Vietnam’s human rights record seems to be not improved in 2022 as in the first two weeks of the year, the authoritarian regime arrested two Facebookers on the controversial allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda,” two others on the charge of “abusing democratic freedom,” and convicted two anti-corruption activists of two different charges “resisting on-duty state officials” and tax evasion.
On January 5, authorities in the central province of Ha Tinh arrested local Facebooker Nguyen Duc Hung and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison, even to 20 years. Ha Tinh is the coastal province most affected by the waste dumping of Taiwan’s Formosa Steel plant in 2016 and Mr. Hung is among outspoken independent journalists about the environmental disaster. He was kidnapped by the local security forces when he was on his way to workplace.
One week later, police in the northern province of Tuyen Quang detained local resident Le Manh Ha, also on the allegation under Article 117.
Both Hung and Ha were accused of using social networks such as Facebook and Youtube to address the country’s issues such as land seizure, corruption, environmental pollution caused by industrial groups including Formosa, etc. They will be held incommunicado for at least four months, a common practice applied by Vietnam’s investigation agencies in so-called “national security” cases. Police have also conducted house searches and confiscated their laptops, cell phones and other personal items.
Authorities in the southern province of Dong Nai reportedly detained a couple Mr. Nguyen Thai Hung and his wife Vu Thi Kim Hoang on January 5 and charged them with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code for their online activities.
On January 11, the People’s Court of Hanoi convicted outspoken journalist Mai Phan Loi of tax evasion, sentencing him to four years in prison. The court said he has used trick not to pay VND2 billion of tax in 2012-2020 in Media Education Center (MEC) where he was the president. The state-controlled media reported that 51-year-old activist confessed wrongdoing and begged for mercy. The registered agency had carried out a number of projects funded by the US Embassy and the UK Embassy in Vietnam as well as other foreign donors.
Three days later, on January 14, the People’s Court of Thu Duc city found former police captain Le Chi Thanh guilty of “resisting on-duty state officials” under Article 330 of the Criminal Code. The conviction is likely a revenge for his anti-corruption activities. Thanh was an officer of the Thu Duc Prison camp but was dismissed after he denounced that the prison’s leaders have committed corruption in a number of cases as well as abused labor of inmates and inhumanely treated old prisoners held in the camp. After being dismissed, Thanh monitored corruption of traffic policemen in the southern region.
At the trial, Thanh, who was healthy before being detained, could not walk himself but entered the courtroom with help from two policemen. It is likely that his health has worsened due to torture during the pre-trial detention. At a meeting with his lawyer Dang Dinh Manh prior to the hearing, Thanh told him that he has been beaten by investigators for many days.
Along with sending prisoners of conscience to prison camps far from their families and treating them inhumanely under severe living conditions, Vietnam’s authorities often harass and intimidate their relatives. Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nguyen, younger brother of jailed labor activist Hoang Duc Binh, has informed Defend the Defenders that he and his brother have not been permitted to go abroad to work as visiting laborers just because of Binh’s social activities and imprisonment.
Mr. Nguyen said that on January 12, the two brothers were on their way to take an international flight from the Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport. However, they were stopped by border security officers who informed them that their foreign travel is blocked due to national security issues and the blockage is made by the proposal of the Police Department of the Nghe An province, the home province of the brothers. This is one of a series of acts of harassment applied by the province’s authorities on his family after his brother has been imprisoned, Nguyen said.
===== January 5 =====
Vietnam police arrest couple as they livestream criticism of the government
RFA: Police in Vietnam broke into a home and arrested a couple while the husband was livestreaming criticism of the government, their family told RFA.
Nguyen Thai Hung and his wife Vu Thi Kim Hoang were arrested Jan. 5 at about 6 p.m. in their home in the southern province of Dong Nai while Hung was on YouTube.
Viewers of the livestream were able to witness the arrest as it occurred. About 20 minutes into the broadcast, Hung left his computer to investigate what sounded like glass breaking. Shortly after, a man in an orange “Electricity of Vietnam” uniform appeared in frame, shouting, “Stay still. Don’t move.”
At that point, the webcam was turned down to show only a corner of the table and what looks to be a script.
Provincial authorities charged Hoang with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interests.” They have yet to make any official statement on Hung’s arrest.
The couple’s arrest was carried out by people in plain clothes, Hoang’s sister, Vu Giang Tien, told RFA.
“Two men suddenly broke into my sister’s house by climbing over the fence. Then they cut the gate lock open and rushed into the house,” she said.
