May and June on accusations related to Article 258. They are currently under investigation and are being held in pre-trial detention. All but one of the 14 reporters jailed at the time of CPJ's 2012 prison census published blogs or worked predominantly online.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- Censorship
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 11, 2014
- Event Description
On February 11,2014, police detained and beat more than a dozen activists who were on their way to visit former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Bac Truyen and his fianc_, Bui Thi Kim Phuong, in Lap Vo district, Dong Thap province, after Truyen was beaten and detained by police on February 9. On February 24, Nguyen Bac Truyen and Bui Thi Kim Phuong were beaten on their way to the Australian Embassy in Hanoi, where they had been asked to brief embassy officials on previous assaults. Three people remain in detention at An Binh prison in Dong Thap: Bui Thi Minh Hang, Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh, and Nguyen Van Minh. According to family members the three have been accused of obstructing traffic under article 245 of the penal code. On February 16, 2014, 23 people issued a public complaint, enclosed below, regarding arbitrary detention and violations of the Convention against Torture in regard to this incident. February 16, 2014 LETTER of COMPLAINT Respectfully submitted to: - Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights - United Nations Human Rights Council - Human Rights Watch - Amnesty International - Congress of the United States of America - Congress of the European Union - Members of the World Trade Organization We are writing to protest the Vietnamese Communist Party and the Communist Government of Vietnam for their arbitrary arrests of innocent citizens and their violations of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (UNCAT), which Vietnam signed on November 7, 2013. On February 11, 2014, the Government of Vietnam utilized a force of up to 1,000 security and police personnel in Long Hung Commune, Lap Vo District, Dong Thap Province, brutally ambushing a group of 21 citizens including former prisoners of conscience, Hoa Hao Buddhism worshippers, and common folks. These 21 individuals were attacked while they were on their way to visit former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Bac Truyen's family in Hung Nhon village, Long Hung Commune, Lap Vo District, Dong Thap province. Mr. Nguyen Bac Truyen's residence was the site of a violent attack and arrest of Mr. Truyen during which personal properties and sacred Hoa Hao shrines were destroyed on February 9, 2014. Dear Sir and Madame, The entire group of 21 citizens including women were beaten until covered in blood before they were locked up in a dark, dirty room for almost 48 hours. To make matters worse, the authorities did not provide food or drinking water for the detainees. This cruel mistreatment is clear evidence of the Vietnamese communist government's violations of UNCAT. As of present, 18 of the 21 detained individuals have been released. Ms. Bui Thi Minh Hang, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh and Mr. Nguyen Van Minh are still jailed at An Binh prison, which is under the direction of Vietnam's central Ministry of Public Security. The reason of their imprisonment is "illegal gathering causing serious interference with common traffic" according to Article 245 of the Penal Code of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Dear Sir and Madame, Government authorities can arrest or detain individuals who breach laws, pose immediate threats to society, or obstruct the investigation, prosecution, or implementation of a verdict. The visit to Mr. Nguyen Bac Truyen's family, who were suppressed by the Communist Government of Vietnam, did not violate any law or constitute any threat to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Therefore the arrests, torture, and detention of the 21 Vietnamese in this case, especially Ms. Bui Thi Minh Hang, not only infringed on Vietnamese laws but also violated the UNCAT, of which Vietnam is a signatory. The Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam contains articles regarding individual rights as following: Article 71 in the 1992 and 2013 versions of Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam states that "citizens have respectable rights to their individuality protected by laws including life, health, honor, and dignity. No-one can be arrested in the absence of a ruling by the People's Court or a ruling or sanction by the People's Office of Supervision and Control, except in case of flagrant offences. Taking a person into, or holding him in custody must be done with full observance of the law" Article 72 in the 1992 and 2013 versions of Constitution of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam also emphasizes, "persons under wrongful arrest, detention,[or] prosecution are entitled to material compensation and character restoration. Any persons who wrongfully abuse the laws in[carrying out] arrests, detentions, and prosecution that caused damages to citizens are subjected to punishment by law." With such clear Constitution and laws, the Communist Government of Vietnam regularly infringes on personal safety and health of their citizens by habitual arrests and detention of innocent citizens. The extent of the problem is so serious that even government-controlled media acknowledges that there are thousands of Vietnamese citizens who suffer forced admittance of guilt, torture, and wrongful convictions. Up until now, there is a total absence of practices in government authority to prevent these illegal acts that breach local laws and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam's Constitution as well as international conventions to which Vietnam is a member. We strongly condemn these crimes against the people and the country of Vietnam by the Communist Government through this newest case of attacks, arrests, and torture of the group of 21 Vietnamese nationals mentioned above including ongoing imprisonment of Ms. Bui Thi Minh Hang, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh, and Mr. Nguyen Van Minh. We respectfully urge the Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, the Government and Congress of the United States of America, the Governments and Congress of the European Union, and Members of the World Trade Organization to re-examine Vietnam's membership in the United Nations Human Right Council and Vietnam's membership in WTO due to its very dreadful records on human rights. We respectfully urge the Government and Congress of the United States of America to stop ongoing negotiations regarding Vietnam's admission into the Tran Pacific Partnership until the Communist Government of Vietnam improves their human rights practices. Americans value and strongly believe that only a free and democratic Vietnam deserves to be a trading partner with the rest of the world. Signed by: - Nguyen Thu Tram, member of 8406 Block, Head of Media Relations for Association of Prisoners of Conscience and Religious Freedom for Vietnam. UPDATE 26/08/2014: the People's Court in Dong Thap province handed down a three-year sentence to Bui Thi Minh Hang and a two-year sentence to Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh and Nguyen Van Minh for obstructing traffic under Article 245 of the penal code. Family members were barred from the court room, as were some 50 activists, who were temporarily detained by police to prevent them from attending.
- Impact of Event
- 50
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Freedom of movement, Right to property
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Oct 30, 2013
- Event Description
An outspoken Vietnamese blogger has been detained at Hanoi's Noi Bai airport upon his return from a six-month trip to the Philippines and Thailand, where he had met with U.N. human rights officials and advocacy and media groups, friends and fellow bloggers said Wednesday. Nguyen Lan Thang, who began blogging for RFA's Vietnamese Service last month, told friends by telephone that he had been taken into custody Wednesday night Vietnamese time upon arrival from the Thai capital Bangkok, they said. A day before, he had posted on Facebook a brief video message indicating he expected to be arrested. "Hello my friends! When you see this video, it is certain I have been arrested by the security forces," he said in the clip. "But don't worry, I will come home to be with you all soon," said Thang, a fierce critic of Vietnam's strict media controls. Whereabouts unknown Some 30 friends and fellow bloggers had been waiting for Thang at the airport, fellow blogger La Viet Dung said. "Thang had told us to come pick him up. At 8:15 p.m., he called us to let us know that he was detained," Dung told RFA's Vietnamese Service. Airport authorities, including immigration officials they were referred to, refused to tell them of Thang's whereabouts or why he was being held, he said. "Now we don't know where Thang is." Meeting with right officials Thang lives in Hanoi with his wife, who is due to have the couple's first child in a few months. He had been among a group of Vietnamese bloggers who met with U.N. human rights officials in Bangkok in July to report on rights violations in their home country. The group had presented the officials with a petition, known as Declaration 258, that called for a U.N. Human Rights Council review of Vietnam's treatment of activists and for the elimination of Article 258 of the country's penal code, which prohibits "abusing democratic freedoms" and has been used to jail dissidents. Bloggers Phuong Dung and Thao Chi, who also took part in the July meeting, were briefly detained on their return from Bangkok to Vietnam on August 5, sources said. Philippines trip Following the Bangkok talks, Thang went to Manila with a dozen other young activists for a training stint with a civil society organization in the Philippines before returning to the Thai capital for other meetings. His colleagues who attended the two-week 2013 Civil Society study program with rights organization Asian Bridge Philippines in Manila were held by the authorities for about a day on their return home amid suspicion in Hanoi that they might be involved in anti-government activities, according to friends and family. Asian Bridge Philippines slammed the Vietnamese government for the action, calling on Hanoi to respect the "basic rights" of all Vietnamese "to freely travel and learn about the development of civil society in other nations in the region." The group said that as part of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc of 10 nations, Vietnam should "encourage their citizens to learn about other nations' history and society, instead of instilling fear, so that the mission of ASEAN can be soon achieved." Aside from Vietnam, ASEAN comprises Laos, Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Video message In a video Thang sent to RFA last month, he spoke out against limits Vietnamese authorities place on social media, describing controls placed on those who expose politically sensitive issues such as land grabs and corruption in the one-party communist state. "The social media network is an important tool for me to express my views. At the same time, it has gotten me and those who share my views in trouble," he said in the video. "Freedom of expression is one of the most important human rights. If it is restricted, social development will be distorted because there is no one to give feedback on public policies." Thang has published two blog posts for RFA so far. More than 40 Vietnamese bloggers and activists have been imprisoned so far this year, rights groups say, many of them imprisoned under vaguely worded security provisions. Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders ranks Vietnam 172nd out of 179 countries on its press freedom index and lists the country as an "Enemy of the Internet."
