- 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
- 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