Authorities in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi have decided to prosecute prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the country’s Penal Code 1999 with possible imprisonment of between seven and 12 years, even 20 years if is convicted.
The Security Investigation Agency of the Hanoi Police Department has completed the investigation against her after 11 months of incommunicado detention, proposing the city’s People’s Procuracy to prosecute her. She was arrested on October 6, 2020 and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999 and Article 117 of the Criminal Code 2015, a few hours after the 24th Vietnam-US Annual Human Rights Dialogue.
Meanwhile, the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi has scheduled to hold the appeal hearing of two human rights defenders Mrs. Can Thi Theu and her younger son Trinh Ba Tu on September 17. The two were arrested on June 24, 2020 on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. On the first-instance hearing on May 5, the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province convicted them and sentenced each of them to eight years in prison and three years of probation. There is little chance for them to get sentences reduced or be freed given the ongoing crackdown on local political dissidents, social activists, human rights defenders, and Facebookers. It is worth noting that Mrs. Theu’s older son Trinh Ba Phuong has been in pre-detention since late June last year. He was arrested on the same day with his mother and younger brother with the same charge.
On August 30, authorities in the central province of Thanh Hoa arrested political commentator Bui Van Thuan on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. He will likely be held incommunicado for at least four month for investigation. The former high-school teacher is well known for his daily brief news on politics with sharp criticism of the authoritarian regime.
Authorities in the Mekong Delta’s economic hub of Can Tho have decided to prosecute five members of the Bao Sach (Clean Newspaper), a Facebook-based news outlet, on charge of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment of between two and seven years if are convicted. Mr. Truong Chau Huu Danh, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nha, Mr. Doan Kien Giang, Mr. Nguyen Phuong Trung Bao, and Mr. Le The Thang are famous for their private investigation and writing on Ho Duy Hai case and Dong Tam case.
===== September 6 =====
Five Members of Clean Newspapers Prosecuted of “Abusing Democratic Freedom”
Defend the Defenders: Authorities in the Mekong Delta’s hub of Can Tho have decided to prosecuted five members of the Facebook-based news outlet namely Báo Sạch (Clean Newspaper) on the allegation of “abusing democracy and freedom to infringe on state interests” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code with imprisonment of between two and seven years if are convicted.
According to the indictment, issued by the People’s Procuracy of Thoi Lai district, the Clean Newspaper staff posted anti-state and reactionary information and delved into information that was “inappropriate, distorting, against the country’s interests, and slanderous of the people’s administration.”
The five indicted journalists are: Mr. Truong Chau Huu Danh, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nha, Mr. Doan Kien Giang, Mr. Nguyen Phuong Trung Bao, and Mr. Le The Thang.
Thang remains at large while the others have been in detention since April 20 this year.
Danh, meanwhile, was also charged with posting stories that “generated bad interactions between internet users in the cyber environment” and “propagandized, distorted, defamed and seriously slandered Party organizations and local Party committees.”
Article 331 and Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code have been criticized by human rights lawyers and organizations as having been used as “a tool to stifle dissenting voices.”
===== September 7 =====
Well-known Political Commentator Arrested, Charged with “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda”
Defend the Defenders: Authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Thanh Hoa, the home province of incumbent Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, have arrested well-known political commentator Bui Van Thuan on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code.
According to his family, local security officers detained him on early morning of August 30, one week after the visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to the Southeast Asian nation in which she also raised human rights issues along with bilateral cooperation in economics, security and defense.
Police reportedly conducted house search and confiscated a number of items, including his cell phones and a laptop as well as food and drinks his family uses to trade for living.
Mr. Thuan, 40, was a former high-school teacher. He abandoned his job a few years ago after finding systemic corruption in the sector. Since then, he has used Facebook to provide news in the country with sharp criticism of the regime’s socio-economic issues. He has bravely criticized communist leaders, including late President Ho Chi Minh- the founder of the regime, and other senior leaders.
He is among 21 political critics, social activists, independent journalists and human rights defenders being arrested so far this year. Nine of them are charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and eleven were accused of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code.