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Internet freedom
- Source
Radio Free Asia?searchterm:utf8:ustring=human+rights) | Radio Free Asia
- Monitoring Status
- Not active
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 25, 2019
- Event Description
The family and relatives of former prisoner of conscience Mrs. Pham Thanh Nghien has been harassed and besieged by police in Hai Phong City when she and her husban former political prisoner Huynh Anh Tu and their daughter visited her home city in Dong Hai 1 ward, Hai An district. From March 25, all her family members were monitored, said Nghien who moved to Ho Chi Minh City after married to Mr. Tu, who spent 14 years in prison in 1999-2014. Nghien said in the morning of March 26, police in Hai Phong kidnapped former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Ngoc Tuong Thi when he was standing outside the house of Nghien's parents. Thi, who accompanied Nghien's couple from HCM City, was brought to the ward police office for a 2-hour-interrogation before being released. Due to the harassment, Mr. Thi left Hai Phong next day to return to HCM City, dropping his plan to stay longer in the city. Plainclothes police set up a temporary point near her parents' house to monitor her family as well as families of her older brother and two older sisters. Undercover policemen also followed one of her nieces and threatened one of her sisters, saying they will request her sister's employer to sack her. Faced with the terror unleashed on them by Hai Phong police, Mrs Nghien and her family were extremely fearful and worried. Mrs Nghien was convicted of "conducting anti-state propaganda" and sentenced to four years in jail for conducting an in-house sitting protest and hanging a banner inside her house that read "The Spratlys archipelago belongs to Vietnam." She was also targeted for helping the fishing community whose members were shot at and killed by Chinese ships when they operated in their traditional fishing area in the East Sea (South China Sea). In January 2019, authorities in HCM City destroyed several hundred houses in Loc Hung Vegetables Garden including Nghien couple's newly built house. They had to rent a place to stay and had to move several times since.
- Impact of Event
- 5
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to privacy
- HRD
- Family of HRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 27, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnam’s security forces have kidnapped a female environmentalist, interrogating her during one-day detention about her activism, Defend the Defenders has learned.
Ms. Cao Vinh Thinh, a key member of the independent group Green Trees, was detained by undercover police officers in the morning of March 27 when she was on her way to her shop named Zero Waste Hanoiwhich is selling environment-friendly products in the capital city of Hanoi.
The kidnappers confiscated her laptop and cell phone and took her to an office of the Security Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security located in Nguyen Gia Thieu street, Hoan Kiem district where she was questioned by officers about activities of her and her group Green Trees which aim to protect the country’s environment.
Police also deployed IT specialists to try to get access to her equipment because she refused to give them the passwords for her laptop and cell phone.
Police released Thinh at 10 PM of Wednesday but still keep her equipment.
Thinh is one of the most active members of Green Trees which was established by activists in 2015 to protest a plan of Hanoi’s leadership to chop down thousands of aged trees in the capital city’s main streets. The group played key roles in the mass protest in Hanoi that year which forced the city’s leadership to stop its plan.
The group also involved in a campaign in 2016 which protests the Taiwanese Formosa Steel plant in the central province of Ha Tinh after hundreds of tons of fish died in the central coastal region due to Formosa’s discharge a huge volume of industrial waste into the sea. In October of 2016, the group released its comprehensive report about the environmental disaster caused by Formosa.
Recently, the group launched a film named Đừng Sợ (Dont Be Afraid about Vietnam’s independent civil society organizations. The film is expected to be projected across Vietnam in early April to mark the 3rd anniversary of Formosa’s environmental disaster.
In Vietnam, the ruling Communist Party is striving to control all organizations and does not welcome the formation of independent ones. All activities of Green Trees are considered as anti-government, police officers told Thinh.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Abduction/Kidnapping, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Offline, Right to healthy and safe environment, Right to privacy
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 15, 2019
- Event Description
Defend the Defenders: Authorities in Vietnam's Central Highlands province of Gia Lai have convicted Protestant missionary Ksor Ruk of "undermining unified policy" under Article 116 of the country's 2015 Penal Code for his activities which aimed to exercise and promote the right to freedom of religion and belief. According to the state media, in a trial on March 15, the People's Court of Gia Lai sentenced missionary Ksor Ruk to ten years in prison for a trumped-up allegation of an attempt to re-establish Dega independent state. He was arrested on October 30 last year just because he worked to form a group of Protestant followers to pray together. This will be the second imprisonment of the missionary. In 2007, he was convicted of the same allegation and sentenced to six years in jail, and served his sentence in 2007-2013. According to Defend the Defenders (DTD)'s statistics, Vietnam is holding at least 54 Protestant pastors, missioner and followers on charges of "undermining policy" in the National Security provisions in the Penal Code, and the actual number may be much higher. Their sentences range from six to 20 years in jail.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of Religion and Belief, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Freedom of religion/belief activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 5, 2019
- Event Description
Authoritiesin Vietnam's northern province of Bac Ninh have arrested Hanoi-based anticorruption activist Ha Van Nam on allegation of "causing public disorders" in a trumped-up case in a bid to silence his effort to deal with corruption related to road upgrading under BOT (build-operate-transfer) form. Nam's family had reported that in early morning of March 5, a group of police officers came to his private residence in Hanoi to take him away. The police officers had not show an arrest warrant to his family, just saying he was accused of "causing public disorders" on January 31 this year in Pha Lai payment toll in Que Vo district, Bac Ninh province. Currently, Nam is held in the temporary detention facility under the authority of Que Vo district's police. He is likely kept incommunicado for two months for investigation. The Bac Ninh province's police have reportedly denied to meet his family's request to allow him meet with his lawyer. With the accusation, Mr. Nam faces imprisonment of up to seven years if is convicted. Mr. Nam, 38, is among social activists opposing road tolls which are wrongly placed in a bid to collect fees from drivers who even have not used services provided by road developers. The road developers are reportedly backed by senior officials from the Vietnamese regime which is among most corrupted governments in the world. In order to deal with the social activists who strive to oppose the wrongly-placed road tolls and demand suspension of money collection, the developers, with support of police, are using thugs to attack the activists. A number of anti-BOT activists have been harassed in different forms, including abduction or physical attacks or even imprisonment in their vehicles for hours. On January 29, Mr. Nam was kidnapped by a group of unknown individuals when he was sitting near his house in Hanoi. The kidnappers took him in their van, taking him away and beating him. Finally, they threw him in a road in Dan Phuong district about 20 km from Hanoi's center. He suffered a number of injuries, including broken ribs.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to information
- HRD
- RTI activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 1, 2019
- Event Description