“My sister’s oldest daughter got scared and started screaming. My mother, who lives next door, came over immediately and shouted, ‘Robbers! Robbers!’ when seeing the intruders in plain clothes, not in police uniforms,” Tien said.
When a man wearing yellow appeared with a gun, Tien said her mother stopped shouting out of fear.
“Those people took the two kids to a room upstairs to ask questions. Others who had already entered the house broke the glass door to open it. They searched the house, making a big mess, and they arrested Hung and Hoang and took them away,” Tien said.
The police did not announce why the couple were arrested or present any documents related to the arrest, the family said.
When the family asked why Hoang was also arrested, the police said they needed to take her away for investigation because she was involved in concealing a crime.
Two days later, the family went to the police station to find out more and were told by police that Hoang had been arrested for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” and that she was being held at a detention house elsewhere in the province.
The police did not provide them with any information about Hung, they said.
Tien said that Hung had been sharing his views on his YouTube channel for more than a year. The channel, established in January 2020, has around 40,000 followers. Videos are no longer available on the account.
Hung’s Facebook account is active, but the most recent post, which discussed the death of a young soldier, Tran Duc Do, is from July 2021.
Vietnam is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index for 2021. Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply in 2020 with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers and Facebook personalities in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January 2021.
Police have arrested at least 40 political dissidents since then, most of them charged with “disseminating anti-state materials,” according to RFA reports.
===== January 12 =====
Independent Journalist Le Manh Ha Arrested, Charged with “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda”
Defend the Defenders: On January 12, authorities in Vietnam’s northern province of Tuyen Quang arrested local Facebooker Le Manh Ha on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code.
Mr. Ha, 52, will be held incommunicado for at least four months during investigation, according to the notice sent to his family. He will face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years if convicted.
The province’s police also conducted a house search on January 12 and confiscated his laptop, cell phone, and many legal books.
In recent years, Mr. Ha has advocated for justice as he speaks out for local people whose land was illegally seized by local authorities and given to property developers. He has also discussed the country’s socio-economic issues on Facebook and Youtube as well as shared articles on human rights and democracy.
Vietnam’s authoritarian regime continues its crackdown on local political dissidents, social activists, bloggers and human rights defenders which has been intensified since 2017. Hundreds of activists have been arrested and convicted of controversial charges under Articles 109 (subversion), 117 and 331 (abusing democratic freedom) of the Criminal Code.
Last year, the regime arrested 28 activists, including prominent human rights advocate Nguyen Thuy Hanh. It also convicted 31 activists and bloggers and sentenced them to a total 209 years in prison and 47 years of probation. Among them are world-recognized human rights defender and well-known political blogger Pham Doan Trang and Dr. Pham Chi Dung, president of the professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, and his duty Nguyen Tuong Thuy. Trang was sentenced to nine years in prison while Dung and Thuy were given 15 years and 11 years, respectively.
According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam is holding at least 253 prisoners of conscience, 36 of them are held in pre-trial detention for months. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.
The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, many democratic governments and numerous international human rights organizations as well as Defend the Defenders have urged Vietnam’s authoritarian regime to remove Articles 117 and 331 from the Criminal Code to make Vietnamese law in line with international human rights standards.
Brothers of PoC Nguyen Hoang Binh Barred from Going Abroad
Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nguyen, younger brother of jailed labor activist Hoang Duc Binh, has informed Defend the Defenders that he and his brother have not been permitted to go abroad to work as visiting laborers just because of Binh’s social activities and imprisonment.
Mr. Nguyen said that on January 12, the two brothers were on their way to take an international flight from the Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport. However, they were stopped by border security officers who informed them that their foreign travel is blocked due to national security issues and the blockage is made by the proposal of the Police Department of the Nghe An province, the home province of the brothers.
This is one of a series of acts of harassment applied by the province’s authorities on his family after his brother has been imprisoned.
Mr. Binh, a vice president of the unregistered Vietnam Labor Movement, was arrested in May 2017 and charged with “resisting on-duty state officials” and “abusing democratic freedom” due to his advocacy for workers’ rights and efforts to help central coastal people to seek justice and economic compensation from the environmental disaster in the central coastal areas in 2016 caused by the waste dumping of the Taiwanese Formosa Steel plant in Ha Tinh province. Later, Binh was sentenced to 14 years in prison and now he is held in An Diem Prison camp.
