Defend the Defenders | June 25, 2017
===== June 19 =====
HRW Releases Report on Vietnam’s Attacks against Local Activists
Defend the Defenders: The New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report on Vietnam’s physical assaults on local political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists as well as independent bloggers in the past few years, calling on Vietnam’s government to order an end to all attacks against local activists and hold perpetrators responsible accountable.
Many Vietnamese political dissidents, human rights advocates and social activists have been beaten, threatened, and intimidated with impunity, HRW said in its report released on June 19, urging donor government to tell the Vietnamese authorities to end the crackdown, and that repressing internet freedom, peaceful speech, and activism will carry consequences.
In its 65-page report titled “No Country for Human Rights Activists: Assaults on Bloggers and Democracy Campaigners in Vietnam,” HRW highlights 36 incidents in which unknown men in civilian clothes beat rights campaigners and bloggers between January 2015 and April 2017, often resulting in serious injuries. Many victims reported that beatings occurred in the presence of uniformed police who did nothing to intervene.
In addition to threats of arrest and prison, Vietnamese activists have to risk their safety on a daily basis simply for exercising their basic rights,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
The Vietnamese government needs to make it clear that it will not tolerate this kind of behavior and bring to an end this campaign against rights campaigners, he said.
Human Rights Watch has documented a strategy of beating bloggers and rights activists across the country, including in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Nha Trang, and Vung Tau, as well as in provinces such as Quang Binh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Binh Duong, Lam Dong, and Bac Giang. This pattern of assaults on bloggers and activists is clearly intended to silence critics, who in many cases have no other way to voice legitimate concerns, it said.
In all but one case included in this report, Human Rights Watch has found that no perpetrator has been identified and prosecuted despite the fact that victims often report their beating to the police. Paradoxically, some victims, including activists Nguyen Van Dai and Tran Thi Nga, were later arrested and charged with “conducting propaganda against the state” under Article 88 of the Penal Code. This raises the question about the relationship the authorities have with the assailants in these cases, which range from apparent passive tolerance to active collaboration, HRW said.
The HRW’s report is based on report of Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, the BBC, Saigon Broadcasting Television Network, social media including Facebook and YouTube, politically independent websites such as Dan Lam Bao (Citizen Journalism), Dan Luan (Citizen Discussion), Viet Nam Thoi Bao (Vietnam Times), Tin Mung Cho Nguoi Ngheo (Good News for the Poor), Defend the Defenders, and individual blogs.
Vietnamese activists and bloggers suffer persecution on a daily basis, yet they do not give up their cause, said Adams.
International donors and trade partners with Vietnam should support their struggle by urging the Vietnamese government to stop the beatings and to hold these violent assailants accountable, he said.
Vietnam: End Attacks on Activists and Bloggers
No Country for Human Rights Activists
——————–
Khanh Hoa Court Not Allows Mother to Attend Open Trial of Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh
Defend the Defenders: The People’s Court in Vietnam’s central province of Khanh Hoa will not allow Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan to attend the upcoming open trial of her daughter Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, a prominent human rights defender and well-known government critic under penname of Me Nam or Mother Mushroom.
The deny is because the trial against Ms. Quynh is special one, Trinh Thi Bien, secretary of the trial, told Ms. Lan on June 19 when she came to the court to request for her presence at the event scheduled on June 29. Ms. Lan is not relevant to the case, Bien said.
Earlier, the court released a decision to hold the open trial against Quynh, who was arrested on October 10 last year and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code.
In many political trials, few relatives and friends of defendants are allowed to be in the courtrooms. While foreign diplomats and reporters are placed in an another room to watch the open trials on screen, relatives, friends and supporters of the defendants are not allowed to gather near the courtroom.
Last year, the Ministry of Public Security issued a circular to prevent relatives, friends and supporters of the defendants to come to the areas near the courtrooms. They may be arrested and face charge of “conducting public disorders” with imprisonment of up to two years in jail.
——————–
German MPs Not Allowed to Meet Jailed Blogger Anh Ba Sam during Vietnam Trip
By Defend the Defenders: Two German members of parliament (MPs), namely Martin Patzelt and Philipp Lengsfeld, were not permitted to visit prisoner of conscience Nguyen Huu Vinh, well known as blogger Anh Ba Sam.