Following a Thai police raid two weeks ago on the home of Bach Hong Quyen, a Vietnamese blogger who fled his country and currently lives in Bangkok, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) fears that the Thai authorities could allow Vietnamese agents to abduct Quyen and urges them to respect his UN-guaranteed status as a political refugee. Bach Hong Quyen, who has lived in Bangkok since May 2017, has been in hiding ever since the police came and questioned him at his home on 1 March. He fears that he could be arrested at any momentand deported back to Vietnam although his refugee status is guaranteed by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The day after Quyen helped fellow Vietnamese blogger and journalist Truong Duy Nhat to apply for the same refugee status at the UNHCR office in Bangkok, Nhat mysteriously disappeared while in a Bangkok shopping mall on 26 January. Nhat was probably abducted by Vietnamese agents with the complicity of the local authorities, fuelling fears that other Vietnamese journalists who have fled their country could suffer the same fate. Accused by the Vietnamese authorities of disturbing public order, Quyen hopes to obtain asylum for himself and his family in Canada and is currently registered with Canada's refugee reinstallation programme. "We urge the Thai government to respect the status of Bach Hong Quyen and his family as refugees and to stop intimidating Quyen in any way," said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk. "Aside from the obligation to respect the fundamental rights of an individual whose only crime was to have informed his compatriots, Thailand's credibility on the international stage is stake." "Repatriation" Quyen is well known for his investigative reporting on environmental issues, speaking on media outlets that broadcast in Vietnamese from abroad. In particular, he raised questions about the responsibility of certain Vietnamese officials in a marine environmental disaster resulting from a toxic spill from a steel plant owned by the Taiwanese firm Formosa. Thailand was once a refuge for journalists persecuted by the region's most repressive regimes but, under the current government headed by Gen. Prayut, it has on several occasions been complicit in the "repatriation" of journalists to the countries where they were wanted. The victims have included Yang Jiefei, a Chinese cartoonist arrested in 2015, and Gui Minhai, a Chinese-born Swedish publisher who was abducted in 2015 while on vacation in Thailand. Both ended up in Chinese prisons. Nhat, the Vietnamese blogger who disappeared seven weeks ago, has not yet "reappeared" in a Vietnamese prison. Thailand is ranked 140th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2018 World Press Freedom Index, while Vietnam has Southeast Asia's lowest ranking - 175th.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 3, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnam's authorities have barred local activists from gathering to mark the 31stanniversary of the loss of Gac Ma (South Johnson Reef) to China ahead of a visit of President Nguyen Phu Trong to Beijing. From early morning of March 14, plainclothes agents and militia were sent to private residences of activists in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and other localities to effectively place them de facto under house arrest. Some were allowed to go out but remained under close police surveillance. University lecturer Dao Thi Thu in Hanoi told Defend the Defenders that she couldn't to go to her class as undercover police and militia did not permit her to go out with her motorbike. When she tried to get a bus, police officers violently stopped her, making her watch broken. Mr. Nguyen Tuong Thuy, vice president of the Independent Journalist Association of Vietnam, said he planned to go to Hanoi's center to commemorate the 64 naval soldiers killed by the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) in Gac Ma in 1988, he was blocked by a group of around five undercover policemen. Authorities in the capital city sent a group of dozens of women to dance near King Ly Thai To monument in the city's center where activists were used to gather in similar cases, making the place unavailable for other activities. The similar situation was in HCM City and local activists were forced to stay at home to mark the event. In previous years, authorities did not block activities from gathering but sent government's supporters to disturb the activists' commemorations. On February 27, in order to prevent activists from gathering to Tran Hung Dao Great General to mark the 40thanniversary of the invasion of the PLA in Vietnam's six northernmost provinces, authorities in HCM City removed his .... To another place. This year, for the first time in decades, some state-run newspapers covered news on the loss of Gac Ma or the Chinese invasion in 1979, however, they still avoided to name Beijing as the aggressor. Meanwhile, Nguyen Phu Trong, the communist chief, planned to go to visit China for the first time after grabbing the country's president post left by former Minister of Public Security Tran Dai Quang, who died from unclear reasons last year.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 12, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam's Central Highlands province of Gia Lai have arrested justice-seeker Nguyen Thi Hue and charged her with "abusing democratic freedom" under Article 331 of the country's 2015 Penal Code. Around 20 police officers came to her house in Ia Hrung commune, Ia Grai district in the morning of March 12 to search the house. They took her to the district police station in the afternoon after announcing that she was arrested and will be held at least three months for investigation of the allegation. It is likely that her detention is related to her posts on her Facebook account Den Quang about the unjustice her family is suffered in recent years. Several years ago, her husband travelled in a car of his friend. They suffered a traffic accident in which the friend who drove the vehicle was killed. However, police said her husband was driving the car in the incident and he was imprisoned and fined. Not agreeing with the police conclusion, she has sent petitions to many state agencies to seek for justice for her husband. His daughter has been helping her to post articles and conduct live streams on her Facbook accounts in which she criticized the police forces for imprisoning her husband and the miscarriage of justice her family is suffered. Hue, 51, has also covered news in other cases of miscarriage of justice in her areas. Vietnam's authoritarian regime often uses allegation of "abusing democratic freedom" to silence local dissidents including prominent blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh (aka Anh Ba Sam). Currently, 14 bloggers are held after being convicted or arrested for the allegation in Article 258 of the 1999 Penal Code or Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code, according to statistics of Defend the Defenders.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Justice-seeker Nguyen Thi Hue Arrested, Charged with Abusing democratic freedom
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Mar 13, 2019
- Event Description
Imprisoned human rights advocate and democracy campaigner Nguyen Van Tuc is being treated inhumanely by authorities of Prison camp No. 6 located in Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province. The information came from his wife Bui Thi Re, who went to visit him on March 13. Mr. Tuc was convicted of subversion and sentenced to 13 years in prison last year for his peaceful activities. During the meeting, Mr. Tuc told his wife that he is placed in a cell together with a criminal convicted for drug trafficking. Encouraged by the prison's authorities, the criminal reportedly beat him very often in exchange of his sentence reduction. The former president of the unregistered Brotherhood for Democracy (BFD) said when his family sends food for him, the prison's authorities keep the food and give him only when it spoils. Mr. Tuc, 54, was arrested in September 2017 and charged with "carrying out activities aiming to overthrow the government" for his membership in the unregistered group Brotherhood for Democracy which was established by prominent human rights advocate Nguyen Van Dai. In the trial on April 10, 2018, he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison and five years under house arrest by the People's Court of Thai Binh province. Five months later, the Higher People's Court in Hanoi upheld his sentence. After losing his appeal, he was transferred to the current prison. He has been suffering a number of serious diseases, including hemorroids due to severe conditions in Vietnam's prisons and inhumane treatment against prisoners of conscience. His wife is not sure that he can survive to complete his sentence after being treated inhumanely by the prison's authorities. Inhumane treatment against prisoners of conscience is not rare in Vietnam where the ruling communist party is striving to keep the country under a one-party regime. Prisons' authorities are systematically applying tough measures, including solitary confinement, using criminals to beat prisoners of conscience, and tainted food to punish jailed activists to break their mentality. A number of imprisonedactivistshave been conducted hunger strike to protest prisons' inhumanetreatment, including Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay), Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (aka Mother Mushroom) and Nguyen Van Hoa, a citizen journalist. The first two were released but forced to live in exile in the US while the third reportedly started hunger strike in An Diem Prison camp on February 22 for many days.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 26, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnamese dissident bloggers and democracy advocates are being kept under police watch at their homes as U.S. president Donald Trump prepares to meet for talks this week in Hanoi with North Korean national leader Kim Jong Un, sources in Vietnam say. Speaking on Tuesday to RFA's Vietnamese Service, Nguyen Lan Thang-an activist blogger and frequent contributor to RFA-said that authorities are watching him closely at his home in Hanoi, adding that he is largely unaware of what is happening now in the capital. "I do see that communist regimes like those in North Korea and Vietnam have been successful with their propaganda, though," Thang said, speaking to RFA reporters via livestream on his Facebook page. "Even those Vietnamese who have not been picked for media interviews have had positive things to say about the Trump-Kim summit in Hanoi," he said. "Most common people here have no idea how miserable the lives of North Koreans are under the Kim family's rule." Also speaking to RFA, writer and activist Ngo Duy Quyen and his wife Le Thi Cong Nhan-a well-known dissident, rights lawyer, and former member of the banned Bloc 8406 democracy movement-said that their apartment on the third floor of their building in the capital is also being watched. Cameras have meanwhile been set up outside the home in Bac Giang province of former teacher To Oanh, who once traveled to the U.S. to speak about human rights concerns in the one-party communist state, To Oanh said. "Senior security officers also came to see me and ordered me to stay home until the summit is over," he said, adding that he poses no threat to the Feb. 27-28 U.S.