Jan 04, 2015
February 2014
1. Hải Phòng City Public Security disrupted the funeral of Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Lợi, mother of Ms. Phạm Thanh Nghiên, a prisoner of conscience (POC)
February 26, 2014. Hải Phòng City Public Security stopped friends of Ms. Phạm Thanh Nghiên who came to the funeral of her mother Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Lợi. Public Security officers openly and brazenly removed the condolence ribbons from the flower wreaths sent by civil society organizations. They disrupted the funeral procession to the cemetery. They relented and allowed the funeral to go forward only after the family of the deceased vehemently protested the inhumanity of their action.
2. The Case of Ms. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng, Ms. Nguyễn thị Thúy Quỳnh, Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh and 18 traveling companions.
February 11, 2014. A motorcycle traveling party consisting of Ms. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng, Ms. Nguyễn thị Thúy Quỳnh, Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh and 18 other people were ambushed and attacked near Nông Trại bridge in Mỹ An Hưng hamlet, Lấp Vò district, Đồng Tháp province. The traveling party was on its way to visit two co-religionist, Mr. and Mrs. Nguyễn Bắc Truyển. They were victimized by Public Security several days ago. According to the testimony of most members of the traveling party, the number of people who attacked them was in the hundreds. The attackers were members of Public Security Forces who disguised themselves as hooligans. They waited for the traveling party by hiding behind the roadside trees. When the motorcycles of the traveling party came by, they jumped out, stopped the motorcycles, asked the riders and passengers to produce their identity papers, and hurled provocative insults at them. In a denunciation letter dated February 23, 2014 that Mr. Võ Văn Thanh – a religious practitioner – wrote, and also in an Open Letter dated March 5, 2014 that Ms. Đặng Thị Quỳnh Anh – the daughter of Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng – authored, the following was reported. When the travelers protested, Public Security officers beat up the travelers indiscriminately and severely with wooden sticks. As the beatings took place, some Public Security officers photographed and videotaped them. No travelers, young or old, male or female, were spared. The severity of the beatings caused many travelers to bleed profusely, sustain deep and severe wounds, or pass out. Once the beatings stopped, the attackers put their Public Security uniforms back on, took all 21 travelers to a Public Security station, and confiscated all personal items belonging the travelers. These items were laptops, cameras, cell phones and banners. At the station, the travelers were kept in dark and dirty cells without food for half a day before they were released. Notable among the Public Security attackers are Captain Huỳnh Văn Thuận, deputy Chief of Public Security for Lấp Vồ district and senior colonel Lê Hoàng Dũng, deputy general manager of the Investigative Branch of Lấp Vò Public Security. Senior Colonel Lê Hoàng Dũng was the one who beat Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng most savagely. He was also the one who signed the order to prosecute her.
On August 26, 2014, at 7PM the Đồng Tháp Appellate Court sentenced Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng to 3 years in prison, Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh to 2 years and 6 months, and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thúy Quỳnh to 2 years. The court prosecuted and sentenced all three according to Point C of Article 245 of the Criminal Code, “causing a public disturbance”. All three accused affirmed their innocence in court.
3. Stones and filthy liquids thrown on the roof and splashed inside the family home of Mr. Huỳnh Ngọc Tuấn.
February 11, 2014 at 7:30PM. Big stones were thrown at a house at Cluster 1, Phú Quý hamlet, Tam Kỳ District, Quảng Nam Province. The house belongs to Mr. Huỳnh Ngọc Tuấn, a former prisoner of conscience and a dissident. Some of the stones broke the roof of the house and landed inside.
February 21, 2014 at 9:30PM. Public Security officers disguised as hooligans splashed filthy and smelly liquids inside the home of Mr. Huỳnh Ngọc Tuấn. When the splashing attack occurred, three grown children of Mr. Tuấn, Ms. Huỳnh Thục Vy, Mr. Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu and Ms. Huỳnh Khánh Vy, were visiting him. Also inside the house at the time of the attack were an elderly lady and two children. They were both under one year old.
Attacks by stone throwing and splashing of filthy and smelly liquids that targeted the homes of democracy and human rights activists happened all over the country in 2014. So far, not a single one of these attacks was investigated even when the victims duly reported them to Public Security.
March 2014
- Public Security Forces conducted illegal search and seizure and infringed on the human rights of teacher Huỳnh Xuân Mai, a resident of An Thới Đông hamlet, Cái Bè district, Tiền Giang province.
March 8, 2014, 9 AM. Public Security officers from the hamlet, district and province where teacher Huỳnh Xuân Mai resided raided her home and also the An Thới Đông Regional High School where she was working. They searched and seized her laptop without a court order. Two officers from Tiền Giang Provincial Public Security took her laptop to the hamlet’s People’s Commission Office and forced Ms. Mai to go along with them. She was kept there and wasn’t allowed to go home until about 11AM. Later in the afternoon, the same officers came to her home and forced her to go back to the hamlet’s People Commission Office for yet another “working session”, an euphemism for police interrogation. It wasn’t until 8PM that she was allowed to go home with a certificate stating that no contents harmful to national security were found on her laptop. Two Public Security officers then escorted her back to home. There, they decided to confiscate her cell phone for “further investigation”. They stayed inside her home until 11PM, when she had to chase them away for decency’s sake as it was very late.
- Human right activist Trần Thị Nga assaulted.
March 23, 2014. Officers from Public Security and the secret service as well as street hooligans subdued and arrested Ms. Trần Thị Nga and her friends as they were waiting to take a bus to go to the shores of the Lake of Returned Sword in Hà Nội. Ms. Nga and her friends had planned to go these shores to demonstrate in support of the son of Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng. He was fighting for justice for his mother and two other persons, Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thúy Quỳnh. The three of them were unjustly arrested in a incident that Public Security of Lấp Vò, Đồng Tháp staged on February 11, 2014.
Ms. Nga was subdued and taken by car to a Public Security station located in Quang Trung ward, Đống Đa district. There, she was beaten, insulted, and bodily searched to find out whether she had any camera and/or recording devices on her. Public Security personnel made a video of her mistreatment at the station.
Public Security officer Lê Mạnh Tuấn (his serial number is 121-641) and two other plain clothed officers conducted the body search and sexually molested Mrs. Trần Thị Nga. They twisted her arms painfully to get her fingerprints affixed on reports that Public Security prepared themselves and without her knowledge or consent. The contents of these reports were not true.
Ms. Trần Thị Nga was eventually taken to Phủ Lý city in Hà Nam province. There, Mr. Vũ Hồng Phương, deputy chief of Public Security of Phủ Lý city personally oversaw his men brutalize and twist her arms again. They did so because they wanted to have her fingerprints affixed on documents that Public Security created. Mrs. Ms. Trần Thị Nga had no knowledge of the contents of these documents.
- Believers in the Traditional Hòa Hảo Buddhist Faith repressed.
March 21, 2014. About 300 officers from Public Security of Chợ Mới district and An Giang city stormed the home or Mr. Nguyễn Văn Vinh, a believer in the Traditional Hòa Hảo Buddhist Faith. Led by Mr. Nguyễn Văn Mỹ, Deputy Chief of Public Security of Chợ Mới district, the officers beat up anyone they could find in the home, ransacked it, and even took away some of the household goods. The beatings caused many to pass out from their injuries. When the beatings and the rampage ended, they arrested everyone found inside the home. Among those arrested were relatives and members of Mr. Nguyễn Văn Vinh’s family, otherbelievers who were on the premise to help out and even those who had passed out. The attack just described occurred on the day when believers in the Traditional Hòa Hảo Buddhist Faith assembled to prepare for the annual memorial service that marks the day when His Highness Huỳnh Phú Sổ, or “Patriarch Huỳnh” was victimized.
Among those severely injured during the assault were Mrs. Võ Thị Rắm, 82, and Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Hà. Mrs. Rắm had to be hospitalized. Ms. Hà, who had a heart condition, was pinned down on the ground and repeated punched and kicked. After she passed out from the beating, Public Security personnel loaded her in a car, drove to a place near her home, and pushed her out onto the pavement.