Mr. Vinh who is serving a five-year sentence in prison, was sentenced in March 2016 on charge of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state” under Article 258 of the 1999 Penal Code.
As part of their trip to Vietnam this June, the two parliamentarians, who are members of the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of German parliament (Bundestag), visited the detention center where Mr. Vinh was held but was rejected a direct meeting with Mr. Vinh.
In conversation with the leadership of the prison, the MPs clearly emphasized the need for equal treatment of “regular” and political prisoners.
They noted that relatives of Vietnamese prisoners of conscience face severe pressure from the authority as well as ‘plainclothes police’.
As part of their visit, the two Germany MPs also met with representatives of some religious communities and independent civil society organizations in Vietnam, such as the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross in Thu Thiem in Ho Chi Minh City, which is facing threats of land grab.
In addition, they also visited provinces hurt by impacts of the environmental disaster caused by the illegal discharge of toxic industrial waste of the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant in the country’s central coast.
===== June 20 =====
Vietnam Rejects HRW’s Report on Beating Local Activists
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s government has rejected the recent report released by the New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) on ongoing physical attacks against local political dissidents, human rights defenders and social activists as well as independent blogger, saying the country acted in accordance with international human rights treaties.
The report is based on false information and lack of objectivity about the situation in Vietnam, said Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a press conference in Hanoi on June 20.
On June 19, HRW released its 65-page report documenting 36 assaults cases between January 2015 and April 2017 in which unknown men in civilian clothes beat rights campaigners and bloggers, often resulting in serious injuries. Many victims reported that beatings occurred in the presence of uniformed police who did nothing to intervene.
“The Vietnamese government needs to make it clear that it will not tolerate this kind of behavior and bring to an end this campaign against rights campaigners,” say Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
According to the report, Vietnam’s government is adopting a strategy of beating bloggers and rights activists across the country, including in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Vung Tau, as well as in provinces such as Quang Binh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Binh Duong, Lam Dong, and Bac Giang.
This pattern of assaults on bloggers and activists is clearly intended to silence critics, who in many cases have no other way to voice legitimate concerns, HRW said.
Calling Vietnam to stop such kind of persecution, HRW also urged international donors and trade partners with Vietnam to support Vietnamese activists by urging the Vietnamese government to stop the beatings and to hold these violent assailants accountable.
HRW also said Vietnam holds at least 112 political prisoners who are jailed just because exercising their basic rights enshrined in the country’s 2013 Constitution.
——————–
Vietnam Parliament Adopts Revised Penal Code, Controversial Articles Remain
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s highest legislative body National Assembly on June 20 adopted the revised Penal Code in which controversial articles on national security provision remain unchanged in content.
The 2017 Penal Code which will replace the 1999 Penal Code from Jan 1, 2018 still impose heavy sentences to silence local political dissidents, human rights defenders and social activists.
The parliament, with domination of communists, agreed to keep Article 19 which requires lawyers to denunciate their clients in cases serious to national security. Many lawyers nationwide protested the article, asking the legislative body to remove it from the draft.
Many foreign governments and international human rights organizations have called on Vietnam to remove many articles in the Penal Code’s national security provisions which aim to prosecute local activists who just exercise their basic rights enshrined in the country’s 2013 Constitution.
The new Penal Code is with a highlight being ages subject to penal liability. It stipulates that persons aged from 14 to under 16 bear penal liability for very serious crimes or particularly serious crimes committed.
To gather with the Criminal Procedure Code, the Law on Organization of Criminal Investigation Agency, and Laws on Custody and Temporary Detention, the 2017 Penal Code will become effective from next year.
On the same day, the parliament also passed the draft laws on the guard force and on the management and use of weapons, explosive materials and support tools.
===== June 21 =====
Human Rights Watch Slams Vietnam’s Newly-adopted Penal Code
Defend the Defenders: The New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has slammed Vietnam’s newly-adopted Penal Code, saying the revised law contains a number of articles limiting basic human rights.
In its press release on June 21, HRW said Vietnam should immediately repeal a provision in its revised penal code that would hold lawyers criminally responsible for not reporting clients to the authorities for a number of crimes.
The revised code also contains a number of changes heightening criminal penalties against criticism of the government or Vietnam’s one-party state.