-North Korea talks, in which the U.S. is expected to press Pyongyang to follow through on previous pledges to end its nuclear weapons program. "Is it really likely that my name would appear on a list of suspected terrorists?" he asked. 'I might go anyway' Dissident blogger Nguyen Truong Thuy meanwhile told RFA he had been visited on Sunday by three police officers and the head of his neighborhood group-a committee set up to address community concerns and report to authorities on residents' activities. "They came to my house and asked me not to go to welcome Trump and Kim," he said. "I told them that for the time being, I had not intended to go. But then a police officer said I had just given my commitment not to go, and I told them "No,' that I rely on the law and have not made any verbal promise or commitment, and that I might change my mind and go anyway," he said. "There have been cases now where some have been locked in from the outside, to keep them from going out," added the wife of activist blogger Dung Voa, surnamed Hue. "Others are being kept under close watch, and if some manage to go out, they are closely followed," Hue said. "They don't want us to accept any invitations from foreign embassies to join them for a talk," she said. A disturbing record Ahead of this week's talks, three U.S. lawmakers called on U.S. President Donald Trump to raise human rights issues with officials in Vietnam during his visit to the one-party Communist Southeast Asian nation for a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. In a letter dated Feb. 19, U.S. House of Representatives members Zoe Lofgren, Chris Smith, and Alan Lowenthal-co-chairs of the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam-expressed concerns that Hanoi is hosting the second U.S.-North Korea summit scheduled for Feb. 27-28, given Vietnam's poor rights record. The lawmakers highlighted what they called Vietnam's "disturbing record" on prisoners of conscience, pointing to a list released last year by London-based Amnesty International that includes nearly 100 dissidents jailed for expressing views critical of the government, and who they said endure "alarming" treatment in detention. The request from the three U.S. representatives followed two separate letters from Vietnamese intellectuals and activists, urging Trump to help thwart China's gradual takeover of the South China Sea, where Hanoi and Beijing are embroiled in maritime territorial disputes. China's claims and construction of artificial islands in the region have sparked frequent anti-China protests in Vietnam, which the one-party communist government in Hanoi fears as a potential threat to its own political control.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Intimidation and Threats, Surveillance
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 21, 2019
- Event Description
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam's security forces detained Ms. Nguyen Kim Thanh, wife of prisoner of conscience Truong Minh Duc after she participated in Vietnam's Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in Geneva in late January. In the morning of February 21, when she landed from a flight from Germany to Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, she was detained by the border security officers. During the detention from around 7 AM to 1PM of the same day, police officers questioned about her activities, including her participation in the Vietnamese UPR in the UN's headquarters in Geneva on January 21 as well as meeting with officials from the German Foreign Ministry. Police officers confiscated her passport before releasing her, requesting her to go to a police station for further interrogation. Mr. Truong Minh Duc, vice president of the unregistered groups Brotherhood for Democracy and Viet Labor Movement, was arrested on July 30, 2017 and charged with "conducting activities aimed to overthrow the government" under Article 79 of the country's 1999 Penal Code. In April 2018, he was convicted and sentenced to 12 years in prison and three years of probation. Currently, he is held in Prison No. 6 under the authorities of the Ministry of Public Security in the central province of Nghe An, where political prisoners are kept with severe living conditions.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Reprisal as Result of Communication
- Rights Concerned
- Right to access and communicate with international bodies
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 15, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnam's security forces detained a dozen of local activists and placed tens of others under house arrest on the 40th anniversary of China's invasion of the country's six northernmost provinces. In order to block local activists from gathering in cities' centers to mark the 40th annyversary of the invasion of the People's Liberation Army of China (PLA) and commemorate the fallen soldiers and civilians killed by the northern invaders, authorities in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City and other localites sent plainclothes agents to their private residences in recent days, effectively placing them under house arrest. Some activists such as Nguyen Chi Tuyen, Dang Phuoc Bich, Le Hong Hanh, Hoang Ha from Hanoi and some from HCM City were arrested when they were on their way to King Ly Thai To Memorial in Hanoi and General Tran Hung Dao Memorial in the southern economic hub. They were held in police stations for hours before being freed. Retired army officer Pham Tri Dinh from Hanoi went to King Ly Thai To Memorial to pay attribute for fallen soldiers. When he arrrived, pro-government thugs tried to block him to the site. Later, two plainclothesn agents forced him to leave the area. Few activists successfully came to the site to mark the event. The situation is similar in Ho Chi Minh City, the country's biggest economic hub. The local authorities placed many garbage trucks around General Tran Hung Dao Memorial and took its incensory away in a bid not to allow local residents to come to pay attribute to the fallen ones during the Chinese invasion. Earlier this week, the state-run media for the first time in decades publicized many articles about the invasion of the PLA 40 years ago However, it failed to mention China as the invaders and the military conflict was decribed as "border clashes." The Vietnamese government treatment against local activists regarding China's invasion is not new one. In previous years, on the occasions of the Chinese invasion of the Hoang Sa (Paracels) on January 19, 1974 or the loss of Gac Ma (South Johnson Reef) in the Truong Sa (Spratlys) on March 14, 1988, commemorations organized by activists were barred and participants were suppressed. In order to keep their regime, Vietnam's communist leaders are striving not to make Chinese communist regime angry even in issues concerning the country's sovereignty. They also try not to allow the formation of opposition and persecute all activists and independent groups. China was one of the biggest donors for the Vietnamese communists during the wars against France and the US. However, the relationship between Hanoi and Beijing became hostile when Vietnam found the former Soviet Union as its new political ally. After Vietnam invaded Cambodia and defeat the China-backed Rough Khmer regime led by Pol Pot, Beijing angered and on February 17, 1979, it sent around 600,000 soldiers to attack six northernmost provinces of Vietnam. Before withdrawing one month later, the PLA killed tens of thousands of Vietnamese soldiers and civilians and destroyed all infrastructures there. Vietnam and China normalized bilateral relations in late 1990s and Hanoi considers Beijing as its closest political ally. In exchange, a large Vietnamese land, including Nam Quan Port and the larger part of Ban Gioc Waterfall, now are in China's territory. Many Vietnamese major infrastructure projects have been carried out by Chinese investors. Many Vietnamese activists who oppose China's expansionism in the East Sea (South China Sea) have been imprisoned or harassed by the Vietnamese communist regime. In mid June last year, Vietnam's security forces brutally suppressed peaceful demonstrations of tens of thousands of people who rallied on streets in HCM City, Hanoi and many other cities to protest two draft laws on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The first bill seems to favor Chinese investors and ignore the country's sovereignty while the second bill aims to silence local online dissent
- Impact of Event
- 12
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Censorship, Intimidation and Threats, Restrictions on Movement