===== January 14 =====
Vietnam sentences former police captain to 2 years over traffic spat
RFA: A court in Vietnam Friday sentenced a former police captain to two years in prison for “resisting law enforcement,” after he argued with police when they towed his car, his lawyer told RFA.
Police in the southern economic hub Ho Chi Minh city impounded former Capt. Le Chi Thanh’s car on April 14, 2021, for occupying a lane reserved for two-wheeled vehicles. After words were exchanged, the police arrested him.
“In my opinion that is a really harsh sentence,” his lawyer Dang Dinh Manh told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“His actions were not exactly resisting against the police officers. The police were going to tow his car to the station, and he merely made suggestions and proposals to protect the condition of the car and keep it safe. So the charge is unjustifiable,” Manh said.
Le Chi Thanh had been an officer at Han Tan Prison in the southern coastal province of Binh Thuan. He was fired in July 2020 for accusing his supervisor of corruption. Afterwards he became an active social media user, often livestreaming videos that monitored traffic police.
While Thanh was detained, he told his lawyer that he was being tortured.
“They said that he did not address the guards appropriately and tried to harm himself, so they had to ‘put him by himself,’” Manh said.
Thanh is now facing another charge of “abusing democracy and freedom to infringe on State interests” under article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code. Human rights activists say that section of the law is often used by authorities to stifle dissent.
===== January 15 =====
One More Outspoken Facebooker Arrested on Allegation of “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda”
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s state-controlled media on January 15 reported that authorities in the central coastal province of Ha Tinh have arrested local Facebooker Nguyen Duc Hung and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code for his online activities.
Accordingly, the arrest was made on January 6. He will be held incommunicado for at least four months for investigation, and face imprisonment up to 12 years if convicted.
Citing information from the province’s Police Department, the 31-year-old Facebooker was accused of making and sharing many articles, pictures, and videos with content defaming state officials and distorting the communist regime on social networks such as Facebook and Youtube in the 2016-2021 period.
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January 16, 2022
Vietnam Defend the Defenders’ Weekly Report for January 1-16, 2022: Four Facebookers Arrested for Online Posting, Two Anti-corruption Activists Convicted
by Defend the Defenders • [Human Rights]
Defend the Defenders | January 16, 2022
Vietnam’s human rights record seems to be not improved in 2022 as in the first two weeks of the year, the authoritarian regime arrested two Facebookers on the controversial allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda,” two others on the charge of “abusing democratic freedom,” and convicted two anti-corruption activists of two different charges “resisting on-duty state officials” and tax evasion.
On January 5, authorities in the central province of Ha Tinh arrested local Facebooker Nguyen Duc Hung and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison, even to 20 years. Ha Tinh is the coastal province most affected by the waste dumping of Taiwan’s Formosa Steel plant in 2016 and Mr. Hung is among outspoken independent journalists about the environmental disaster. He was kidnapped by the local security forces when he was on his way to workplace.
One week later, police in the northern province of Tuyen Quang detained local resident Le Manh Ha, also on the allegation under Article 117.
Both Hung and Ha were accused of using social networks such as Facebook and Youtube to address the country’s issues such as land seizure, corruption, environmental pollution caused by industrial groups including Formosa, etc. They will be held incommunicado for at least four months, a common practice applied by Vietnam’s investigation agencies in so-called “national security” cases. Police have also conducted house searches and confiscated their laptops, cell phones and other personal items.
Authorities in the southern province of Dong Nai reportedly detained a couple Mr. Nguyen Thai Hung and his wife Vu Thi Kim Hoang on January 5 and charged them with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code for their online activities.
On January 11, the People’s Court of Hanoi convicted outspoken journalist Mai Phan Loi of tax evasion, sentencing him to four years in prison. The court said he has used trick not to pay VND2 billion of tax in 2012-2020 in Media Education Center (MEC) where he was the president. The state-controlled media reported that 51-year-old activist confessed wrongdoing and begged for mercy. The registered agency had carried out a number of projects funded by the US Embassy and the UK Embassy in Vietnam as well as other foreign donors.
Three days later, on January 14, the People’s Court of Thu Duc city found former police captain Le Chi Thanh guilty of “resisting on-duty state officials” under Article 330 of the Criminal Code. The conviction is likely a revenge for his anti-corruption activities. Thanh was an officer of the Thu Duc Prison camp but was dismissed after he denounced that the prison’s leaders have committed corruption in a number of cases as well as abused labor of inmates and inhumanely treated old prisoners held in the camp. After being dismissed, Thanh monitored corruption of traffic policemen in the southern region.
