Pham Viet Dao at his original trial in March.
VNRN | June 13, 2014
Without prior notice, Vietnam on June 9 held a surprise appellate hearing on the case of a convicted blogger that is so secret even his family didn’t know about it until they visited him afterwards in prison in Hanoi, according to activists.
The closed appeal affirmed the 15-month sentence against blogger Pham Viet Dao, 62, a former Vietnamese Communist Party member and government official. He had been convicted under Article 258 of Vietnam’s penal code for allegedly “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the State.”
A week before, his wife and children had contacted the court asking for the date of the appeal, and were told there had been no date set and that they should just wait, according to blogger Nguyen Xuan Dien, a well-informed activist. There was no lawyer present at the appeal “because Dao defended himself,” Dien wrote.
When Dao was tried in March, his sentence was immediately condemned by rights groups who saw the move as part of a relentless government drive to suppress online dissent in the one-party authoritarian state.
“Pham Viet Dao’s only crime has been to use the Internet to voice opinions shared by many Vietnamese, outside and inside government,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
In a joint statement at the time, the Paris-based rights groups International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said Dao’s conviction “once again calls into question the Vietnamese government’s stated commitment to respecting human rights.”
Dao, a former inspector in charge of corruption issues at Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, may have especially angered authorities with his writings focusing on Vietnam’s ongoing territorial disputes with China.
“Analysts deemed his [June 13, 2013] arrest, which took place six days before Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang made an official visit to China, as a gesture of friendship to Beijing,” FIDH said.
Dien noted that Dao had been writing about the 1979 border war between Vietnam and China, with extensive interviews of soldiers and officers involved in the war.
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June 13, 2014
Vietnam hears blogger’s appeal in secret, affirms prison term
by HR Defender • [Human Rights], Pham Viet Dao
Pham Viet Dao at his original trial in March.
VNRN | June 13, 2014
The closed appeal affirmed the 15-month sentence against blogger Pham Viet Dao, 62, a former Vietnamese Communist Party member and government official. He had been convicted under Article 258 of Vietnam’s penal code for allegedly “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the State.”
A week before, his wife and children had contacted the court asking for the date of the appeal, and were told there had been no date set and that they should just wait, according to blogger Nguyen Xuan Dien, a well-informed activist. There was no lawyer present at the appeal “because Dao defended himself,” Dien wrote.
When Dao was tried in March, his sentence was immediately condemned by rights groups who saw the move as part of a relentless government drive to suppress online dissent in the one-party authoritarian state.
“Pham Viet Dao’s only crime has been to use the Internet to voice opinions shared by many Vietnamese, outside and inside government,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for Human Rights Watch.
In a joint statement at the time, the Paris-based rights groups International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights said Dao’s conviction “once again calls into question the Vietnamese government’s stated commitment to respecting human rights.”
Dao, a former inspector in charge of corruption issues at Vietnam’s Ministry of Culture, may have especially angered authorities with his writings focusing on Vietnam’s ongoing territorial disputes with China.
“Analysts deemed his [June 13, 2013] arrest, which took place six days before Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang made an official visit to China, as a gesture of friendship to Beijing,” FIDH said.
Dien noted that Dao had been writing about the 1979 border war between Vietnam and China, with extensive interviews of soldiers and officers involved in the war.