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Feb 1, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in Vietnam's southern province of Ben Tre have intensified crackdown on local government critics, interrogating a number of Facebookers for their online activities. The state-run media has reported that police had summoned Mr. Phan Tri Toan, a 35-year-old resident of My Thanh An commune, Ben Tre city to question him about his posts on his Facebook account Phan Rio. Accordingly, his posts aim to incite anti-state protests. On February 1, the province's police also interrogated Tran Ngoc Phuc, a 21-year-old student of Ton Duc Thang University in Ho Chi Minh City. The resident of Tan Phu commune, Chau Thanh district, was accused of using his personal account to propagandizing against the Communist Party of Vietnam and its government. The state media also reported that authorities in Ben Tre have imposed an administrative fine of VND15 million ($650) on 55-year-old Dang Tri Thuc, a resident of Hoa Loc village, Mo Cay Bac district, for using his Facebook account to call for people to join street protests. It is worth noting that local shrimp grower Nguyen Ngoc Anh was arrested on August 30, 2018 and charged with "conducting anti-state propaganda" under Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code. While Mr. Anh is held incommunicado in pre-trial detention and faces imprisonment of between three to 12 years in prison, it is unclear the charges against Mr. Toan and Mr. Phuc. The local police say they are still investigating their cases.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 25, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnamese democracy activist Huynh Truong Ca was sentenced on Friday by a court in southern Vietnam's Dong Thap province to a five-year, six-month prison term for criticizing the country's communist government in a series of online postings, state media and other sources said. A member of the Hien Phap Group, a network of activists calling for rights to freedom of speech and assembly guaranteed by Vietnam's constitution, Ca was arrested in September after calling on social media for public protests, sources said. Speaking to RFA's Vietnamese Service, Hien Phap Group member Nguyen Uyen Thuy said that family members attending Ca's trial told her that Ca had defended his call for protests, saying that he had acted "out of patriotism, and from his heart." Ca refused to be represented at trial by a defense attorney, asserting his innocence and the right to defend himself, Thuy said, speaking to RFA from Thailand, where she has applied for refugee status after fleeing Vietnam ahead of arrest by police. Eleven other members of the group-which was formed on June 16, 2017, to promote a better understanding in Vietnam of political rights and freedoms, including the right to protest, promised under Article 25 of the country's constitution-have already been arrested, sources say. Hien Phap played a major role in calling for widespread protests that rocked Vietnamese cities in June in opposition to a proposed cyber security law and a law granting concessions of land to Chinese businesses, group members say. "Ca told the court that as a patriot, he could not accept the Special Economic Zones Bill, which would throw open Vietnam's borders to an influx of Chinese," Thuy told RFA on Friday. Family members were allowed to observe Ca's trial but were not permitted to bring mobile phones or other digital devices into the building, Thuy said. Investigation ongoing Meanwhile, also speaking to RFA, the wife of a Vietnamese citizen active on Facebook who disappeared in police custody in September said that she is now able to send her husband food and money for necessities, though they are not allowed to meet. Ngo Van Dung, a resident of Buon Me Thuot city in the central highlands province of Dak Lak, vanished on Sept. 4 and is now being held at a Police Detention Center in Ho Chi Minh City, also called Saigon, sources say. "I can send him food twice a month-meat, peanuts, biscuits, and money to buy what he needs," Dung's wife Kim Nga said. "I don't have any further information[on his case], though, as an investigation is still going on," she said. Vietnam, with a population of 92 million people, of which 55 million are estimated to be users of Facebook, has been consistently rated "not free" in the areas of internet and press freedom by Freedom House, a U.S.-based watchdog group. Dissent is not tolerated in the communist nation, and authorities routinely use a set of vague provisions in the penal code to detain dozens of writers and bloggers.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online, Right to fair trial
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 13, 2019
- Event Description
Mr Chau, 70, was on a human rights fact-finding mission in Vietnam. His family have not heard from him for almost two weeks He has reportedly had no consular access A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) released a statement confirming the department had sought consular access to an Australian man detained in Vietnam, but for privacy reasons were unable to provide further details. The family of Mr Chau feared the 70-year-old retired small businessman from Sydney had been arrested after they lost contact with him almost two weeks ago. Dr Phong Nguyen, his friend and fellow member of pro-democracy group Viet Tan, said Mr Chau visited Vietnam on a fact-finding mission and was detained while meeting with a Vietnamese friend, Nguyen Van Vien, a member of Brotherhood for Democracy, on January 13 in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnamese authorities told Mr Nguyen's wife her husband was arrested, but provided no reason for his detention, Dr Nguyen said. "They haven't allowed her to visit him," he said. "We assume both of them were arrested at the same time because they were together." Mr Chau's family informed DFAT of his suspected detention last week and were told DFAT was working on his case. Dr Nguyen said Mr Chau had not been allowed consular assistance. "We still don't know about his whereabouts and safety ...[his family] want to send medication over, but first we have to locate where he is," he said. The Viet Tan describes itself as a peaceful pro-democracy group, but is branded as a "terrorist" organisation by Hanoi. "We are mindful that the Vietnamese police have a history of framing peaceful activists with fabricated charges," Dr Nguyen said. The news comes a day after DFAT confirmed Chinese-Australian Yang Hengjun, an outspoken political commentator and blogger, had been detained in China.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Related Events
- Vietnam: Chau Van Kham, Australian citizen and pro-democracy activist, detained in Vietnam
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 14, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnam's security forces have arrested Mr. Nguyen Van Vien, a member of the unregistered group Brotherhood for Democracy (BFD), and charged him with "Activities against the people's government" under Article 109 of the country's 2015 Penal Code, according to the organization. In its press release on January 25, 2019, BFD said police in Ho Chi Minh City conducted a house search in his private residence in the city on January 14, one day after Mr. Vien went missing. During the house search, police announced the subversion allegation against him. However, Vien's family has yet to receive any official documents from the police which may prove that he is held by the security forces. Mr. Vien, 48, is an environmentalist in Quang Nam province. He has been active in condemning the Taiwanese Formosa Company for discharging a large amount of industrial waste into Vietnam's central coast and caused a devastating environmental disaster in the region in 2016. Due to his activisim, he and his family have been under persecution of the local government so he was forced to leave his home province to relocate in HCM City, the biggest economic hub in the Southeast Asian nation. Mr. Vien is the first Vietnamese activist being arrested in 2019 and the 8th member of BFD being accused of subversion since late 2015 when the communist regime started its crackdown on the group with the arrest of its founder human rights advocate Nguyen Van Dai and his assistance Le Thu Ha on December 16, 2015. Last year, the communist regime convicted 41 activists, including nine members of BFD, mostly with charges in the national security provisions in the Penal Code. Eight members of BFD were charged with subversion and sentenced to between seven to 15 years in prison. It is likely Mr. Vien is held imcommunicado in Phan Dang Luu temporary detention facility under the authority of HCM City's Police Department. He faces life imprisonment or even the capital punishment if is convicted. Vietnam is holding around 250 prisoners of conscience, according to Defend the Defenders' statistic.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Right to privacy
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 20, 2019
- Event Description
On January 20, authorities in Ho Chi Minh City arrested three activists as one of them wears a T-shirt with "Protesting Cyber Security Law" slogan, Defend the Defenders has learned. Local activists said activists Pham Ngoc Minh (Facebooker Ho�_ng Tr??ng Sa), Nguyen Phuoc Hoang Vu (Facebooker Paul Vu Nguyen) and their friend were detained by the police from Ward 3, District 5 when they were sitting in a local cafeteria. Mr. Minh weared the T-shirt with the slogan. Activists said the police took them to the ward police station without issuing arrest warrant. As of 7 PM of Sunday, they have yet been released. Vietnam's parliament passed the Cyber Security Law on June 12, 2018 despite widespread protest from local citizens, tens of thousands of them rallied on streets in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Nha Trang, Dong Nai, Binh Thuan and Ninh Thuan and other localities to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The first was designed to favor Chinese investors while the second was set to silence online critics. After passing the Cyber Security Law, Vietnam has got strong condemnation from democratic governments and international rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. Last year, Vietnam arrested 27 activists and convicted 41 human rights defenders, social activists and political dissents and sentenced them to a total 301 years and nine months in prison and 69 years of probation for exercising the right to freedom of expression. In addition, hundreds of peaceful demonstrators in mid June were detained, beaten and around 100 of them were sentenced to between eight months and 54 months in prison.