April 2014
- Ms. Anna Huyền Trang, anchor of the “Cà Phê Tối” (“Nighttime Coffee”) program of Vietnam Redemptorist’s News (VRN) internet Radio/TV station, was harassed and forbidden to leave the country.
April 14, 2014, at 9PM. Ms. Anna Huyền Trang was assaulted and arrested at Tân Sơn Nhất airport as she was preparing to board a plane bound for the US. A member of the Congress of the United States of America had invited her to come to the US to participate in a hearing on freedom of the press in Vietnam. The hearing will be held in the Lower House of the US Congress. Public Security officer Vũ Văn Ái led the assault and arrest. He confiscated her passport and forbade her to board the plane. He didn’t produce any official order or paperwork that would authorize him to prevent her from leaving the country. Ms. Anna Huyền Trang submitted a complaint to and initiated a lawsuit at the Ho Chi Minh City’s Court on September 30, 2014. On October 9, 2014, the Court returned to her all the documents she submitted related to her complaint and lawsuit. The Court did so with prejudice by pointing out where she didn’t follow the proper procedures. The Court’s intention was to deny her the opportunity to submit a lawsuit.
- Hanoi city government accused protesters from Dương Nội of disturbing the public peace and resisting arrest. It also unleashed Public Security officers and hoodlums to beat up, arrest, and send these protesters to prison.
April 22, 2014. Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ngân and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Toàn – two Unjustly Dispossessed Persons, i.e., people whose land and/or home was unjustly taken away or requisitioned by the government – were arrested. Subsequently, the Court sentenced these two women to 6 months in jail. They were released as expected on October 22, 2014.
April 25, 2014. the government used Public Security officers, hoodlums, and a truck outfitted with a crane that sprayed an anesthetic mist to cause Mrs. Cấn Thị Thêu to faint in order to arrest her. Mrs. Thêu was an Unjustly Dispossessed Person. At the time of her arrest, she was filming and photographing the vicious attacks that Public Security officers and hoodlums armed with deadly weapons were unleashing on her husband and many other people. These people were demonstrating to stop the government from taking over the land they used for production. Arrested on the same day as Mrs. Cấn Thị Thêu and her husband were Mr. Trịnh Bá Khiêm and Mr. Lê Văn Thanh. On September 19, 2014, the court sentenced Mrs. Thêu to 15 months in prison, Mr. Khiêm to 18 months, and Mr. Thanh to 12 months.
- Members of Vietnamese Women for Human Rights beaten and detained.
April 22, 2014. Two representatives of the Vietnamese Women for Human Rights, a civil society organization, Mrs. Trần Thị Hài and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Lụa, were severely beaten and then detained for several hours by Public Security officers and hooligans. The beating took place a short while after the two women left the Cần Thơ Appellate Court. They were there to attend the final trial of two Unjustly Dispossessed Persons, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Tuyền and Nguyễn Thị Ánh Nguyệt.
- Two Unjustly Dispossessed Persons, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Tuyền and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ánh Nguyệt, sent to prison for their opposition to government land seizure.
April 22, 2014, morning. Cần Thơ City Appellate Court tried the above named Unjustly Dispossessed Persons and sentenced Ms. Nguyệt to 3 years in jail and Ms. Tuyền to 2 years (a reduction from the 2 ½ year sentence given out the Court of First Instance). We may recall that these two women owned land at the Cờ Đỏ (“Red Flag”) Farm Cooperative that was unjustly requisitioned by the government.
May 2014
- Hà Nội Public Security arrested Mr. Nguyễn Hữu Vinh (aka “Ba Sàm”) and Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Minh Thúy.
May 5, 2014. Hà Nội’s Public Security issued and executed and emergency search and then carried out an emergency arrest warrant targeting Mr. Nguyễn Hữu Vinh, also known as blogger “Ba Sàm”. Arrested along with Mr. Vinh was Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Minh Thúy. She was a former employee of Mr. Vinh at the private company he founded, Investigation & Protection, LLC. She was also the web administrator of thehttps://anhbasam.wordpress.com/ website since 2012.
On October 30, the public security division of the Ministry of Public Security released a report summarizing its findings in the case of “Nguyễn Hữu Vinh and associates who took advantage of freedom and democracy rights to infringe on the interests of the state, the rights and the benefits of the organizations and the citizenry”, according to Article 258 of the Criminal Code.
- Đồng Nai Public Security arrested Lê Thị Phương Anh, Phạm Minh Vũ and Nguyễn Trung Nghĩa.
May 15, 2014. The three persons named above were arrested when they visited and took photographs of the areas where violence erupted a few days ago. At this point in time, their families have yet to receive any official announcements related to their arrests. Public Security officials told the families that these three persons were arrested and that they will be duly prosecuted according to Article 258 of the Criminal Code.
- Public Security officers ordered by the government to arrest demonstrators who protested peacefully the illegal presence of Chinese oil drilling rig HD981 inside territorial waters of Vietnam.
May 18, 2014. In Sài Gòn, Hà Nội and Nghệ An, Public Security brutally repressed, arrested, and detained for many hours people who participated in peaceful demonstrations to protest the presence of Chinese oil drilling rig HD981 inside Vietnamese territorial waters. Some of the demonstrators were also beaten while detained at Public Security stations. Those arrested included:
In Hà Nội: Trần Thị Nga, students Lê Đức Hiền, Vũ Mạnh Hùng, Dương Thị Xuân and Đỗ Văn Ngọc and facebookers Dustin Bý and Lý Quang Sơn.
In Sài Gòn: Blogger Trịnh Anh Tuấn, Nguyễn Ngọc Lụa, Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu, Vanda Lâm – a student at the Medical and Pharmacy University and facebookers August Anh and Thế Lữ.
In Nghệ An: Lê Văn Nhàn, Hồ Huy Khang, Nguyễn Đức Quốc, Nguyễn Văn Huân, Nguyễn Hoài Thu, Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, Lê Thị Hương and Chân Thành.
- Two members of the Vietnamese Women For Human Rights civil society organization arrested by plain-clothed Public Security officers and detained in Tuyên Quang province.
May 27, 2014. Ms. Huỳnh Phương Ngọc and Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Lụa had planned to attend, as representives of the Vietnamese Women for Human Rights (VWFHR) civil societyorganization, the public and final trial of MM. Lư Văn Linh, Dương Văn Tu and Thào Quán Mua. These men, all ethnic Hmong’s, were accused of “taking advantage of freedom and democracy rights to infringe on the interests of the state, the rights and the benefits of the organizations and the citizenry.” However, Public Security and secret service abducted these two women at 9AM as they were entering the Appellate Court House. The women were taken to a Public Security station in Tuyên Quang. There, they were interrogated until 2AM and then driven by car to Hà Nội and released.
- Leaflets with a message that targeted Mrs. Tran Thị Nga for murder was found in the area near her home. A couple of days later, hooligans hunted her down and knee-capped her.
May 22-24, 2014. Leaflets where found near the home of Mrs. Trần Thị Nga. Written on these leaflets are threats to kill her. She reported these leaflets to the local Public Security station. Public security conducted a cursory search of area where the leaflets were found..
May 35, 2014 at 4PM. Mrs. Trần Thị Nga and her two sons, an 18-month old toddler and a 4 year-old boy were passengers on a motorcycle-for-hire on their way to the Giáp Bát Bus Depot in Hà Nội. Suddenly, 6 young men rushed out pushed the motorcycle down and struck Mrs. Nga on her arms and body with the steel tubes. She fled into a nearby store. The attackers ran after her. They dispersed when a man inside the store tried to stop them. But then, as Mrs. Nga ran back outside to collect her two children, all five attackers rushed back and struck her again with the steel tubes. This time, they targeted and succeeded in breaking her knee caps. Mrs. Trần Thị Nga recognized one of the assailants. He had followed her from Hà Nam earlier in the morning when she boarded a bus there to go to Hà Nội.
