Blogger Nguyen Ngoc Gia in courtroom on March 30, 2016 (Photo from Tien Phong newspaper)
By Vu Quoc Ngu, April 1, 2016
Vietnam has jailed the third blogger within the last eight days of March as the country elects key state positions for the next five years, state media has reported.
After imprisoning prominent blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh (aka Anh Ba Sam) and his assistant Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy to respective five years and three years on March 23, the communist government on March 30 sentenced dissident blogger Nguyen Ngoc Gia or Nguyen Dinh Ngoc to four years in prison and three years under house arrest on charges of disseminating “propaganda against the state.”
On Wednesday, the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City found blogger Gia guilty of propagandizing against state under Article 88 of the country’s Penal Code. Prosecutors claimed that 22 of his articles, 14 of which were published online, were defamatory of Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s leaders and the state officials.
Blogger Gia was arrested in December 2014 and held for 15 months in pre-trial detention.
“The conviction of blogger Nguyen Ngoc Gia underscores the extraordinary lengths Vietnam’s leaders will take to suppress any criticism of their rule,” said Shawn Crispin, senior representative of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in Southeast Asia. “Rather than imprisoning journalists on trumped up charges, Vietnam should instead strive to abolish the various laws that are habitually used to suppress free speech and independent journalism,” he said.
His conviction comes amid an intensifying clampdown on dissent. One week earlier, the People’s Court in the capital city of Hanoi jailed bloggers Vinh and Thuy on charge of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 258 of the Penal Code. The convictions against the due met strong global condemnation, including from the U.S., the EU and international bodies such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Civil Rights Defenders.
Also on March 30, the People’s Court in HCMC sentenced three women to four years in prison on charges of spreading anti-state propaganda as they held up the flags of the defeated U.S.-backed South Vietnam and chanted anti-state slogans during peaceful demonstration outside the American General Consulate in the city. According to state media, Ngo Thi Minh Uoc, 57, got four years, and Nguyen Thi Tri and Nguyen Thi Be Hai, both 58, were given three years in prison. The three were also given two years of house arrest after serving their sentences.
In a statement released March 23, the U.S.’s Embassy in Vietnam said the U.S. is deeply concerned by the Vietnamese government’s conviction and sentencing of the bloggers, noting that “the use of criminal provisions by Vietnamese authorities to penalize individuals peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression is disturbing.”
Washington calls on the government of Vietnam to release unconditionally these two individuals, as well as all other prisoners of conscience, and allow all Vietnamese to express their views peacefully, without fear of retribution.
Vietnam held at least six reporters behind bars, including bloggers Gia, Vinh and Thuy, when CPJ conducted its annual global census of imprisoned journalists on December 1, 2015.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s highest legislative body National Assembly is relieving President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and top legislator Nguyen Sinh Hung and formally electing Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Tran Dai Quang and Nguyen Xuan Phuc to replace them, respectively, nearly two months ahead of the general election scheduled on May 22. Ngan, who was vice chairwoman of the parliament, became the first female top legislator after the one-candidate-ballot on Thursday while Minister of Public Security General Quang and Deputy PM Phuc will take their higher posts on the same mechanism of voting.
With the promotion of the police minister to the president and of many police generals in the party’s Politburo and Central Committee in the party’s 12th National Congress in late January, Vietnam is expected to continue its hardline policy and intensified crackdown against political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders, foreign and local observers said.
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April 1, 2016
Vietnam Imprisons Third Blogger within Eight Days as New Leadership Elected
by Nhan Quyen • Nguyen Ngoc Gia
Blogger Nguyen Ngoc Gia in courtroom on March 30, 2016 (Photo from Tien Phong newspaper)
By Vu Quoc Ngu, April 1, 2016
Vietnam has jailed the third blogger within the last eight days of March as the country elects key state positions for the next five years, state media has reported.
After imprisoning prominent blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh (aka Anh Ba Sam) and his assistant Ms. Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy to respective five years and three years on March 23, the communist government on March 30 sentenced dissident blogger Nguyen Ngoc Gia or Nguyen Dinh Ngoc to four years in prison and three years under house arrest on charges of disseminating “propaganda against the state.”
On Wednesday, the People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City found blogger Gia guilty of propagandizing against state under Article 88 of the country’s Penal Code. Prosecutors claimed that 22 of his articles, 14 of which were published online, were defamatory of Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV)’s leaders and the state officials.
Blogger Gia was arrested in December 2014 and held for 15 months in pre-trial detention.
“The conviction of blogger Nguyen Ngoc Gia underscores the extraordinary lengths Vietnam’s leaders will take to suppress any criticism of their rule,” said Shawn Crispin, senior representative of Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in Southeast Asia. “Rather than imprisoning journalists on trumped up charges, Vietnam should instead strive to abolish the various laws that are habitually used to suppress free speech and independent journalism,” he said.
His conviction comes amid an intensifying clampdown on dissent. One week earlier, the People’s Court in the capital city of Hanoi jailed bloggers Vinh and Thuy on charge of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 258 of the Penal Code. The convictions against the due met strong global condemnation, including from the U.S., the EU and international bodies such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Civil Rights Defenders.
Also on March 30, the People’s Court in HCMC sentenced three women to four years in prison on charges of spreading anti-state propaganda as they held up the flags of the defeated U.S.-backed South Vietnam and chanted anti-state slogans during peaceful demonstration outside the American General Consulate in the city. According to state media, Ngo Thi Minh Uoc, 57, got four years, and Nguyen Thi Tri and Nguyen Thi Be Hai, both 58, were given three years in prison. The three were also given two years of house arrest after serving their sentences.
In a statement released March 23, the U.S.’s Embassy in Vietnam said the U.S. is deeply concerned by the Vietnamese government’s conviction and sentencing of the bloggers, noting that “the use of criminal provisions by Vietnamese authorities to penalize individuals peacefully exercising their right to freedom of expression is disturbing.”
Washington calls on the government of Vietnam to release unconditionally these two individuals, as well as all other prisoners of conscience, and allow all Vietnamese to express their views peacefully, without fear of retribution.
Vietnam held at least six reporters behind bars, including bloggers Gia, Vinh and Thuy, when CPJ conducted its annual global census of imprisoned journalists on December 1, 2015.
Meanwhile, Vietnam’s highest legislative body National Assembly is relieving President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung and top legislator Nguyen Sinh Hung and formally electing Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, Tran Dai Quang and Nguyen Xuan Phuc to replace them, respectively, nearly two months ahead of the general election scheduled on May 22. Ngan, who was vice chairwoman of the parliament, became the first female top legislator after the one-candidate-ballot on Thursday while Minister of Public Security General Quang and Deputy PM Phuc will take their higher posts on the same mechanism of voting.
With the promotion of the police minister to the president and of many police generals in the party’s Politburo and Central Committee in the party’s 12th National Congress in late January, Vietnam is expected to continue its hardline policy and intensified crackdown against political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders, foreign and local observers said.