===== September 8 =====
Hanoi Police Complete Investigation against Prominent HRD Pham Doan Trang, Proposing Prosecution on “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda” with Heavy Punishment Expected
Defend the Defenders: The Security Investigation Agency of the Hanoi Police Department has ended its investigation on the case of prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang after nine months of incommunicado detention.
According to a notice of the agency sent to her lawyer Le Van Luan, the agency sent the investigation results to the Hanoi City’s People’s Procuracy with a proposal to prosecute her on the allegation “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999 with imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison, even 20 years in prison.
Ms. Trang, 43, was arrested on October 6 last year, a few hours after the 24th Vietnam-US Annual Human Rights Dialogue ended and she was charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999 and Article 117 of the Criminal Code 2015 for her peaceful activities which aim to promote human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam. Both article are similar aiming to silence activists and were required by international human rights groups to be removed from the code.
She was in a rent apartment in Ho Chi Minh City, the southern economic hub she has lived in the past three years while being chased by the Vietnamese security forces.
Ms. Trang, 42, is a former journalist for the official streamlined newswire VietnamNet. She left the outlet and went to study in the US and involved in activism, becoming one of the leading figures working for human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam.
She is a prominent and outspoken journalist, activist, and blogger whose writing covers a wide range of topics including LGBT rights, women’s rights, environmental issues, the territorial conflict between Vietnam and China, police brutality, suppression of activists, and law and human rights. Her book, Chính trị Bình dân (Politics for the Common People), a kind of primer for budding activists, was published in samizdat form in September 2017. She has produced a number of political books such as Phản kháng phi bạo lực (Non-violent Resistance), Politics of Police State, and Cẩm nang nuôi tù (Handbook for Prisoners’ Families). She is one of the authors of Việ Nam & Tranh chấp Biển Đông (Vietnam and the Conflict on the East Sea), published by Tri Thuc Publishing House in Vietnam.
On September 25, she and Vietnamese American Willian Nguyen publicized the 3rd edition of Dong Tam Report, the comprehensive report about the bloody attack of Vietnam’s security forces in Dong Tam commune, Hanoi on January 9 this year and the first-instance hearing to try 29 land petitioners who were charged with “murders” of three police officers and “resisting on-duty state officials” during the raid. It is worth noting that three out of the five co-authors of the first and the second editions of Dong Tam Report, former prisoner of conscience Can Thi Theu and her two sons Trinh Ba Phuong and Trinh Ba Tu were arrested on June 24, also charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda.”
Trang is also a street activist who is committed to peaceful protest. She has joined demonstrations outside police stations and at airports when fellow activists were detained, participated in nationalist protests about China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea), and pro-environmental marches. She has been beaten and detained many times in the past five years.
Trang is the editor for the website Vietnam Right Now, which aims to distribute “objective, accurate, and timely information on the current social and political conditions in Vietnam today.” She is also a co-founder and an editor of the Vietnam Legal Initiative, a US-based NGO working to promote human rights, civil rights, and democracy in Vietnam.
Her writing and activism have addressed a broad human rights agenda, from the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and other rights, including the right to remain silent. As a journalist and blogger, she also focuses on the role of media in social and political life and remains especially concerned with freedom of information on the internet and freedom of the press.
In 2018, Trang was awarded the Homo Homini Award by the Czech-based human rights organization People In Need which considers her “one of the leading figures of the contemporary Vietnamese dissent. She uses plain words to fight the lack of freedom, corruption, and the despotism of the communist regime.”
Last year, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) presented her with Award For Work to Improve Journalistic Freedom. In March this year, the Liberal Publishing House under her leadership was honored with Prix Voltaire by the International Publishers’ Association.