Mrs. Trần Thị Nga submitted numerous denunciation/complaint letters to Public Security. None of these were acted on. Indeed, after he reviewed Mrs. Trần Thị Nga’s case files and the proofs she provided, Mr. Nguyễn Duy Thuần, a cadre at the Supreme Procuracy, the highest authority in the land when it comes to prosecuting crimes, stated flatly: “I don’t care about the proofs you provide. I won’t accept your petition because if you fight for human rights then the government and Public Security have every right to beat you up.”
After repeated efforts, on October 23, 2014 the Public Security office in Thanh Try district decided to open an investigation of the assault. This investigation was the required first step in bringing the case to court. Currently, the office is having problems identifying the people who assaulted Mrs. Trần Thị Nga, although she already provided videos and photos that clearly showed the faces of the persons who attacked her and her children.
July 2014
- Members of Vietnamese Women for Human Rights and the Blogger Network prevented from attending a conference at the Embassy of Australia in Hà Nội.
July 30, 2014. A large contingent of Public Security officers came to the rest house where two female members of the Vietnamese Women for Human Rights organization where staying. The officers prevented these two women from attending a workshop on “Non Governmental Freedom of Communications In the Current Period” at the Embassy of Australia.
In Nha Trang, Public Security also prevented a member of The Blogger Network, Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, from attending the same workshop. They stopped her at the airport and detained her for several hours.
In Hà Nội, Public Security officers surrounded and threatened to arrest Ms. Phạm Thanh Nghiên, also a member of the Blogger Network, as she was leaving the workshop. The staff of the Embassy of Australia intervened and successfully helped her get home safely.
- Public Security of Vĩnh An, Đồng Nai province “underwrote” land grab.
July 1-3, 2014. Members of Public Security and People’s Guard from the township of Vĩnh An, Vĩnh Cửu District, Đồng Nai province “underwrote” the beating that Mr. Lê Văn Liễn inflicted on Mrs. Hoàng Thị Huệ. Mrs. Huệ’s face was swollen from the beating delivered by Mr. Liễn himself. Her injuries was so severe that she required hospitalization for about a month. Public Security also did nothing as Mr. Liễn’s henchmen destroyed the vegetable patches that Mrs. Huệ planted on a field that she inherited from her parents and had continuously cultivated since 1975.
The sons of Mrs. Huệ, MM. Đặng Ngọc Hiếu and Đặng Ngọc Tú, resisted and fought back during the attack. They injured two assailants. One of them sustained injuries classified at 1%; the other, at 3%. The court sentenced MM. Hiếu and Tú to 5 months in jail each according to Article 104 of the Criminal Code, “to inflict injuries intentionally”. Each one of them were also fined VND 34,683,785 piasters (about USD 1,621).
After her release from the hospital, Mrs. Huệ submitted a complaint to Public Security. The complaint detailed how Public Security “underwrote” the severe beating that Mr. Liển personally inflicted on her. Public Security refused to accept her complaint.
- Public Security of Ward 1, Gò Vấp “looked the other way” when land grabbers beat up land owners to take over the land.
July 6, 2014. Mr. Nguyễn Ngọc Minh sent hooligans to deliver construction materials to a tract of land reserved for burial and on which the Lư family had their home. The Lư’s say thay owned the tract of land, but who actually owns it is still unclear. For several years the ownership of the land was, and still is, in litigation. When the hooligans came, the Lư’s came out also and tried to stop the delivery of construction materials. They were beaten up.
Two members of the Lư family, Mrs. Lư Thị Thu Thủy and Mrs. Lư Thị Thu Vân called Public Security officials. They asked them to come out to the site to observe and investigate. The officials came, saw what happened, but didn’t resolve anything.
August 2014
- Public Security of Đồng Tháp province arrested and detained attendees of the trial of Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thúy Quỳnh, and Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh.
August 25-26, 2014. Public Security of Đồng Tháp province arrested and detained for hours numerous people who attended the aforementioned trial. Those detained included women and young children. Some of the children were barely a few months old. All were detained until around midnight and then taken to Sài Gòn by bus. Public Security officers beat up Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Lụa, a member of Vietnamese Women for Human Rights, right inside their station. She was beaten so severely that she needed hospitalization.
September 2014
- Airport security prevented Ms. Đỗ Thị Minh Hạnh for leaving the country.
September 3, 2014. As Ms. Hạnh was going through customs prior to boarding a plane that would take her to Austria to visit her sick mother, Public Security stopped and detained her for 13 hours. No report was made of her detention. Ms. Hạnh was then taken to the center of downtown Hà Nội and dropped off.
September 8, 2014. Ms. Hạnh, along with Mr. Trương Minh Đức, Mr. Trương Văn Dũng, and Mrs. Trần Thị Nga drove to the Office of the Security Division of the Ministry of Public Security. They wanted to inquire about the reasons why Ms. Hạnh wasn’t allowed to leave the country. As their car made its way to the Office, a group of young men stopped the car, broke its door, pulled Mr. Trương Minh Đức out, and together beat him up.
- The government of Từ Sơn District, Bắc Ninh Province, repressed and arrested Unjustly Dispossessed People.
September 4, 2014. A court tried 12 Unjustly Dispossessed Persons from Trịnh Nguyễn area and charged them with the crime of creating a public disturbance.
These Unjustly Dispossessed Persons were fighting peacefully for two objectives. First, they wanted to keep the land they owned. Second, they wanted the government to relocate a waste water treatment plant planned for their area to another area far away from their home. Such a move would minimize the negative impact the plant might have on their health and their ability to earn a living. The government’s response was to repress them brutally. Officers from Public Security and the People’s Guard and hooligans attacked the area. They bloodied and injured many of the people from Trịnh Nguyễn. They arrested many people. Most of the injured were women and children.
One of the injured was Mrs. Đỗ Thị Thêm. She was the victim of an acid splashing attack. Those who splashed acid on her were arrested. However, a year has gone by and the government still hasn’t done anything about the case.
The 12 Unjustly Dispossessed Persons who were sentenced were:
– Ms. Đỗ Thị Thiêm, Mr. Đỗ Văn Quý and Mr. Đỗ Văn Hào – Each received 28 months in jail.
– Ms. Ngô Thị Toan, Ms. Đặng Thị Mỳ and Ms. Ngô Thị Như (she is deaf and illiterate) – Each received 26 months in jail.
– Ms. Ngô Thị Đức and Mr. Đặng Văn Nhu – Each received 28 months of probation.
– Ms. Đỗ Thị Thiêm (she is another Ms. Thiêm, her other first name is Trinh), Ms. Nguyễn Thị Chiến, Ms. Vũ Thị Thảo and Ms. Ngô Thị Thoa – Each received 36 months of probation.
- Public Security of Tân Bình District, Sài Gòn, repressed and terrorized several citizens.
September 5, 2014. To prevent members of civil societies from attending a civil meeting at a Redemptorist Church, Officers from Public Security and the People’s Guard of Ward 14, Tân Bình District raided a house at 305/16 Trường Chinh Street, brutally repressed and arrested everyone who resided there. Those arrested were then taken to a Public Security station and detained there for several hours. They were then fined as follows:
- Mr. Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu received a fine of VND 2,650,000.00.
- Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Ánh Ngân (wife of Mr. Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu) received a fine of VND 2,650,000.00.
- Ms. Bùi Thị Nhung received a fine of VND 2,650,000.00.
- Ms. Huỳnh Phương Ngọc received a fine of VND 2,850,000.00.
- Trần Thị Thu Nguyệt received a fine of VND 2,850,000.00.
All five persons listed above protested the Administrative Decision Mr. Tuấn, chairman of the People’s Commission, issued to fine them. They accused Mr. Tuấn and Public Security of acting contrary to existing laws and regulations when they sent Public Security officers out to invade their home illegally and then detain them arbitrarily.
