November 10, 2014

French Senior Diplomat Assaulted by Mobs in Vietnam Southern Hub

by • Pham Minh Hoang

Pin
by Vu Quoc Ngu, Nov 10, 2014
Defend the Defenders
French Consul-General Emmanuel Ly Battalan in Vietnam’s southern hub Ho Chi Minh City on Nov 5 was assaulted by thugs supported by plain-clothes policemen when he tried to assist a local activist, the Reporter Without Border (RWB) said.
French Consul-General Emmanuel Ly Battalan

French Consul-General Emmanuel Ly Battalan

Mr. Battalan was beaten when he came to a private house of Pham Minh Hoang, a Franco-Vietnamese blogger in the city after the blogger asked for help. Five days ago, a group of gangsters accompanied by plain-clothes security agents moved into a house close to Hoang’s home, in which political dissident Nguyen Bac Truyen also lives.

Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs has advised the French senior diplomat to protest after being informed about the assault.
Vietnam and France elevated their relations to strategic partnership this year, nearly 60 years after Paris withdrew its soldiers from the Southeast Asian nation to end its colonization in Indochina.
Both Hoang and Truyen were former political prisoners for their articles criticizing Vietnam’s government.
In 2011, Mr. Hoang, a mathematics professor, was sentenced to three years in prison and three years under house arrest for “attempting to overthrow the government”. He is still in the probation period.
Meanwhile, lawyer Truyen was imprisoned for four years in 2007 for anti-state propaganda.

After completing their imprisonments, Truyen and Hoang have been harassed continuously by local authorities. In several times, Truyen was beaten seriously by mobs and policemen.

Pin