HRW reacted one day after Vietnam’s highest legislative body National Assembly adopted the revised Penal Code which will become effective from January 1, 2018.
In the revised law, Article 19 requires lawyers to denounce their clients in serious cases relating to national security.
“Requiring lawyers to violate lawyer-client confidentiality will mean that lawyers become agents of the state and clients won’t have any reason to trust their lawyers,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW.
“Vietnam considers any criticism or opposition to the government or Communist Party to be a ‘national security’ matter, this will undermine any possibility of real legal defense in such cases,” he said.
“Vietnam’s foreign investors and trading partners should be very concerned about laws that would require their lawyers to pass on confidential information to the authorities to avoid getting into trouble,” Adams said.
In the new law, Vietnam’s parliament kept the national security provisions unchanged from the 1999 Penal Code which have been used to silence local political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists and independent bloggers. Among these new clauses in Article 109 (previously Article 79) and Article 117 (previously Article 88).
In most politically-motivated arrests and convictions in Vietnam, the authorities use Article 79 to punish people for being affiliated with a particular group or organization disapproved by the ruling communist party. Article 87 is often used to punish people for participating in religious groups not sanctioned by the state. Article 88 is a tool to gag dissidents and bloggers critical of the party or the government. Article 89 is used to punish independent labor activists who help organize wildcat strikes, HRW said.
“The revised penal code illustrates Vietnam’s lack of commitment to improve its abysmal human rights record,” said Adams.
“If Vietnam sincerely wants to promote the rule of law, it should facilitate the work of lawyers instead of introducing new laws to make it impossible to do their jobs.”
Vietnam: New Law Threatens Right to a Defense
——————–
Police Say Blogger Nguyen Van Hoa Refuses to Have Lawyer
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s police have said that imprisoned blogger Nguyen Van Hoa had rejected to have own lawyer even who his family had hired to defend him, human rights lawyer Ha Huy Son has said.
The Hanoi-based lawyer who was hired by Hoa’s family to defend him, said when he asked authorities in Ha Tinh to grant a permission for him, the police said Hoa needs no lawyer but will defend himself.
However, police have not provided any written confirmation from Hoa.
Some activists, including former prisoner of conscience Bui Thi Minh Hang doubted Hoa’s decision, saying his family needs to meet him to clarify this refusal. When she was detained in a trumped-up case of “causing public disorder” four years ago, police also provided wrong information to public that she did not plan to hire lawyers while in fact she demanded to have a number of lawyers to defend her in the politicized case.
Earlier this month, Vietnam’s authorities changed the charge against blogger Hoa, from “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 258 to “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code. With the new charge, Hoa will face severe punishment which is up to 20 years if he is convicted, according to Vietnam’s current law.
Hoa, who was the first blogger to use flycam to report peaceful demonstrations of Ha Tinh residents against Formosa, was arrested on January 11. He was said to make confession, admitting wrongdoings and beg for mercy.
Many international human rights organizations have called for his immediate and unconditional release, saying he did nothing wrong but exercised his basic rights of freedom of press.
For more information about Hoa’s case, please see our archive: /category/nguyen-van-hoa-ky-anh/
===== June 22 =====
Pen International Calls on Vietnam to Drop All Charges against Blogger Mother Mushroom
Defend the Defenders: Pen International has called on Vietnam’s government to drop all charges against blogger and government critic Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known by her pen name Me Nam (‘Mother Mushroom’), ahead of her trial, which is expected to take place on 29 June 2017, saying she is being targeted for peacefully exercising her right to freedom of expression.
Pen International has also urged international community to pay attention to her case by sending petitions to Vietnamese leader to call for her release. Pending her release, Quynh should be granted access to her family and a lawyer of her choice immediately, the organization said.
Details: Viet Nam: charges against blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh must be dropped
===== June 23 =====
HCM City Authorities Violently Detain Former Political Prisoner Pham Minh Hoang
Defend the Defenders: Security forces in Ho Chi Minh City have violently detained former prisoner of conscience Pham Minh Hoang and took him to unknown direction, his wife Le Thi Kieu Oanh announced local activists.
Mrs. Oanh said police jumped in their private residence in the city and took him away. They used special equipment to stop telecommunication wave in the areas and closed her inside the house so she cannot inform anyone about the detention.