Later, pretending to deliver and serve the Administrative Decision to the above five people, officers from Public Security repeatedly came to the house at 305/16 Trường Chinh Street to harass them over and over again.
October 2014
- Public Security harassed Ms. Huỳnh Thục Vy, a dissident blogger and an member of the Executive Committee of the Vietnamese Women For Human Rights organization.
September 7, 2014. Two Public Security officials from Thống Nhất Hamlet, Buôn Hồ district, Dak Lak province, came to the house where she stayed. They served her an Order to report to the local Public Security stationto explain why she was staying temporarily with her husband at his home.
October 2, 2014: Two members of Dak Lak Public Security came to the home of Ms. Huỳnh Thục Vy. They demanded her to explain her participation in civil society organizations.
- Hooligans ransacked the rental home of where the family of a dissident blogger, Mr. Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu, resided.
October 10, 2014. On two separate occasions, hooligans broke down the doors, rushed in and ransacked the rental room where Mr. Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu, his wife Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Ánh Ngân, and his son 9-month old son Côn Bằng were living. The hooligans did so to make good on the threats Public Security officers made when they came to serve Mr.Hiếu and Mrs. Ngân the Administrative Orders that fined them back in September 5, 2014.
- Hanoi’s Public Security repressed, arrested and jailed Unjustly Dispossessed Persons who petitioned for relief against the illegal seizure of their homes and land.
In Hanoi, Unjustly Dispossessed Persons from all three regions of Vietnam – North, Central, and South – continued to submit claims regarding the seizure of their land and homes. Typically, Public Security forces would arrest or detain them for a long time without food or water. Many would also be taken to court and tried for “resisting an officer in the process of carrying out his official duty.”
October 22, 2014: Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Toàn and Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Ngân, both Unjustly Dispossessed Persons from Dương Nội, were sentenced to 6 months in jail for “disturbing the public peace” and “resisting an officer in the process of carrying out his official duty.” Upon their release, these two women denounced the cruel and inhuman treatment they received while in the custody of Public Security. Specifically, they were, along with Mrs. Cấn Thị Thêu, another Unjustly Dispossessed Person, kept in a cell with two HIV victims in the last stages of the disease and with lesions all over their bodies.
October 28, 2014: The Thanh Oai District People’s Court had to postpone its session for the 4th time because the accused, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Lan, fainted numerous times in the courtroom. Ms. Lan had a heart condition yet Public Security personnel bashed her head repeatedly during her arrest and detention. Three other Unjustly Dispossessed Persons were tried along with Ms. Lan on that day. They were: Mr. Vũ Văn Huề, 23, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Hà, 26, and Mr. Lê Văn Vượng, 45.
- The family of Pastor Nguyễn Công Chính harassed and terrorized.
October 28-30, 2014. During the October 20-30, 2014 period, the wife – Mrs. Trần Thị Hồng – and children of Pastor Nguyễn Công Chính were continuously harassed and terrorized by Public Security and secret service agents.
The harassment and terrorism Mrs. Hồng and her 5 young children endured while living at Cluster 10, CMT8 Street, Hoa Lư ward, Pleiku City, Gia Lai Province were numerous and beyond the pale. Public Security agents and/or secret service agents used steel wires to tie up all the doors of the house so that no one could open them and get in or out. On October 29, they climbed on the roof of the house to spy on the activities of the family. They regularly followed closely and threatened Mrs. Hồng as she walked her young children to school. They arbitrarily stopped and searched the book bag of her adopted son as he walked to his high school (he is an 11th grader). They prevented Mr. Hồng from visiting her husband. Once, they stopped her and seized her cell phone as she was on her way to visit her husband in prison camp.
We may recall that Pastor Chính was arrested on April 28, 2011 and sentenced to 11 years in jail. His alleged crime was “acting against the government of Vietnam and fomenting division among the various classes within the population” as stipulated in Article 87 of the Criminal Code. Since his arrest and confinement in a prison camp, pastor Chính was relentlessly persecuted.
November 2014
- Public Security Forces illegally stopped and arrested participants in a discussion on legal rights and the judicial process in the context of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for Vietnam at the Embassy of Canada on November 4, 2014.
November 4, 2014 at 9:30AM. Members of Public Security and Secret Services of Hanoi and Hà Nam arrested Ms. Trần Thị Nga just as she stepped off a taxi in front of the Embassy of Canada in Hanoi. She was taken to the office of Phủ Lý city Public Security in Hà Nam province and detained there until 3PM.
November 3, 2014. Public Security of Khánh Hòa province stopped Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh (a well-known blogger who goes by the name “Mẹ Nấm or “Mother Mushroom”) as she was making her way to Cam Ranh airport to go to Hanoi and arrested her. She was then taken to the office of Khánh Hòa Public Security. There, her personal identification papers were confiscated. She wasn’t allowed to leave the stattion until around midnight. Previously at around 11AM on the same day, Public Security had issued an order demanding that she report to the station to explain a petition she had submitted on October 21, 2014. In that petition, she had asked Public Security to explain “the confiscation and holding of a citizen’s property” and demanded the return of cell phone, personal identification papers and other items. Khánh Hòa Public Security had arbitrarily taken the above items from her when they abducted her on July 29, 2014.
- Public Security Forces repressed family members of a death row prisoner who is appealing his case.
November 26, 2014 at 10AM. Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Loan and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ruỡi, mother and aunt of death row inmate Hồ Duy Hải were beaten, repressed, arrested and taken away when they came to the National Assembly to submit a petition. In their petition, the women asked that the Mr. Hải’s death sentence be suspended pending a fuller and more complete investigation of his alleged crime. The ground for this requests was there were sufficient evidence to cast very serious doubts on whether Mr. Hải was fairly accused, judged, and sentenced.
- The People’s Reception Hall at No. 1, Ngô Thì Nhậm Street, doesn’t resolve claims and repress people who submitted claims.
November 4, 2014. At the People’s Reception Hall at No. 1 Ngô Thì Nhậm Street, Đoàn Trương Anh Thư, an 11 year-old boy, had his throat grasped by a Public Security officer while Mrs. Trương Thị Huệ, an Unjustly Dispossessed Person from Tiền Giang, was beaten unconscious. Their mistreatment is typical. Cadres at the Hall receive the people who came there in a cursory manner. Now and then, they order officers from Public Security and the People’s Guard and their security guards to beat up people who submitted claims.
December 2014
- Public Security harassed a group of believers of the Traditional Hòa Hảo Buddhist Faith.
December 2, 2014, morning. Public Security and secret service agents followed, videotaped, and harassed a group of believers in the Traditional Hòa Hảo Buddhist Faith traveling on motorcycles. The group came from An Giang province. The purpose of their trip was twofold. First, they wanted to visit the mother of a martyr of the Faith, Mr. Trần Văn Út. She resides in Định Yên hamlet, Lấp Vồ district, Đồng Tháp province. Second, they wanted to attend the 72th birthday party of Mr. Lê Văn Chính, a senior member of the Faith. He lives in Tân Bình hamlet, Bình Tân district, Vĩnh Long province.
- Blogger Nguyễn Hoàng Vy beaten up in Sài Gòn.
December 9, 2014. As she was walking back to her home, a group of young men and women stopped blogger Nguyễn Hoàng Vy, grabbed her hair, and punched her repeatedly. Dozens of people, including Public Security officers, stood in front of her house and watched her getting beat up. None intervened.
- Public Security repressed and arrested people attending the second and final trial of Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thúy Quỳnh, and Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh at the Court of Appeal.
December 12, 2014. Outside of the gate of the Court of Appeal, officers from Public Security, the People’s Guards, and the secret service beat up and arrested anyone who came to the courthouse trying to attend the trial of the above named persons. Several witnesses called by the Court were prevented from entering the courthouse to testify.
- Hải Phòng Public Security burned down the hut of Unjustly Dispossessed Person Nguyễn Thị Thúy.