At the trial, Thanh, who was healthy before being detained, could not walk himself but entered the courtroom with help from two policemen. It is likely that his health has worsened due to torture during the pre-trial detention. At a meeting with his lawyer Dang Dinh Manh prior to the hearing, Thanh told him that he has been beaten by investigators for many days.
Along with sending prisoners of conscience to prison camps far from their families and treating them inhumanely under severe living conditions, Vietnam’s authorities often harass and intimidate their relatives. Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nguyen, younger brother of jailed labor activist Hoang Duc Binh, has informed Defend the Defenders that he and his brother have not been permitted to go abroad to work as visiting laborers just because of Binh’s social activities and imprisonment.
Mr. Nguyen said that on January 12, the two brothers were on their way to take an international flight from the Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport. However, they were stopped by border security officers who informed them that their foreign travel is blocked due to national security issues and the blockage is made by the proposal of the Police Department of the Nghe An province, the home province of the brothers. This is one of a series of acts of harassment applied by the province’s authorities on his family after his brother has been imprisoned, Nguyen said.
===== January 5 =====
Vietnam police arrest couple as they livestream criticism of the government
RFA: Police in Vietnam broke into a home and arrested a couple while the husband was livestreaming criticism of the government, their family told RFA.
Nguyen Thai Hung and his wife Vu Thi Kim Hoang were arrested Jan. 5 at about 6 p.m. in their home in the southern province of Dong Nai while Hung was on YouTube.
Viewers of the livestream were able to witness the arrest as it occurred. About 20 minutes into the broadcast, Hung left his computer to investigate what sounded like glass breaking. Shortly after, a man in an orange “Electricity of Vietnam” uniform appeared in frame, shouting, “Stay still. Don’t move.”
At that point, the webcam was turned down to show only a corner of the table and what looks to be a script.
Provincial authorities charged Hoang with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the state’s interests.” They have yet to make any official statement on Hung’s arrest.
The couple’s arrest was carried out by people in plain clothes, Hoang’s sister, Vu Giang Tien, told RFA.
“Two men suddenly broke into my sister’s house by climbing over the fence. Then they cut the gate lock open and rushed into the house,” she said.
“My sister’s oldest daughter got scared and started screaming. My mother, who lives next door, came over immediately and shouted, ‘Robbers! Robbers!’ when seeing the intruders in plain clothes, not in police uniforms,” Tien said.
When a man wearing yellow appeared with a gun, Tien said her mother stopped shouting out of fear.
“Those people took the two kids to a room upstairs to ask questions. Others who had already entered the house broke the glass door to open it. They searched the house, making a big mess, and they arrested Hung and Hoang and took them away,” Tien said.
The police did not announce why the couple were arrested or present any documents related to the arrest, the family said.
When the family asked why Hoang was also arrested, the police said they needed to take her away for investigation because she was involved in concealing a crime.
Two days later, the family went to the police station to find out more and were told by police that Hoang had been arrested for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” and that she was being held at a detention house elsewhere in the province.
The police did not provide them with any information about Hung, they said.
Tien said that Hung had been sharing his views on his YouTube channel for more than a year. The channel, established in January 2020, has around 40,000 followers. Videos are no longer available on the account.
Hung’s Facebook account is active, but the most recent post, which discussed the death of a young soldier, Tran Duc Do, is from July 2021.
Vietnam is ranked 175th out of 180 countries in the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index for 2021. Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply in 2020 with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers and Facebook personalities in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party Congress in January 2021.
Police have arrested at least 40 political dissidents since then, most of them charged with “disseminating anti-state materials,” according to RFA reports.
===== January 12 =====
Independent Journalist Le Manh Ha Arrested, Charged with “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda”
Defend the Defenders: On January 12, authorities in Vietnam’s northern province of Tuyen Quang arrested local Facebooker Le Manh Ha on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code.
Mr. Ha, 52, will be held incommunicado for at least four months during investigation, according to the notice sent to his family. He will face imprisonment of between seven and 12 years if convicted.
The province’s police also conducted a house search on January 12 and confiscated his laptop, cell phone, and many legal books.
In recent years, Mr. Ha has advocated for justice as he speaks out for local people whose land was illegally seized by local authorities and given to property developers. He has also discussed the country’s socio-economic issues on Facebook and Youtube as well as shared articles on human rights and democracy.