Responding to her arrest, Phil Robertson, deputy chief of Southeast Asia Office of Human Rights Watch stated “Vietnam’s scorched earth response to political dissent is on display for all to see with the arrest of prominent blogger and author Pham Doan Trang. Despite suffering years of systemic government harassment, including severe physical attacks, she has remained faithful to her principles of peaceful advocacy for human rights and democracy. Her thoughtful approach to reforms, and demands for people’s real participation in their governance, are messages the Vietnam government should listen to and respect, not repress. Human Rights Watch strongly condemns Vietnam’s arrest of Pham Doan Trang. Every day she spends behind bars is a grave injustice that violates Vietnam’s international human rights commitments and brings dishonor to the government. Governments around the world and the UN must prioritize her case, speak out loudly and consistently on her behalf, and demand her immediate and unconditional release.”
Before and after the 13th National Congress of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam which ended in early February this year, Vietnam’s authoritarian regime intensifies crackdown on the local political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders. Last year, it detained around 60 and so far this year, it has imprisoned 21 others. According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, the number of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam rose to 262 while the regime always denies of holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.
===== September 10 =====
Appeal Hearing of Prominent Human Rights Defenders Can Thi Theu and Her Son Trinh Ba Tu Scheduled on September 17
Defend the Defenders: The Higher People’s Court in Hanoi has scheduled to hold the appeal hearing of prominent human rights defenders Mrs. Can Thi Theu and her younger son Trinh Ba Tu on September 17, Defend the Defenders has learned.
The hearing will be held in the headquarters of the Hoa Binh province’s People’s Court, according to the decision of the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi dated September 1, four months after the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province convicted the 59-year-old mother and the 32-year-old son of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. During the short trial on May 5 this year, both the mother and her offspring were sentenced to eight years in prison and three years of probation.
Before and after being convicted, Mr. Tu reportedly conducted hunger strikes in prison to protest inhumane treatment against him during the detention and unfair conviction.
Since their arrests in late June last year, they have not been allowed to meet with their relatives. It is worth noting that Theu’s older son Trinh Ba Phuong was arrested on the same day on the same allegation by the Hanoi police who have still held him incommunicado until recently when he was permitted to meet his lawyer to prepare for defense. Phuong, 36, reportedly kept silence during interrogations which were held without presence of his attorney.
This will be the third time Mrs. Theu was convicted of controversial allegations. In 2014-2018, she was twice imprisoned for a total 35 months for protesting land grabbing of Hanoi’s authorities in Duong Noi commune, Ha Dong district where her family lives. She was imprisoned for “resisting on-duty state officials” or “causign public disorders.” Her husband Khiem was also jailed for “resisting on-duty state officials.”
After her release in 2016, Theu and her family including two sons Tu and Phuong involved in advocacy for other land petitioners nationwide whose number mounts to thousands and gather in Hanoi to daily go the government agencies to submit their petitions. Before and after the bloody attack of 3,000 riot policemen in Dong Tam commune on January 9, 2020, the trio provided great support for Dong Tam land petitioners, including posting news on the case, meeting with foreign diplomats to update information, and calling for financial supports for the families of detainees after the raid.
In order to suppress the support of local activists given for land petitioners in Dong Tam, Vietnam’s authorities arrested a number of people, including prominent political blogger and world-recognized human rights defender Pham Doan Trang, human rights advocate Nguyen Thuy Hanh who set up and managed the 50K Fund, and four human rights campaigners Theu, Phuong, Tu, and former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Thi Tam, all the four from Duong Noi commune, Ha Dong district, Hanoi.
Since their arrests, many foreign governments and international human rights organizations have condemned the Vietnamese government’s acts and urged Hanoi to release them immediately and unconditionally. However, Hanoi claims that they were not arrested for their human rights activities but crime activities harmful for the regime. Two days ahead of their trial, Human Rights Watch issued a statement urging Vietnam’s authoritarian regime to free them, saying Hanoi should not imprison those who tell the trust like Theu and her sons.
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September 12, 2021
Vietnam Human Rights Defenders’ Weekly Report for September 6-12, 2021: Prominent HRD Pham Doan Trang Prosecuted of “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda,” Facing Lengthy Imprisonment
by Defend the Defenders • [Human Rights]
Defend the Defenders | September 12, 2021
Authorities in Vietnam’s capital city of Hanoi have decided to prosecute prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the country’s Penal Code 1999 with possible imprisonment of between seven and 12 years, even 20 years if is convicted.