December 22, 2014. The government of Đằng Giang ward, Ngô Quyền district, Hải Phòng province mobilized a large contingent of Public Security officers and hooligans to surround the hut where Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Thúy and her eight young children were living. They wanted to frighten Mrs. Thúy and her children away. The hut was build on the remaining foundation of the house Mrs. Thúy owned and that the government had arbitrarily demolished in 2011 in order to requisition the land. Mrs. Thúy and her children were determined to stay inside the hut. They used gasoline containers and gas tanks to defend their home. Their determination convinced the attackers to back off.
December 23, 2014, at 9:45PM. Hooligans under orders from the government threw Molotov cocktails into the hut when Mrs. Thúy and her eight young children were inside. The hut burned down almost to the ground. Luckily Mrs. Thúy and all of her children were able to run out of the hut just in time to escape serious harms.
- Numerous unjust and erroneous death sentences surfaced and aroused the concern of public opinion regarding forced confessions during the criminal investigation process.
The most notable ones among the death sentences handed out to death row inmates Hồ Duy Hải and Nguyễn Văn Chưỡng. Mr. Hải was alleged to have killed two people in Long An. Mr. Chưởng was alleged to have participated in a robbery-murder in Hải Phòng on the night of July 14, 2007. In both cases, there were indications that injustice and judicial errors were committed, and that forced confessions were used during the investigative process. Relatives of these two death row inmates are now asking that their cases be reviewed to bring about justice for them.
Report written by
Mrs. Trần Thị Nga
Member, The Directing Board
Vietnamese Women for Human Rights
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January 5, 2015
Vietnamese Women for Human Rights Report on Human Rights Violations against Women in Vietnam in 2014
by Nhan Quyen • Bui Thi Minh Hang, Can Thi Theu, Do Thi Minh Hanh, Duong Van Tu, Ho Duy Hai, Huynh Phuong Ngoc, Huynh Thuc Vy, Huynh Trong Hieu, Le Van Thanh, Ly Quang Son, Ngo Thi Duc, Nguyen Cong Chinh (Nguyen Thanh Long), Nguyen Huu Vinh (Anh Ba Sam), Nguyen Ngoc Lua, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (Me Nam), Nguyen Thi Anh Nguyet, Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy, Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh, Nguyen Thi Tuyen, Nguyen Van Chuong, Nguyen Van Minh, Pham Thanh Nghien, Thao Quan Mua, Tran Thi Nga (Tran Thuy Nga), Tran Van Ut, Trinh Anh Tuan (Gio Lang Thang), Trinh Ba Khiem, Truong Minh Duc, Truong Van Dung
Jan 04, 2015
February 2014
1. Hải Phòng City Public Security disrupted the funeral of Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Lợi, mother of Ms. Phạm Thanh Nghiên, a prisoner of conscience (POC)
February 26, 2014. Hải Phòng City Public Security stopped friends of Ms. Phạm Thanh Nghiên who came to the funeral of her mother Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Lợi. Public Security officers openly and brazenly removed the condolence ribbons from the flower wreaths sent by civil society organizations. They disrupted the funeral procession to the cemetery. They relented and allowed the funeral to go forward only after the family of the deceased vehemently protested the inhumanity of their action.
2. The Case of Ms. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng, Ms. Nguyễn thị Thúy Quỳnh, Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh and 18 traveling companions.
February 11, 2014. A motorcycle traveling party consisting of Ms. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng, Ms. Nguyễn thị Thúy Quỳnh, Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh and 18 other people were ambushed and attacked near Nông Trại bridge in Mỹ An Hưng hamlet, Lấp Vò district, Đồng Tháp province. The traveling party was on its way to visit two co-religionist, Mr. and Mrs. Nguyễn Bắc Truyển. They were victimized by Public Security several days ago. According to the testimony of most members of the traveling party, the number of people who attacked them was in the hundreds. The attackers were members of Public Security Forces who disguised themselves as hooligans. They waited for the traveling party by hiding behind the roadside trees. When the motorcycles of the traveling party came by, they jumped out, stopped the motorcycles, asked the riders and passengers to produce their identity papers, and hurled provocative insults at them. In a denunciation letter dated February 23, 2014 that Mr. Võ Văn Thanh – a religious practitioner – wrote, and also in an Open Letter dated March 5, 2014 that Ms. Đặng Thị Quỳnh Anh – the daughter of Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng – authored, the following was reported. When the travelers protested, Public Security officers beat up the travelers indiscriminately and severely with wooden sticks. As the beatings took place, some Public Security officers photographed and videotaped them. No travelers, young or old, male or female, were spared. The severity of the beatings caused many travelers to bleed profusely, sustain deep and severe wounds, or pass out. Once the beatings stopped, the attackers put their Public Security uniforms back on, took all 21 travelers to a Public Security station, and confiscated all personal items belonging the travelers. These items were laptops, cameras, cell phones and banners. At the station, the travelers were kept in dark and dirty cells without food for half a day before they were released. Notable among the Public Security attackers are Captain Huỳnh Văn Thuận, deputy Chief of Public Security for Lấp Vồ district and senior colonel Lê Hoàng Dũng, deputy general manager of the Investigative Branch of Lấp Vò Public Security. Senior Colonel Lê Hoàng Dũng was the one who beat Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng most savagely. He was also the one who signed the order to prosecute her.
On August 26, 2014, at 7PM the Đồng Tháp Appellate Court sentenced Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng to 3 years in prison, Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh to 2 years and 6 months, and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thúy Quỳnh to 2 years. The court prosecuted and sentenced all three according to Point C of Article 245 of the Criminal Code, “causing a public disturbance”. All three accused affirmed their innocence in court.
3. Stones and filthy liquids thrown on the roof and splashed inside the family home of Mr. Huỳnh Ngọc Tuấn.
February 11, 2014 at 7:30PM. Big stones were thrown at a house at Cluster 1, Phú Quý hamlet, Tam Kỳ District, Quảng Nam Province. The house belongs to Mr. Huỳnh Ngọc Tuấn, a former prisoner of conscience and a dissident. Some of the stones broke the roof of the house and landed inside.
February 21, 2014 at 9:30PM. Public Security officers disguised as hooligans splashed filthy and smelly liquids inside the home of Mr. Huỳnh Ngọc Tuấn. When the splashing attack occurred, three grown children of Mr. Tuấn, Ms. Huỳnh Thục Vy, Mr. Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu and Ms. Huỳnh Khánh Vy, were visiting him. Also inside the house at the time of the attack were an elderly lady and two children. They were both under one year old.
Attacks by stone throwing and splashing of filthy and smelly liquids that targeted the homes of democracy and human rights activists happened all over the country in 2014. So far, not a single one of these attacks was investigated even when the victims duly reported them to Public Security.
March 2014
March 8, 2014, 9 AM. Public Security officers from the hamlet, district and province where teacher Huỳnh Xuân Mai resided raided her home and also the An Thới Đông Regional High School where she was working. They searched and seized her laptop without a court order. Two officers from Tiền Giang Provincial Public Security took her laptop to the hamlet’s People’s Commission Office and forced Ms. Mai to go along with them. She was kept there and wasn’t allowed to go home until about 11AM. Later in the afternoon, the same officers came to her home and forced her to go back to the hamlet’s People Commission Office for yet another “working session”, an euphemism for police interrogation. It wasn’t until 8PM that she was allowed to go home with a certificate stating that no contents harmful to national security were found on her laptop. Two Public Security officers then escorted her back to home. There, they decided to confiscate her cell phone for “further investigation”. They stayed inside her home until 11PM, when she had to chase them away for decency’s sake as it was very late.
March 23, 2014. Officers from Public Security and the secret service as well as street hooligans subdued and arrested Ms. Trần Thị Nga and her friends as they were waiting to take a bus to go to the shores of the Lake of Returned Sword in Hà Nội. Ms. Nga and her friends had planned to go these shores to demonstrate in support of the son of Mrs. Bùi Thị Minh Hằng. He was fighting for justice for his mother and two other persons, Mr. Nguyễn Văn Minh and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thúy Quỳnh. The three of them were unjustly arrested in a incident that Public Security of Lấp Vò, Đồng Tháp staged on February 11, 2014.