- Impact of Event
- 3
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to liberty and security
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 26, 2019
- Event Description
Vietnam's authorities have reportedly arrested Dong Nai province-based Facebooker Huynh Tri Tam for his online posts criticizing the communist government, nearly one month after the Cyber Security law became effective. According to local activists, security forces in Dong Nai province stumped in the private residence of the Facebooker whose real name is Huynh Minh Tam, in the morning of January 26. Police took him to the headquarters of the provincial Police Department and conducted search of his house. It is unclear the charge the Facebooker is facing, however. According to his Facebook account, his writing and shared articles are about criticizing China's violations of Vietnam's sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea), bad government economic management, systemic corruption, widespread environmental pollution and nationwide human right abuse. He has wife with two children in primary school age. Mr. Tam is the first Facebooker being arrested for his posts on the social network with over 40 millions accounts in Vietnam after the Cyber Security law became effective on January 1, 2019, and the second activist being detained so far this year. In mid January, police in Ho Chi Minh City detained Nguyen Van Vien, 48, a member of the banned group Brotherhood for Democracy, and charged him with subversion under Article 109 of the 2015 Penal Code. In mid June, two days before the communist-controlled parliament approved the law, tens of thousands of people from different social groups went on major streets in Hanoi, HCM City, Danang, Nha Trang, Bien Hoa, Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan and other localities to protest two bills on Special Economic Zones and Cyber Security. The first is considered to favor Chinese investors but ignore the country's sovereignty while the second one is the effective tool for silence online dissent, according to foreign and domestic experts and activists. It is likely that Vietnam continues its crackdown on local activists. In 2018, the communist regime detained at least 27 activists and convicted 41 activists, mostly on allegations in the national security provisions of the Penal Code, and sentenced them to a total 301 years and nine months in prison and 69 years of probation.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 30, 2019
- Event Description
Security forces in Vietnam's Central Highlands province of Dak Nong have arrested local resident named Duong Thi Lanh for her online activities, Defend the Defenders has learned from her family. According to her husband, in the morning of January 30, Mrs. Lanh received an summoning letter from the province's Police Department asking her to go to the Nhan Co communal building in Dak Rlap district for interrogation about her relationship with Facebookers Uyen Thuy and Mai Bui. The husband said after she went there, a group of dozens of police officers came to search his private house, confiscating some pairs of army clothes they bought from open markets and three cell phones. Police reportedly informed him about his wife's detention without saying in details, so the husband is not unclear about the charge(s) the wife is facing nor where she is held. Mrs. Lanh, 36, is an activist participating in a number of peaceful demonstrations, including the mass street protest on June 10, 2018 in Ho Chi Minh City. She was detained on June 11 but released after several hours of interrogation. She has used her Facebook account SG Ng?c Lanto write and share statuses about human rights and democracy. Meanwhile, Uyen Thuy is a Facebook account of Nguyen Thi Thuy, a member of the unregistered group Hien Phap. Since early September 2018, security forces have arrested eight members of the group due to its members' participation in the mass demonstration on June 10 in HCM City. Ms. Thuy herself was forced to go into hiding to avoid being arrested. Mrs. Lanh is the second Facebooker being arrested after the Cyber Security Law went into effect on January 1, 2019. On June 26, police in Dong Nai province arrested Huynh Minh Tam (Facebooker Huynh Tri Tam) and searched his house. They took him away without informing his family about the charge against him. Vietnam's communist regime continues its crackdown on local dissent amid rising social dissatisfaction regarding the governments' weak response to China's violations of the country's sovereignty, systemic corruption, widespread human rights abuse and police torture as well as nationwide environmental pollution. Last year, Vietnam arrested at least 27 activists and convicted 41 human rights defenders, sentencing them to a total 301 years and nine months in prison and 69 years of probation, according to Defend the Defenders' statistics. Vietnam is holding around 250 prisoners of conscience, according to NOW!Campaign, a coalition of 15 international and domestic independent organizations working for release of all prisoners of conscience.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Enactment of repressive legislation and policies, Judicial Harassment, Raid
- Rights Concerned
- Online
- HRD
- WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 19, 2019
- Event Description
Defend the Defenders: On Saturday, plainclothes agents brutally beaten two activists on the day of 45th anniversary of the loss of the Hoang Sa (Paracells) to China (January 19, 1974), Defend the Defenders has learned. While human rights activist Truong Van Dung from Hanoi suffered not significant injuries from the attack, female rights defender Duong Thi Tan from Ho Chi Minh City fell unconscious and got severe injuries on her body and spine. Ms. Tan, former wife of prominent blogger Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay), said she planned to go to a funeral in the morning of Saturday. When she got out of her private house in District 1, she was blocked from a group of plainclothes agents who were sent to prevent her from gathering with other local activists to pay attribute to 74 naval soldiers of the former Saigon regime who were killed by China in 1974 when the giant communist nation overtook the Hoang Sa from Vietnam. Ms. Tan said she is not a crime so they have no right to block her from freedom of movement, and she called a taxi. In response, the plainclothes agents started to attack her until she fell on a ground. Knowing that she fell unconscious, the attackers took her to a hospital for medical emergency. After medical checking, a doctor told her that she suffered many injuries, including spine and needs special treatment. This is the second attack of HCM City's plainclothes agents against Ms. Tan within two weeks. On January 8, on the day the city's authorities demolished around 200 private houses in Loc Hung garden in a bid to grab the land of the local residents, police from District 1 arbitrarily detained her son and beat her near her private residence in the district. Meanwhile, plainclothes agents in Dong Da district, Hanoi, attacked Mr. Dung when he returned from the city's center where he paid atribution to the Hoang Sa fallen naval soldiers. Unlike other assaults in the past, this time he suffered slight injuries, he told his fellow Ms. Nguyen Thuy Hanh, another activist who witnessed the attack against Dung. Many other activists nationwide reported that they were placed under de facto house arrest from early morning of January 19 by plainclothes agents and militia. The Vietnamese communist regime claims the Hoang Sa and the Truong Sa (Spratlys) in the East Sea (South China Sea) but it has used violent measures to disperse peaceful demonstrations against China, which overtook the first archipelago and partly the second one from Vietnam and has ambition to take full control over the East Sea. Security forces have also barred activists from gathering to mark universaries of the loss of the Hoang Sa and Gac Ma (Johnson South Reef) in the Truong Sa to China. Sometimes, authorities use plainclothes agents and government supporters to halt commemorations.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Gender Based Harassment, Use of Excessive Force, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 14, 2019
- Event Description
Defend the Defenders: One activist working to protest the wrongly-placed An Suong Highway Toll in Ho Chi Minh City had got dissappeared while three others have been blocked by local police and thugs near the facility, according to bloggers. Blogger Vo Hong Ly, one of brave Facebookers in Vietnam on human rights, democracy and anti-corruption as well as environmental issues, said on her Facebook account that there has been no information about activist Huynh Long since late afternoon of January 14 while bloggers Phuong Ngo, Truong Huu Chau Danh and a woman got stuck in a car surrounded by police and thugs since 12 PM of the same day. It is likely Huynh Long got arrested due to his activities which aimed to block and force the An Suong Highway Toll to stop taking money from drivers since it was wrongly placed in the National Road No. 1 in Binh Hung Hoa B ward, Binh Tan district, Ho Chi Minh City. He may be arrested and beaten by police or being kidnapped and tortured by thugs hired by the toll owners, said other activists. Mr. Huynh Long reportedly went to the toll on late afternoon of Monday. Meanwhile, Phuong Ngo, Truong Chau Huu Danhand the woman travelled to the toll area by their car at 6 PM yesterday. Police and thugs reportedly surround their car, not allowing to move. In order to protect themselves, the trio stay in the car and call for helpfrom others. While thugs threaten them, police came to request them to go out, however, the activists refuse. They would be arrested by police or even beaten by thugs if they get out of their car. They stay in the car with little food and water during the night and still in the vehicle, connecting with other bloggers by Facebook. When the report is made, the trio are still in their car after 22 hours. There are 96 of tolls for BOT (Build-Operation-Transfer) for roads in Vietnam, according to the state media and dozens of them were placed wrongly. These tolls belong to interest groups backed by senior officials. In order to protest these wrongly-placed tolls, hundreds of drivers and activists in the country have been gathered to these facilities to block them. Many times, a number of tolls have been forced to suspend their works and remove barriers to allow vehicles go through. Many drivers come with their vehicles to block wrongly-placed tolls while others have been using banknotes with small values or very large values to make their payments longer in minutes or even hours. Under social pressure, many wrongly-placed tolls have been moved to places where they should be. However, An Suong and other tolls are still operating since they still receive strong support from senior officials and local authorities. In order to deal with protesters, authorities in these locations where the wrongly-placed tolls station send police including riot policemen to disperse the peaceful demonstrators. Meanwhile, tolls' owners often hire thugs to threaten and beat drivers. Vietnam has been spending huge financial resources for building roads to serve its fast economic development. However, the quality of the newly-built roads is poor and they have been degrading in short time after being put into operation. Corruption is the main cause for the problem. Many roads and road parts have been built by private companies under BOT form and they are allowed to make tolls to collect fees from drivers.