The Security Investigation Agency of the Hanoi Police Department has completed the investigation against her after 11 months of incommunicado detention, proposing the city’s People’s Procuracy to prosecute her. She was arrested on October 6, 2020 and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999 and Article 117 of the Criminal Code 2015, a few hours after the 24th Vietnam-US Annual Human Rights Dialogue.
Meanwhile, the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi has scheduled to hold the appeal hearing of two human rights defenders Mrs. Can Thi Theu and her younger son Trinh Ba Tu on September 17. The two were arrested on June 24, 2020 on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. On the first-instance hearing on May 5, the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province convicted them and sentenced each of them to eight years in prison and three years of probation. There is little chance for them to get sentences reduced or be freed given the ongoing crackdown on local political dissidents, social activists, human rights defenders, and Facebookers. It is worth noting that Mrs. Theu’s older son Trinh Ba Phuong has been in pre-detention since late June last year. He was arrested on the same day with his mother and younger brother with the same charge.
On August 30, authorities in the central province of Thanh Hoa arrested political commentator Bui Van Thuan on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. He will likely be held incommunicado for at least four month for investigation. The former high-school teacher is well known for his daily brief news on politics with sharp criticism of the authoritarian regime.
Authorities in the Mekong Delta’s economic hub of Can Tho have decided to prosecute five members of the Bao Sach (Clean Newspaper), a Facebook-based news outlet, on charge of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code with potential imprisonment of between two and seven years if are convicted. Mr. Truong Chau Huu Danh, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nha, Mr. Doan Kien Giang, Mr. Nguyen Phuong Trung Bao, and Mr. Le The Thang are famous for their private investigation and writing on Ho Duy Hai case and Dong Tam case.
===== September 6 =====
Five Members of Clean Newspapers Prosecuted of “Abusing Democratic Freedom”
Defend the Defenders: Authorities in the Mekong Delta’s hub of Can Tho have decided to prosecuted five members of the Facebook-based news outlet namely Báo Sạch (Clean Newspaper) on the allegation of “abusing democracy and freedom to infringe on state interests” under Article 331 of the country’s Criminal Code with imprisonment of between two and seven years if are convicted.
According to the indictment, issued by the People’s Procuracy of Thoi Lai district, the Clean Newspaper staff posted anti-state and reactionary information and delved into information that was “inappropriate, distorting, against the country’s interests, and slanderous of the people’s administration.”
The five indicted journalists are: Mr. Truong Chau Huu Danh, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Nha, Mr. Doan Kien Giang, Mr. Nguyen Phuong Trung Bao, and Mr. Le The Thang.
Thang remains at large while the others have been in detention since April 20 this year.
Danh, meanwhile, was also charged with posting stories that “generated bad interactions between internet users in the cyber environment” and “propagandized, distorted, defamed and seriously slandered Party organizations and local Party committees.”
Article 331 and Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code have been criticized by human rights lawyers and organizations as having been used as “a tool to stifle dissenting voices.”
===== September 7 =====
Well-known Political Commentator Arrested, Charged with “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda”
Defend the Defenders: Authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Thanh Hoa, the home province of incumbent Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, have arrested well-known political commentator Bui Van Thuan on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code.
According to his family, local security officers detained him on early morning of August 30, one week after the visit of US Vice President Kamala Harris to the Southeast Asian nation in which she also raised human rights issues along with bilateral cooperation in economics, security and defense.
Police reportedly conducted house search and confiscated a number of items, including his cell phones and a laptop as well as food and drinks his family uses to trade for living.
Mr. Thuan, 40, was a former high-school teacher. He abandoned his job a few years ago after finding systemic corruption in the sector. Since then, he has used Facebook to provide news in the country with sharp criticism of the regime’s socio-economic issues. He has bravely criticized communist leaders, including late President Ho Chi Minh- the founder of the regime, and other senior leaders.