Ms. Nga was subdued and taken by car to a Public Security station located in Quang Trung ward, Đống Đa district. There, she was beaten, insulted, and bodily searched to find out whether she had any camera and/or recording devices on her. Public Security personnel made a video of her mistreatment at the station.
Public Security officer Lê Mạnh Tuấn (his serial number is 121-641) and two other plain clothed officers conducted the body search and sexually molested Mrs. Trần Thị Nga. They twisted her arms painfully to get her fingerprints affixed on reports that Public Security prepared themselves and without her knowledge or consent. The contents of these reports were not true.
Ms. Trần Thị Nga was eventually taken to Phủ Lý city in Hà Nam province. There, Mr. Vũ Hồng Phương, deputy chief of Public Security of Phủ Lý city personally oversaw his men brutalize and twist her arms again. They did so because they wanted to have her fingerprints affixed on documents that Public Security created. Mrs. Ms. Trần Thị Nga had no knowledge of the contents of these documents.
March 21, 2014. About 300 officers from Public Security of Chợ Mới district and An Giang city stormed the home or Mr. Nguyễn Văn Vinh, a believer in the Traditional Hòa Hảo Buddhist Faith. Led by Mr. Nguyễn Văn Mỹ, Deputy Chief of Public Security of Chợ Mới district, the officers beat up anyone they could find in the home, ransacked it, and even took away some of the household goods. The beatings caused many to pass out from their injuries. When the beatings and the rampage ended, they arrested everyone found inside the home. Among those arrested were relatives and members of Mr. Nguyễn Văn Vinh’s family, otherbelievers who were on the premise to help out and even those who had passed out. The attack just described occurred on the day when believers in the Traditional Hòa Hảo Buddhist Faith assembled to prepare for the annual memorial service that marks the day when His Highness Huỳnh Phú Sổ, or “Patriarch Huỳnh” was victimized.
Among those severely injured during the assault were Mrs. Võ Thị Rắm, 82, and Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Hà. Mrs. Rắm had to be hospitalized. Ms. Hà, who had a heart condition, was pinned down on the ground and repeated punched and kicked. After she passed out from the beating, Public Security personnel loaded her in a car, drove to a place near her home, and pushed her out onto the pavement.
April 2014
April 14, 2014, at 9PM. Ms. Anna Huyền Trang was assaulted and arrested at Tân Sơn Nhất airport as she was preparing to board a plane bound for the US. A member of the Congress of the United States of America had invited her to come to the US to participate in a hearing on freedom of the press in Vietnam. The hearing will be held in the Lower House of the US Congress. Public Security officer Vũ Văn Ái led the assault and arrest. He confiscated her passport and forbade her to board the plane. He didn’t produce any official order or paperwork that would authorize him to prevent her from leaving the country. Ms. Anna Huyền Trang submitted a complaint to and initiated a lawsuit at the Ho Chi Minh City’s Court on September 30, 2014. On October 9, 2014, the Court returned to her all the documents she submitted related to her complaint and lawsuit. The Court did so with prejudice by pointing out where she didn’t follow the proper procedures. The Court’s intention was to deny her the opportunity to submit a lawsuit.
April 22, 2014. Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ngân and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Toàn – two Unjustly Dispossessed Persons, i.e., people whose land and/or home was unjustly taken away or requisitioned by the government – were arrested. Subsequently, the Court sentenced these two women to 6 months in jail. They were released as expected on October 22, 2014.
April 25, 2014. the government used Public Security officers, hoodlums, and a truck outfitted with a crane that sprayed an anesthetic mist to cause Mrs. Cấn Thị Thêu to faint in order to arrest her. Mrs. Thêu was an Unjustly Dispossessed Person. At the time of her arrest, she was filming and photographing the vicious attacks that Public Security officers and hoodlums armed with deadly weapons were unleashing on her husband and many other people. These people were demonstrating to stop the government from taking over the land they used for production. Arrested on the same day as Mrs. Cấn Thị Thêu and her husband were Mr. Trịnh Bá Khiêm and Mr. Lê Văn Thanh. On September 19, 2014, the court sentenced Mrs. Thêu to 15 months in prison, Mr. Khiêm to 18 months, and Mr. Thanh to 12 months.
April 22, 2014. Two representatives of the Vietnamese Women for Human Rights, a civil society organization, Mrs. Trần Thị Hài and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Lụa, were severely beaten and then detained for several hours by Public Security officers and hooligans. The beating took place a short while after the two women left the Cần Thơ Appellate Court. They were there to attend the final trial of two Unjustly Dispossessed Persons, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Tuyền and Nguyễn Thị Ánh Nguyệt.
April 22, 2014, morning. Cần Thơ City Appellate Court tried the above named Unjustly Dispossessed Persons and sentenced Ms. Nguyệt to 3 years in jail and Ms. Tuyền to 2 years (a reduction from the 2 ½ year sentence given out the Court of First Instance). We may recall that these two women owned land at the Cờ Đỏ (“Red Flag”) Farm Cooperative that was unjustly requisitioned by the government.
May 2014
May 5, 2014. Hà Nội’s Public Security issued and executed and emergency search and then carried out an emergency arrest warrant targeting Mr. Nguyễn Hữu Vinh, also known as blogger “Ba Sàm”. Arrested along with Mr. Vinh was Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Minh Thúy. She was a former employee of Mr. Vinh at the private company he founded, Investigation & Protection, LLC. She was also the web administrator of thehttps://anhbasam.wordpress.com/ website since 2012.
On October 30, the public security division of the Ministry of Public Security released a report summarizing its findings in the case of “Nguyễn Hữu Vinh and associates who took advantage of freedom and democracy rights to infringe on the interests of the state, the rights and the benefits of the organizations and the citizenry”, according to Article 258 of the Criminal Code.
May 15, 2014. The three persons named above were arrested when they visited and took photographs of the areas where violence erupted a few days ago. At this point in time, their families have yet to receive any official announcements related to their arrests. Public Security officials told the families that these three persons were arrested and that they will be duly prosecuted according to Article 258 of the Criminal Code.
May 18, 2014. In Sài Gòn, Hà Nội and Nghệ An, Public Security brutally repressed, arrested, and detained for many hours people who participated in peaceful demonstrations to protest the presence of Chinese oil drilling rig HD981 inside Vietnamese territorial waters. Some of the demonstrators were also beaten while detained at Public Security stations. Those arrested included:
In Hà Nội: Trần Thị Nga, students Lê Đức Hiền, Vũ Mạnh Hùng, Dương Thị Xuân and Đỗ Văn Ngọc and facebookers Dustin Bý and Lý Quang Sơn.
In Sài Gòn: Blogger Trịnh Anh Tuấn, Nguyễn Ngọc Lụa, Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu, Vanda Lâm – a student at the Medical and Pharmacy University and facebookers August Anh and Thế Lữ.
In Nghệ An: Lê Văn Nhàn, Hồ Huy Khang, Nguyễn Đức Quốc, Nguyễn Văn Huân, Nguyễn Hoài Thu, Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, Lê Thị Hương and Chân Thành.
May 27, 2014. Ms. Huỳnh Phương Ngọc and Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Lụa had planned to attend, as representives of the Vietnamese Women for Human Rights (VWFHR) civil societyorganization, the public and final trial of MM. Lư Văn Linh, Dương Văn Tu and Thào Quán Mua. These men, all ethnic Hmong’s, were accused of “taking advantage of freedom and democracy rights to infringe on the interests of the state, the rights and the benefits of the organizations and the citizenry.” However, Public Security and secret service abducted these two women at 9AM as they were entering the Appellate Court House. The women were taken to a Public Security station in Tuyên Quang. There, they were interrogated until 2AM and then driven by car to Hà Nội and released.