Vietnam’s authoritarian regime continues its crackdown on local political dissidents, social activists, bloggers and human rights defenders which has been intensified since 2017. Hundreds of activists have been arrested and convicted of controversial charges under Articles 109 (subversion), 117 and 331 (abusing democratic freedom) of the Criminal Code.
Last year, the regime arrested 28 activists, including prominent human rights advocate Nguyen Thuy Hanh. It also convicted 31 activists and bloggers and sentenced them to a total 209 years in prison and 47 years of probation. Among them are world-recognized human rights defender and well-known political blogger Pham Doan Trang and Dr. Pham Chi Dung, president of the professional group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, and his duty Nguyen Tuong Thuy. Trang was sentenced to nine years in prison while Dung and Thuy were given 15 years and 11 years, respectively.
According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam is holding at least 253 prisoners of conscience, 36 of them are held in pre-trial detention for months. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.
The UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, many democratic governments and numerous international human rights organizations as well as Defend the Defenders have urged Vietnam’s authoritarian regime to remove Articles 117 and 331 from the Criminal Code to make Vietnamese law in line with international human rights standards.
Related article: Vietnam arrests land rights activist for ‘spreading anti-state materials’
——————–
Brothers of PoC Nguyen Hoang Binh Barred from Going Abroad
Mr. Nguyen Hoang Nguyen, younger brother of jailed labor activist Hoang Duc Binh, has informed Defend the Defenders that he and his brother have not been permitted to go abroad to work as visiting laborers just because of Binh’s social activities and imprisonment.
Mr. Nguyen said that on January 12, the two brothers were on their way to take an international flight from the Hanoi-based Noi Bai International Airport. However, they were stopped by border security officers who informed them that their foreign travel is blocked due to national security issues and the blockage is made by the proposal of the Police Department of the Nghe An province, the home province of the brothers.
This is one of a series of acts of harassment applied by the province’s authorities on his family after his brother has been imprisoned.
Mr. Binh, a vice president of the unregistered Vietnam Labor Movement, was arrested in May 2017 and charged with “resisting on-duty state officials” and “abusing democratic freedom” due to his advocacy for workers’ rights and efforts to help central coastal people to seek justice and economic compensation from the environmental disaster in the central coastal areas in 2016 caused by the waste dumping of the Taiwanese Formosa Steel plant in Ha Tinh province. Later, Binh was sentenced to 14 years in prison and now he is held in An Diem Prison camp.
===== January 14 =====
Vietnam sentences former police captain to 2 years over traffic spat
RFA: A court in Vietnam Friday sentenced a former police captain to two years in prison for “resisting law enforcement,” after he argued with police when they towed his car, his lawyer told RFA.
Police in the southern economic hub Ho Chi Minh city impounded former Capt. Le Chi Thanh’s car on April 14, 2021, for occupying a lane reserved for two-wheeled vehicles. After words were exchanged, the police arrested him.
“In my opinion that is a really harsh sentence,” his lawyer Dang Dinh Manh told RFA’s Vietnamese Service.
“His actions were not exactly resisting against the police officers. The police were going to tow his car to the station, and he merely made suggestions and proposals to protect the condition of the car and keep it safe. So the charge is unjustifiable,” Manh said.
Le Chi Thanh had been an officer at Han Tan Prison in the southern coastal province of Binh Thuan. He was fired in July 2020 for accusing his supervisor of corruption. Afterwards he became an active social media user, often livestreaming videos that monitored traffic police.
While Thanh was detained, he told his lawyer that he was being tortured.
“They said that he did not address the guards appropriately and tried to harm himself, so they had to ‘put him by himself,’” Manh said.
Thanh is now facing another charge of “abusing democracy and freedom to infringe on State interests” under article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code. Human rights activists say that section of the law is often used by authorities to stifle dissent.
===== January 15 =====
One More Outspoken Facebooker Arrested on Allegation of “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda”
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s state-controlled media on January 15 reported that authorities in the central coastal province of Ha Tinh have arrested local Facebooker Nguyen Duc Hung and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code for his online activities.
Accordingly, the arrest was made on January 6. He will be held incommunicado for at least four months for investigation, and face imprisonment up to 12 years if convicted.
Citing information from the province’s Police Department, the 31-year-old Facebooker was accused of making and sharing many articles, pictures, and videos with content defaming state officials and distorting the communist regime on social networks such as Facebook and Youtube in the 2016-2021 period.
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