- Impact of Event
- 4
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Abduction/Kidnapping, Intimidation and Threats
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 8, 2019
- Event Description
Police in Ho Chi Minh City have likely extended the investigation period against female activist Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hanh who was arrested and kept incommunicado on allegation of "disrupting security" under Article 118 of the country's 2015 Penal Code. On January 8, her family from the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau went to Phan Dang Luu temporary detention facility under the authority of the city's police to request to meet with her, however, the facility's authorities denied, saying she is still in investigation and not allowed to meet with her family and lawyers. Since Ms. Hanh was arrested on September 3 last year and the investigation period lasts four months, it is likely the investigation agency has extended her investigation period without informing her family. Without explaining in details, the facility's authorities told her family to supply her with medicine for blood circulation improvement and Calsium-containing products. Ms. Hanh is a member of the unregistered group Hi?n Ph��p (Constitution) which was established in mid 2017 with aim to raise people's about their political and civil rights by disseminating the country's Constitution 2013. Its members were very active in the mass demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City on June 10 last year. In early September 2018, police arrested and kidnapped nearly ten members of the group and charged them with different allegations in the national security provisions of the Penal Code. Ms. Hanh, Ms. Doan Thi Hong, Mr. Ngo Van Dung and Mr. Ho Dinh Cuong were charged with disrupting security and face imprisonment of up to 15 years while Mr. Huynh Truong Ca was convicted on allegation of "conducting anti-state propaganda" and sentenced to five years and six months in prison and three years under house arrest while Mr. Le Minh The was charged with "abusing democratic freedom" under Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code. Three members of the group named Do The Hoa, Tran Thanh Phuong and Hung Hung are still kept incommunicado without being officially charged. All of them have not been permitted to meet with their families and lawyers, Defend the Defenders has learned.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- Denial Fair Trial, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 5, 2019
- Event Description
Labor activist and environmentalist Hoang Duc Binh has been suffering from a number of diseases while serving his 14-year imprisonment in An Diem Prison camp in the central province of Quang Nam. According to his letter sent to his family, he is suffering from skin diseases, great pain in his spine while his eye sight capacity has been reduced drastically. Severe conditions of the prison are the causes of his diseases, he said in his letter dated January 5, adding he is placed in a closed room without proper ventilation and sunlight with high humidity. Binh said he is held together with between five and seven other inmates in a small room. Mr. Binh, a vice president of the unregistered group Viet Labor Movement, was arrested on May 15, 2017 and charged with "resisting persons in the performance of their official duties" under Article 330 and "Abusing democratic freedoms" under Article 331 of the 2015 Criminal Code. On Feb. 6, 2018, the People's Court of Nghe An province convicted him and sentenced him to a total 14 years in prison, seven years for each allegation. The Higher People's Court in Hanoi upheld the sentence on his appeal on April 24, 2018.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Wounds and Injuries
- Rights Concerned
- Right to food, Right to health, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Environmental rights defender, Labour rights defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 4, 2019
- Event Description
Authorities in the northern province of Thai Binh sent a group of around ten policemen to station near the private residence of prisoner of conscience Nguyen Van Tuc, effectively placing his family's member under house arrest from January January 4, his wife Bui Thi Re informed Defend the Defenders. The police blockage may be related to him who is serving his 13-year imprisonment in Prison camp No. 6 in the central province of Nghe An, she said. Mrs. Re said her husband is under the prison's discipline due to his refusal to attend a political course of the prison which aims to force prisoners to study the communist party's policies. She said the prison's authorities are not happy with him as he has been denying to make confession and admit wrongdoings as the courts stated. In addition, he refuses to wear clothes of the prison which labels Ph?m Nh��n (person who commits criminal acts). She said police are still holding his VND2.53 million ($110) when he was arrested on September 1, 2017, and refused to return the money, saying he has to pay the appeal court's fee of VND400,000 first. Meanwhile, Mr. Tuc refused to pay the fee, arguing that he is innocent and has no obligation to pay. Mrs. Re said police als confiscated an ATM card with VND18 million of their son-in-law and still hold the card. Mr. Tuc, 54, was arrested in September 2017 and charged with "carrying out activities aiming to overthrow the government" for his membership in the unregistered group Brotherhood for Democracy which was established by prominent human rights advocate Nguyen Van Dai. In the trial on April 10, 2018, he was convicted and sentenced to 13 years in prison and five years under house arrest by the People's Court of Thai Binh province. Five months later, the Higher People's Court in Hanoi upheld his sentence. After losing his appeal, he was transferred to the current prison. He has been suffering a number of serious diseases, including hemorroids due to severe conditions in Vietnam's prisons and inhumane treatment against prisoners of conscience. Speaking with Defend the Defenders on January 13, Mrs. Re said policemen stationed her her house in one week and left on January 11. She urged human rights groups to pay attention to her husband.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Intimidation and Threats, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to fair trial, Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Family of HRD, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Jan 4, 2019
- Event Description
On January 4, police in Ho Chi Minh City arbitrarily detained activist Nguyen Tri Dung and brutally beat his mother Duong Thi Tan, who is also a human rights defender and democracy campaigner. Ms. Tan said Dung was arrested on afternoon when he prepared to leave his private residence in District 1. Plainclothes agents forcebly took him in a car and dropped away. Being informed about the illegal detention of her son, Tan went out and was attacked by other plainclothes agents. They kicked and beat her and threw her to a corner of the building in which the family lives. The detention of Dung may be related to the land grabbing in Vuon Rau area. The city's police were placing a number of local activists under house arrest on the same day in a bid to prevent them from gathering to support residents of Vuon Rau. Police released Dung in late evening and requested him to stay at home in next days. Ms. Tan is a former wife of prominent blogger Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay), who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his peaceful activities to protest China's violations of the country's sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea) and promote human rights, democracy and freedom of press. He was released in October 2014 but forced to live in exile in the US. Dung is the son of their marriage. Both Dung and his mother Tan are human rights defenders, often giving supports for other activists.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Violence (physical)
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Community-based HRD, Family of HRD, Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 19, 2018
- Event Description