May 22-24, 2014. Leaflets where found near the home of Mrs. Trần Thị Nga. Written on these leaflets are threats to kill her. She reported these leaflets to the local Public Security station. Public security conducted a cursory search of area where the leaflets were found..
May 35, 2014 at 4PM. Mrs. Trần Thị Nga and her two sons, an 18-month old toddler and a 4 year-old boy were passengers on a motorcycle-for-hire on their way to the Giáp Bát Bus Depot in Hà Nội. Suddenly, 6 young men rushed out pushed the motorcycle down and struck Mrs. Nga on her arms and body with the steel tubes. She fled into a nearby store. The attackers ran after her. They dispersed when a man inside the store tried to stop them. But then, as Mrs. Nga ran back outside to collect her two children, all five attackers rushed back and struck her again with the steel tubes. This time, they targeted and succeeded in breaking her knee caps. Mrs. Trần Thị Nga recognized one of the assailants. He had followed her from Hà Nam earlier in the morning when she boarded a bus there to go to Hà Nội.
Mrs. Trần Thị Nga submitted numerous denunciation/complaint letters to Public Security. None of these were acted on. Indeed, after he reviewed Mrs. Trần Thị Nga’s case files and the proofs she provided, Mr. Nguyễn Duy Thuần, a cadre at the Supreme Procuracy, the highest authority in the land when it comes to prosecuting crimes, stated flatly: “I don’t care about the proofs you provide. I won’t accept your petition because if you fight for human rights then the government and Public Security have every right to beat you up.”
After repeated efforts, on October 23, 2014 the Public Security office in Thanh Try district decided to open an investigation of the assault. This investigation was the required first step in bringing the case to court. Currently, the office is having problems identifying the people who assaulted Mrs. Trần Thị Nga, although she already provided videos and photos that clearly showed the faces of the persons who attacked her and her children.
July 2014
July 30, 2014. A large contingent of Public Security officers came to the rest house where two female members of the Vietnamese Women for Human Rights organization where staying. The officers prevented these two women from attending a workshop on “Non Governmental Freedom of Communications In the Current Period” at the Embassy of Australia.
In Nha Trang, Public Security also prevented a member of The Blogger Network, Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, from attending the same workshop. They stopped her at the airport and detained her for several hours.
In Hà Nội, Public Security officers surrounded and threatened to arrest Ms. Phạm Thanh Nghiên, also a member of the Blogger Network, as she was leaving the workshop. The staff of the Embassy of Australia intervened and successfully helped her get home safely.
July 1-3, 2014. Members of Public Security and People’s Guard from the township of Vĩnh An, Vĩnh Cửu District, Đồng Nai province “underwrote” the beating that Mr. Lê Văn Liễn inflicted on Mrs. Hoàng Thị Huệ. Mrs. Huệ’s face was swollen from the beating delivered by Mr. Liễn himself. Her injuries was so severe that she required hospitalization for about a month. Public Security also did nothing as Mr. Liễn’s henchmen destroyed the vegetable patches that Mrs. Huệ planted on a field that she inherited from her parents and had continuously cultivated since 1975.
The sons of Mrs. Huệ, MM. Đặng Ngọc Hiếu and Đặng Ngọc Tú, resisted and fought back during the attack. They injured two assailants. One of them sustained injuries classified at 1%; the other, at 3%. The court sentenced MM. Hiếu and Tú to 5 months in jail each according to Article 104 of the Criminal Code, “to inflict injuries intentionally”. Each one of them were also fined VND 34,683,785 piasters (about USD 1,621).
After her release from the hospital, Mrs. Huệ submitted a complaint to Public Security. The complaint detailed how Public Security “underwrote” the severe beating that Mr. Liển personally inflicted on her. Public Security refused to accept her complaint.
July 6, 2014. Mr. Nguyễn Ngọc Minh sent hooligans to deliver construction materials to a tract of land reserved for burial and on which the Lư family had their home. The Lư’s say thay owned the tract of land, but who actually owns it is still unclear. For several years the ownership of the land was, and still is, in litigation. When the hooligans came, the Lư’s came out also and tried to stop the delivery of construction materials. They were beaten up.
Two members of the Lư family, Mrs. Lư Thị Thu Thủy and Mrs. Lư Thị Thu Vân called Public Security officials. They asked them to come out to the site to observe and investigate. The officials came, saw what happened, but didn’t resolve anything.
August 2014
August 25-26, 2014. Public Security of Đồng Tháp province arrested and detained for hours numerous people who attended the aforementioned trial. Those detained included women and young children. Some of the children were barely a few months old. All were detained until around midnight and then taken to Sài Gòn by bus. Public Security officers beat up Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Lụa, a member of Vietnamese Women for Human Rights, right inside their station. She was beaten so severely that she needed hospitalization.
September 2014
September 3, 2014. As Ms. Hạnh was going through customs prior to boarding a plane that would take her to Austria to visit her sick mother, Public Security stopped and detained her for 13 hours. No report was made of her detention. Ms. Hạnh was then taken to the center of downtown Hà Nội and dropped off.
September 8, 2014. Ms. Hạnh, along with Mr. Trương Minh Đức, Mr. Trương Văn Dũng, and Mrs. Trần Thị Nga drove to the Office of the Security Division of the Ministry of Public Security. They wanted to inquire about the reasons why Ms. Hạnh wasn’t allowed to leave the country. As their car made its way to the Office, a group of young men stopped the car, broke its door, pulled Mr. Trương Minh Đức out, and together beat him up.
September 4, 2014. A court tried 12 Unjustly Dispossessed Persons from Trịnh Nguyễn area and charged them with the crime of creating a public disturbance.
These Unjustly Dispossessed Persons were fighting peacefully for two objectives. First, they wanted to keep the land they owned. Second, they wanted the government to relocate a waste water treatment plant planned for their area to another area far away from their home. Such a move would minimize the negative impact the plant might have on their health and their ability to earn a living. The government’s response was to repress them brutally. Officers from Public Security and the People’s Guard and hooligans attacked the area. They bloodied and injured many of the people from Trịnh Nguyễn. They arrested many people. Most of the injured were women and children.
One of the injured was Mrs. Đỗ Thị Thêm. She was the victim of an acid splashing attack. Those who splashed acid on her were arrested. However, a year has gone by and the government still hasn’t done anything about the case.
The 12 Unjustly Dispossessed Persons who were sentenced were:
– Ms. Đỗ Thị Thiêm, Mr. Đỗ Văn Quý and Mr. Đỗ Văn Hào – Each received 28 months in jail.
– Ms. Ngô Thị Toan, Ms. Đặng Thị Mỳ and Ms. Ngô Thị Như (she is deaf and illiterate) – Each received 26 months in jail.
– Ms. Ngô Thị Đức and Mr. Đặng Văn Nhu – Each received 28 months of probation.
– Ms. Đỗ Thị Thiêm (she is another Ms. Thiêm, her other first name is Trinh), Ms. Nguyễn Thị Chiến, Ms. Vũ Thị Thảo and Ms. Ngô Thị Thoa – Each received 36 months of probation.
September 5, 2014. To prevent members of civil societies from attending a civil meeting at a Redemptorist Church, Officers from Public Security and the People’s Guard of Ward 14, Tân Bình District raided a house at 305/16 Trường Chinh Street, brutally repressed and arrested everyone who resided there. Those arrested were then taken to a Public Security station and detained there for several hours. They were then fined as follows:
All five persons listed above protested the Administrative Decision Mr. Tuấn, chairman of the People’s Commission, issued to fine them. They accused Mr. Tuấn and Public Security of acting contrary to existing laws and regulations when they sent Public Security officers out to invade their home illegally and then detain them arbitrarily.
Later, pretending to deliver and serve the Administrative Decision to the above five people, officers from Public Security repeatedly came to the house at 305/16 Trường Chinh Street to harass them over and over again.
