Vietnam Nguyen Van Dai attacked by police in civilian

Nguyen-Van-Dai11Lawyers for Lawyers | 16 May 14

On 8 May 2014 human rights lawyer and blogger Nguyen Van Dai was attacked and wounded by a group of six men, when he was in a bar with some colleagues and students.

Dai is, since his return to Vietnam after years in Eastern-Germany, a well-known human rights activist. He has been under control of government officials for many years now, and is under house arrest since 2011. This house arrest followed the four years imprisonment he was sentenced to in 2007 for propaganda against the state. Dai founded the Committee for Human Rights of Vietnam and his work as a human rights lawyer and blogger is disapproved by the Vietnam authorities.

His imprisonment and house arrest have not stopped Dai from promoting human rights. Besides his work as a lawyer, he teaches students and interested people on human rights topics, and he writes blogs and articles. As a result he regularly has to answer to the authorities and he is under constant government control and intimidation. To let his fear further grow and to prevent international critiques, the government chooses more and more to use civilian clothing or let – hired – civilians do the intimidations. This is not an isolated incident in Vietnam, other human rights activists, such as Le Quoc Quan and his brother, are also subjected to intimidation.

Attempts as these by the Vietnamese government to silence human rights lawyers and to frighten potential critics are not in line with the Basic Principles for the Role of Lawyers. L4L has already organized letter writing campaigns for Nguyen Van Dai in January 2010 and May 2011. The incident on 8 May demands ongoing attention and action.