Dak Lak to Prosecute HRD Huynh Thuc Vy on Charge of Disrespecting National Flag

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HRD and political blogger Huynh Thuc Vy

Defend the Defenders: The People’s Procuracy of Vietnam’s Central Highlands province of Dak Lak has decided to prosecute local human rights activist and democracy campaigner Huynh Thuc Vyon charge of “Affronting the national flag or national emblem” under Article 276 of the country’s 1999 Penal Code.

The decision was made based on the investigation results of the Dak Lak province’s Police Department which launched investigation on the case on August 9 when it sent police to her private residence to detain her and conduct house search.

The People’s Court of Buon Ho town is asigned to carry out a trial against Vy soon, according to the procuracy decision dated on November 2.

Vy, the 33-year mother of a two-year-old girl, will face imprisonment of between six months and three years in prison, if is convicted, according to the current Vietnamese law.

In early September, police in Dak Lak detained her after she denied police’s request to go to a local police station for interrogation.She was released in late evening of the same day thanks to the the law’s regulation which states that mothers of babies under three years old are not subjects for detention.

Police also searched her house and confiscated her laptop, Ipad, books and other items. Later, police announced to charge her with disrespecting the national flag and placed her under house arrest. They also issued a decision banning her from travel abroad.

Police summoned her on October 16 and returned some of these items.

The allegation linked to an event last yearwhenVy was pictured with the Vietnamese national flag which was tainted with paint. Someone said she intentionally defamed the flag that she has never recognized.

Vyis the oldest child of former political prisoner Huynh Ngoc Tuan, who spent ten years in prison in 1992-2002 for sending his political book abroad.

She has posted a number of articles for human rights and multi-party democracy, including a book titled “Nhận định Sự thật Tự do và Nhân quyền” (A view on Truth, Freedom and Human Rights). She also advocates for rights of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands, often visiting families of prisoners of conscience in the region.

 

She is among founders of the unsanctioned organization Vietnam Women for Human Rights and was its president before getting maternal leave.

She is banned from foreign trip as police confiscated her passport when she was on her way to attend a workshop on cyber security organized by Reporters Without Borders and Defend the Defenders in Bangkok in June 2015.

She was interrogated many times in the past. In 2012, she was arrested by the police, put in a car that went for a 1,000kms. She was then interrogated continuously for 12 hours, before being dropped at a fuel station at midnight.

In May2018, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) listed Vy as one of five female activists who are risking their lives to protect others’ rights. Other activists include Wang Yu from China, Maria Chin Abdullah from Malaysia, Anchana Heemina from Thailand and Phyoe Phyoe Aung from Myanmar.

Since 2013, Mr. Tuan’s family has been suppressed by police. He was brutally assailed by plainclothes agents several times and suffered a number of severe injuries.

The family of his youngest child, Huynh Trong Hieu, was forced to flee to Thailand to seek for political asylum.

Under police’s pressure, Vy and her husband Duy were forced to leave Ho Chi Minh City to Buon Ho several years ago where they are running coffee business.