October 2014
September 7, 2014. Two Public Security officials from Thống Nhất Hamlet, Buôn Hồ district, Dak Lak province, came to the house where she stayed. They served her an Order to report to the local Public Security stationto explain why she was staying temporarily with her husband at his home.
October 2, 2014: Two members of Dak Lak Public Security came to the home of Ms. Huỳnh Thục Vy. They demanded her to explain her participation in civil society organizations.
October 10, 2014. On two separate occasions, hooligans broke down the doors, rushed in and ransacked the rental room where Mr. Huỳnh Trọng Hiếu, his wife Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Ánh Ngân, and his son 9-month old son Côn Bằng were living. The hooligans did so to make good on the threats Public Security officers made when they came to serve Mr.Hiếu and Mrs. Ngân the Administrative Orders that fined them back in September 5, 2014.
In Hanoi, Unjustly Dispossessed Persons from all three regions of Vietnam – North, Central, and South – continued to submit claims regarding the seizure of their land and homes. Typically, Public Security forces would arrest or detain them for a long time without food or water. Many would also be taken to court and tried for “resisting an officer in the process of carrying out his official duty.”
October 22, 2014: Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Toàn and Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Ngân, both Unjustly Dispossessed Persons from Dương Nội, were sentenced to 6 months in jail for “disturbing the public peace” and “resisting an officer in the process of carrying out his official duty.” Upon their release, these two women denounced the cruel and inhuman treatment they received while in the custody of Public Security. Specifically, they were, along with Mrs. Cấn Thị Thêu, another Unjustly Dispossessed Person, kept in a cell with two HIV victims in the last stages of the disease and with lesions all over their bodies.
October 28, 2014: The Thanh Oai District People’s Court had to postpone its session for the 4th time because the accused, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Lan, fainted numerous times in the courtroom. Ms. Lan had a heart condition yet Public Security personnel bashed her head repeatedly during her arrest and detention. Three other Unjustly Dispossessed Persons were tried along with Ms. Lan on that day. They were: Mr. Vũ Văn Huề, 23, Ms. Nguyễn Thị Hà, 26, and Mr. Lê Văn Vượng, 45.
October 28-30, 2014. During the October 20-30, 2014 period, the wife – Mrs. Trần Thị Hồng – and children of Pastor Nguyễn Công Chính were continuously harassed and terrorized by Public Security and secret service agents.
The harassment and terrorism Mrs. Hồng and her 5 young children endured while living at Cluster 10, CMT8 Street, Hoa Lư ward, Pleiku City, Gia Lai Province were numerous and beyond the pale. Public Security agents and/or secret service agents used steel wires to tie up all the doors of the house so that no one could open them and get in or out. On October 29, they climbed on the roof of the house to spy on the activities of the family. They regularly followed closely and threatened Mrs. Hồng as she walked her young children to school. They arbitrarily stopped and searched the book bag of her adopted son as he walked to his high school (he is an 11th grader). They prevented Mr. Hồng from visiting her husband. Once, they stopped her and seized her cell phone as she was on her way to visit her husband in prison camp.
We may recall that Pastor Chính was arrested on April 28, 2011 and sentenced to 11 years in jail. His alleged crime was “acting against the government of Vietnam and fomenting division among the various classes within the population” as stipulated in Article 87 of the Criminal Code. Since his arrest and confinement in a prison camp, pastor Chính was relentlessly persecuted.
November 2014
November 4, 2014 at 9:30AM. Members of Public Security and Secret Services of Hanoi and Hà Nam arrested Ms. Trần Thị Nga just as she stepped off a taxi in front of the Embassy of Canada in Hanoi. She was taken to the office of Phủ Lý city Public Security in Hà Nam province and detained there until 3PM.
November 3, 2014. Public Security of Khánh Hòa province stopped Ms. Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh (a well-known blogger who goes by the name “Mẹ Nấm or “Mother Mushroom”) as she was making her way to Cam Ranh airport to go to Hanoi and arrested her. She was then taken to the office of Khánh Hòa Public Security. There, her personal identification papers were confiscated. She wasn’t allowed to leave the stattion until around midnight. Previously at around 11AM on the same day, Public Security had issued an order demanding that she report to the station to explain a petition she had submitted on October 21, 2014. In that petition, she had asked Public Security to explain “the confiscation and holding of a citizen’s property” and demanded the return of cell phone, personal identification papers and other items. Khánh Hòa Public Security had arbitrarily taken the above items from her when they abducted her on July 29, 2014.
November 26, 2014 at 10AM. Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Loan and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Ruỡi, mother and aunt of death row inmate Hồ Duy Hải were beaten, repressed, arrested and taken away when they came to the National Assembly to submit a petition. In their petition, the women asked that the Mr. Hải’s death sentence be suspended pending a fuller and more complete investigation of his alleged crime. The ground for this requests was there were sufficient evidence to cast very serious doubts on whether Mr. Hải was fairly accused, judged, and sentenced.
November 4, 2014. At the People’s Reception Hall at No. 1 Ngô Thì Nhậm Street, Đoàn Trương Anh Thư, an 11 year-old boy, had his throat grasped by a Public Security officer while Mrs. Trương Thị Huệ, an Unjustly Dispossessed Person from Tiền Giang, was beaten unconscious. Their mistreatment is typical. Cadres at the Hall receive the people who came there in a cursory manner. Now and then, they order officers from Public Security and the People’s Guard and their security guards to beat up people who submitted claims.
December 2014
December 2, 2014, morning. Public Security and secret service agents followed, videotaped, and harassed a group of believers in the Traditional Hòa Hảo Buddhist Faith traveling on motorcycles. The group came from An Giang province. The purpose of their trip was twofold. First, they wanted to visit the mother of a martyr of the Faith, Mr. Trần Văn Út. She resides in Định Yên hamlet, Lấp Vồ district, Đồng Tháp province. Second, they wanted to attend the 72th birthday party of Mr. Lê Văn Chính, a senior member of the Faith. He lives in Tân Bình hamlet, Bình Tân district, Vĩnh Long province.
December 9, 2014. As she was walking back to her home, a group of young men and women stopped blogger Nguyễn Hoàng Vy, grabbed her hair, and punched her repeatedly. Dozens of people, including Public Security officers, stood in front of her house and watched her getting beat up. None intervened.
December 12, 2014. Outside of the gate of the Court of Appeal, officers from Public Security, the People’s Guards, and the secret service beat up and arrested anyone who came to the courthouse trying to attend the trial of the above named persons. Several witnesses called by the Court were prevented from entering the courthouse to testify.
December 22, 2014. The government of Đằng Giang ward, Ngô Quyền district, Hải Phòng province mobilized a large contingent of Public Security officers and hooligans to surround the hut where Mrs. Nguyễn Thị Thúy and her eight young children were living. They wanted to frighten Mrs. Thúy and her children away. The hut was build on the remaining foundation of the house Mrs. Thúy owned and that the government had arbitrarily demolished in 2011 in order to requisition the land. Mrs. Thúy and her children were determined to stay inside the hut. They used gasoline containers and gas tanks to defend their home. Their determination convinced the attackers to back off.
December 23, 2014, at 9:45PM. Hooligans under orders from the government threw Molotov cocktails into the hut when Mrs. Thúy and her eight young children were inside. The hut burned down almost to the ground. Luckily Mrs. Thúy and all of her children were able to run out of the hut just in time to escape serious harms.
The most notable ones among the death sentences handed out to death row inmates Hồ Duy Hải and Nguyễn Văn Chưỡng. Mr. Hải was alleged to have killed two people in Long An. Mr. Chưởng was alleged to have participated in a robbery-murder in Hải Phòng on the night of July 14, 2007. In both cases, there were indications that injustice and judicial errors were committed, and that forced confessions were used during the investigative process. Relatives of these two death row inmates are now asking that their cases be reviewed to bring about justice for them.
Report written by
Mrs. Trần Thị Nga
Member, The Directing Board
Vietnamese Women for Human Rights