He is among 21 political critics, social activists, independent journalists and human rights defenders being arrested so far this year. Nine of them are charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” and eleven were accused of “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331 of the Criminal Code.
===== September 8 =====
Hanoi Police Complete Investigation against Prominent HRD Pham Doan Trang, Proposing Prosecution on “Conducting Anti-state Propaganda” with Heavy Punishment Expected
Defend the Defenders: The Security Investigation Agency of the Hanoi Police Department has ended its investigation on the case of prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang after nine months of incommunicado detention.
According to a notice of the agency sent to her lawyer Le Van Luan, the agency sent the investigation results to the Hanoi City’s People’s Procuracy with a proposal to prosecute her on the allegation “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999 with imprisonment of between seven and 12 years in prison, even 20 years in prison.
Ms. Trang, 43, was arrested on October 6 last year, a few hours after the 24th Vietnam-US Annual Human Rights Dialogue ended and she was charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code 1999 and Article 117 of the Criminal Code 2015 for her peaceful activities which aim to promote human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam. Both article are similar aiming to silence activists and were required by international human rights groups to be removed from the code.
She was in a rent apartment in Ho Chi Minh City, the southern economic hub she has lived in the past three years while being chased by the Vietnamese security forces.
Ms. Trang, 42, is a former journalist for the official streamlined newswire VietnamNet. She left the outlet and went to study in the US and involved in activism, becoming one of the leading figures working for human rights and multi-party democracy in Vietnam.
She is a prominent and outspoken journalist, activist, and blogger whose writing covers a wide range of topics including LGBT rights, women’s rights, environmental issues, the territorial conflict between Vietnam and China, police brutality, suppression of activists, and law and human rights. Her book, Chính trị Bình dân (Politics for the Common People), a kind of primer for budding activists, was published in samizdat form in September 2017. She has produced a number of political books such as Phản kháng phi bạo lực (Non-violent Resistance), Politics of Police State, and Cẩm nang nuôi tù (Handbook for Prisoners’ Families). She is one of the authors of Việ Nam & Tranh chấp Biển Đông (Vietnam and the Conflict on the East Sea), published by Tri Thuc Publishing House in Vietnam.
On September 25, she and Vietnamese American Willian Nguyen publicized the 3rd edition of Dong Tam Report, the comprehensive report about the bloody attack of Vietnam’s security forces in Dong Tam commune, Hanoi on January 9 this year and the first-instance hearing to try 29 land petitioners who were charged with “murders” of three police officers and “resisting on-duty state officials” during the raid. It is worth noting that three out of the five co-authors of the first and the second editions of Dong Tam Report, former prisoner of conscience Can Thi Theu and her two sons Trinh Ba Phuong and Trinh Ba Tu were arrested on June 24, also charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda.”
Trang is also a street activist who is committed to peaceful protest. She has joined demonstrations outside police stations and at airports when fellow activists were detained, participated in nationalist protests about China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea), and pro-environmental marches. She has been beaten and detained many times in the past five years.
Trang is the editor for the website Vietnam Right Now, which aims to distribute “objective, accurate, and timely information on the current social and political conditions in Vietnam today.” She is also a co-founder and an editor of the Vietnam Legal Initiative, a US-based NGO working to promote human rights, civil rights, and democracy in Vietnam.
Her writing and activism have addressed a broad human rights agenda, from the rights to freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, and other rights, including the right to remain silent. As a journalist and blogger, she also focuses on the role of media in social and political life and remains especially concerned with freedom of information on the internet and freedom of the press.
In 2018, Trang was awarded the Homo Homini Award by the Czech-based human rights organization People In Need which considers her “one of the leading figures of the contemporary Vietnamese dissent. She uses plain words to fight the lack of freedom, corruption, and the despotism of the communist regime.”
Last year, the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) presented her with Award For Work to Improve Journalistic Freedom. In March this year, the Liberal Publishing House under her leadership was honored with Prix Voltaire by the International Publishers’ Association.