Vietnamese government authorities in Hanoi on Wednesday raided a gathering of registered NGOs and abruptly shut down their annual civil society workshop, drawing condemnation from an international rights group which called it "an alarming step-up of the authorities' repression of civil society." Eight civil society groups from the health, public administration, and human rights sectors organized the two-day event which focused on the role of civil society groups in advising and engaging with the government on solutions to social issues. After the meeting began, a blackout occurred in the auditorium while Gianh Hoang Dang, deputy director of Vietnam's Center for Community Development Studies, was giving a presentation on the role of social organizations in ensuring access to public services, some attendees said. Local police entered the hotel where the event was being held and ordered organizers to shut it down, accusing them of violating a wartime decree from 1957, which stipulates that those who arrange a gathering of more than five people in a public place must inform local authorities of their meeting 24 hours in advance. Gianh, who researches civil society organizations, later said he did not want to comment on the event cancellation, but he pointed RFA's Vietnamese Service to his comments on Facebook. "State governance is a math problem that any country, even the U.S., China, Cuba, or Japan, has to solve," he wrote. "However, yesterday a workshop to discuss these topics held by eight nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations in various fields (health, governance and public administrative reform, human rights, gender, and community development) was cancelled by the local district People's Committee," Gianh wrote. RFA could not reach another participant, Nguyen Duc Thanh, president of Vietnam's Institute for Economic and Policy Research, for comment. "Absurd and shocking crackdown' London-based Amnesty International took Hanoi authorities to task for their actions. "This is an absurd and shocking crackdown on a well-established, peaceful event," Minar Pimple, Amnesty's senior director for global operations, said in a statement. "To use an arcane wartime decree about holding events in public spaces to stop a private gathering at a hotel is clearly unjustified and cynical," he said. Pimple also noted that shutting down the event violated both international law and Vietnam's constitution, which guarantees the rights to freedom of assembly and association. "The authorities must allow this vital gathering of respected grassroots groups to go ahead and put an end to this worsening crackdown on civil society groups," he said. HRW criticizes cyber security law On Thursday, meanwhile, New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) took aim at Vietnam's new cybersecurity law, which comes into force on Jan. 1, saying it will seriously undermine rights and called on the country to revise the legislation to bring it into line with international law. Vietnam's National Assembly adopted the 43-article Law on Cybersecurity in June 2018, which tightens control of the internet and global tech companies operating in the communist country by requiring service providers to store data locally, verify user information, and disclose user data to authorities without a court order. The law will also further restrict citizens' use of the internet and require companies like Google and Facebook to delete posts considered "threatening" to national security. In early November, the Ministry of Public Security, which will enforce the law along with the Ministry of Information and Communications, issued a draft decree with detailed instructions for carrying out the law with two months allotted for public feedback. "This cybersecurity law is designed to further enable the Ministry of Public Security's pervasive surveillance to spot critics, and to deepen the Communist Party's monopoly on power," Phil Robertson, HRW's deputy Asia director, said in a statement. "If this law is enacted, anyone who uses the internet in Vietnam will have zero privacy," he said. 'Direct defiance' Opponents both inside and outside the country have said that the law could cause economic harm and stifle online dissent. Thousands of Vietnamese protesters took to the streets in rare demonstrations in several cities in June to protest the draft Law on Cybersecurity and government plans to grant long-term leases for foreign companies operating in special economic zones, prompting crackdowns by police who assaulted and arrested them. Nearly 130 people were convicted for participating in protests as of November, receiving sentences of up to five years in prison, HRW said. Within four months after the law was passed, almost 70,000 people had signed an online petition to urge the government to postpone the legislation and revise it, HRW said. In a September letter to Federica Mogherini, European high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, and Cecilia Malmstr�_m, European Union commissioner for trade, some members of the European parliament said Vietnam should revise the law and bring it into compliance with international human rights standards, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights to which the country is a party. "Vietnam's Law on Cybersecurity and the accompanying decree trample on individual privacy in direct defiance of Hanoi's promises to the European Union to respect rights," Robertson said. He called on EU member states to postpone any vote on a free trade agreement with Vietnam until the country revises the law and demonstrates improvements to its "abysmal" human rights record
- Impact of Event
- 8
- Gender of HRD
- Other (e.g. undefined, organisation, community)
- Violation
- Censorship, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of assembly
- HRD
- NGO, NGO staff
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 11, 2018
- Event Description
Vietnamese democracy activists Nguyen Van Trang and Le Van Thuong are wanted for overthrowing their country's communist government, police told RFA's Vietnamese Service on Tuesday. The two members of the banned Brotherhood for Democracy are being sought for "activities aiming to overthrow the people's administration" under article 109 of the revised Vietnamese penal code, police in Thanh Hoa and Quang Ngai provinces told RFA by telephone. "I was told by my family that representatives from Thanh Hoa police came to my house and read their decision to prosecute me and then on Dec. 10 they came again to read the wanted notice, accusing me of overthrowing the government," Trang told RFA on Tuesday. "I will have to hide and continue my fight until Vietnam has democracy,' he said. "I had gone into hiding before they issued their decision to prosecute me. I was told by family and friends that they have been searching for me from the north to the south," added Trang, who is in his late 20s. Thuong, 30, was the subject of a wanted notice issued by Quang Ngai police on Nov. 26, more than two weeks after he had fled the area, the police said. Police asked anybody who sees Thuong to turn him in. Article 109 has been widely condemned by rights groups and legal experts for allowing a person to be imprisoned up to five years for "preparing to criticize the state or preparing to join an independent political group disapproved by the government," Human Rights Watch said in an analysis in 2017, after the penal code revisions were unveiled. "A number of vaguely-worded articles related to national security crimes are often used to prosecute people for exercising basic rights, and now they can be (mis)used in even more circumstances," said HRW of the amended code, which took effect on Jan. 1, 2018. Vietnam's one-party communist government-which controls all media, censors the internet, and restricts basic freedoms of expression-is currently detaining more than 200 political prisoners, Nguyen Kim Binh of Vietnam Human Rights Network said in a speech Sunday in California.
- Impact of Event
- 2
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment, Reprisal as Result of Communication
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 12, 2018
- Event Description
Authorities in the central province of Thanh Hoa have officially accused local resident Nguyen Van Trang of "carrying out activities aiming to overthrow the government" under Article 109 of the country's 2015 Penal Code. The province's Police Department reportedly launched an investigation against him, and issued an arrest warrant for the young activist member of the unsanctioned group Brotherhood for Democracy. Trang, 27, who is hiding in a safe place, is facing severe imprisonment if is arrested and convicted. In the past few years, authorities in Thanh Hoa have conducted a number of acts to harass the activist, including requesting Hong Duc University's leadership where Trang was studying undergraduate program not to allow him to participate in the final examination for a bachelor degree. The Brotherhood for Democracy is the main target of Vietnam's ongoing crackdown. Eight key members of the group named Nguyen Van Dai, Le Thu Ha, Pham Van Troi, Truong Minh Duc, Nguyen Trung Ton, Nguyen Van Tuc, Tran Thi Xuan and Nguyen Trung Truc were charged with subversion and sentenced to between seven and 15 years in prison this year. According to Vietnam's law, individuals convicted of subversion may face life imprisonment or even death penalty.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Online
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019
- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- Dec 10, 2018
- Event Description
On December 10, security forces in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau kidnapped local female activist Tran Thi Ty, holding her for interrogation for two days before releasing her next day. In the morning of Monday, Ms. Ty took her mother on her motorbike to a local market in Xuyen Moc district. Dozens of police and plainclothes agents stopped her vehicle near Phuoc Buu Pagoda and took her away. Police did not issue arrest warrant, said her family. On the late afternoon of December 11, police released her after interrogation about her social activities for hours. Ms. Ty is a daughter of local activist Tran Van Thuong. Due to their activities aiming to promote human rights and religious freedom, the family has been under constant harassment of the local police, including detentions and economic blockage.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Woman
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention, Abduction/Kidnapping, Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Right to healthy and safe environment
- HRD
- Pro-democracy defender, WHRD
- Perpetrator-State
- Government, Police
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Date added
- Sep 20, 2019