Responding to her arrest, Phil Robertson, deputy chief of Southeast Asia Office of Human Rights Watch stated “Vietnam’s scorched earth response to political dissent is on display for all to see with the arrest of prominent blogger and author Pham Doan Trang. Despite suffering years of systemic government harassment, including severe physical attacks, she has remained faithful to her principles of peaceful advocacy for human rights and democracy. Her thoughtful approach to reforms, and demands for people’s real participation in their governance, are messages the Vietnam government should listen to and respect, not repress. Human Rights Watch strongly condemns Vietnam’s arrest of Pham Doan Trang. Every day she spends behind bars is a grave injustice that violates Vietnam’s international human rights commitments and brings dishonor to the government. Governments around the world and the UN must prioritize her case, speak out loudly and consistently on her behalf, and demand her immediate and unconditional release.”
Before and after the 13th National Congress of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam which ended in early February this year, Vietnam’s authoritarian regime intensifies crackdown on the local political dissidents, social activists and human rights defenders. Last year, it detained around 60 and so far this year, it has imprisoned 21 others. According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, the number of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam rose to 262 while the regime always denies of holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.
===== September 10 =====
Appeal Hearing of Prominent Human Rights Defenders Can Thi Theu and Her Son Trinh Ba Tu Scheduled on September 17
Defend the Defenders: The Higher People’s Court in Hanoi has scheduled to hold the appeal hearing of prominent human rights defenders Mrs. Can Thi Theu and her younger son Trinh Ba Tu on September 17, Defend the Defenders has learned.
The hearing will be held in the headquarters of the Hoa Binh province’s People’s Court, according to the decision of the Higher People’s Court in Hanoi dated September 1, four months after the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province convicted the 59-year-old mother and the 32-year-old son of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. During the short trial on May 5 this year, both the mother and her offspring were sentenced to eight years in prison and three years of probation.
Before and after being convicted, Mr. Tu reportedly conducted hunger strikes in prison to protest inhumane treatment against him during the detention and unfair conviction.
Since their arrests in late June last year, they have not been allowed to meet with their relatives. It is worth noting that Theu’s older son Trinh Ba Phuong was arrested on the same day on the same allegation by the Hanoi police who have still held him incommunicado until recently when he was permitted to meet his lawyer to prepare for defense. Phuong, 36, reportedly kept silence during interrogations which were held without presence of his attorney.
This will be the third time Mrs. Theu was convicted of controversial allegations. In 2014-2018, she was twice imprisoned for a total 35 months for protesting land grabbing of Hanoi’s authorities in Duong Noi commune, Ha Dong district where her family lives. She was imprisoned for “resisting on-duty state officials” or “causign public disorders.” Her husband Khiem was also jailed for “resisting on-duty state officials.”
After her release in 2016, Theu and her family including two sons Tu and Phuong involved in advocacy for other land petitioners nationwide whose number mounts to thousands and gather in Hanoi to daily go the government agencies to submit their petitions. Before and after the bloody attack of 3,000 riot policemen in Dong Tam commune on January 9, 2020, the trio provided great support for Dong Tam land petitioners, including posting news on the case, meeting with foreign diplomats to update information, and calling for financial supports for the families of detainees after the raid.
In order to suppress the support of local activists given for land petitioners in Dong Tam, Vietnam’s authorities arrested a number of people, including prominent political blogger and world-recognized human rights defender Pham Doan Trang, human rights advocate Nguyen Thuy Hanh who set up and managed the 50K Fund, and four human rights campaigners Theu, Phuong, Tu, and former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Thi Tam, all the four from Duong Noi commune, Ha Dong district, Hanoi.
Since their arrests, many foreign governments and international human rights organizations have condemned the Vietnamese government’s acts and urged Hanoi to release them immediately and unconditionally. However, Hanoi claims that they were not arrested for their human rights activities but crime activities harmful for the regime. Two days ahead of their trial, Human Rights Watch issued a statement urging Vietnam’s authoritarian regime to free them, saying Hanoi should not imprison those who tell the trust like Theu and her sons.
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