She was freed after they withdrew.
The detention of university lecturer Hoang was made few days after the city’s police summoned him to a local police station but he refused to go.
Mr. Hoang, a France-trained master, is facing deportation to France after President Tran Dai Quang issued a decision to revoke his citizenship last month.
Hoang, who also has French nationality, had sent his letter to the French authorities to give up his French nationality earlier this month to demonstrate his willingness to live in Vietnam with family and his old mother and ill brother.
Many international human rights organizations have condemned Vietnam’s decision on revoking Hoang’s citizenship while his lawyers said the move is illegal and violates Vietnam’s law.
——————–
RSF calls for urgent French response to Vietnam’s arrest of blogger
Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Pham Minh Hoang, a blogger with French and Vietnamese dual nationality who was arrested at his home in Ho Chi Minh City this evening, and urges the French authorities to take action in his defense.
Police officers knocked on Hoang’s door at around 6 pm, saying they wanted to do an ID check. But, after entering his home, they arrested him in a heavy-handed manner and told him he would be expelled within 24 hours in accordance with an “extradition” order issued by the Bureau of Immigration.
Sources say the police had a camera to film the arrest, as they have in the past when arresting Vietnamese activists. The recordings are often used for state propaganda purposes.
RSF urges the Vietnamese government to refrain from expelling Hoang. His expulsion, which would be iniquitous and contrary to Vietnamese legislation, is simply designed to reinforce the climate of fear that the Communist Party has created in Vietnam.
RSF also calls on the French government to take swift and effective measures to prevent his expulsion. Hoang appealed for action by the French government in an interview for RSF last week.
The Vietnamese authorities paved the way for Hoang’s expulsion by announcing that a presidential decree stripped him of his Vietnamese citizenship last month.
Vietnam has one of the worst scores in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index, in which it is ranked 175th out of 180 countries.
===== June 25 =====
Vietnam Government Critic Pham Minh Hoang Expelled to France
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s authorities have deported former political prisoner Pham Minh Hoang to France one month after President Tran Dai Quang signed a decision to revoke his Vietnamese citizenship, his wife Le Thi Kieu Oanh said.
Police in Ho Chi Minh City violently detained Mr. Hoang on late afternoon of June 23, holding him in unknown place before forcing him to take an international flight from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport to Paris in the midnight of June 24.
He had not been allowed to meet his family before being deported to France.
Hoang, who has also French citizenship, is unlikely permitted to return to his homeland if the country remains controlled by the ruling communist party. He was forced to leave his family which consists of his wife, a daughter, old mother and ill brother.
Earlier this month, Hoang, who became a permanent resident of HCM City since 2007, received a copy of President Quang’s decision which said his Vietnamese citizenship revoking is based on Hoang’s violations of the country’s security. The decision automatically made the former prisoner of conscience’s stay in Vietnam illegal.
Mr. Hoang, a member of the California-based pro-democracy group Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party), was arrested in August 2011 and later sentenced to three years in jail on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the country’s 1999 Penal Code for his online postings and interviews to foreign media calling for multi-party democracy and human rights enhancement. Under international pressure, Vietnam was forced to free him after 17 months in prison.
The Vietnamese decision to strip off his Vietnamese citizenship has been condemned by many local activists and a number of international human rights organizations, including the Front Line Defenders and Reporters Without Borders.
Along with arresting, intimidating, beating local activists, Vietnam’s communist government has forced a number of government critics to live in exile in foreign countries. The victims include France-trained law expert Cu Huy Ha Vu, bloggers Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay) and Ta Phong Tan and Dang Xuan Dieu.
——————–
HCM City Activist Brutally Beaten by Plainclothes Agents, Militia Near Police Station after Suppressed Anti-China Protest
Defend the Defenders: On June 25, plainclothes agents, militia and thugs in Ho Chi Minh City brutally beat local activist namely Huynh Anh Tuan near the police station of Ward 25, Binh Thanh district, activists said.
In the morning of Sunday, a small group of activists in HCM City held a peaceful demonstration to protest China’s deployment of its HYSY-981 giant oil rig in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone in the East Sea (South China Sea). The protests was violently suppressed few minutes later by local security forces.
Police arrested some protesters, including a facebooker with nickname Pham Minh Ngoc and took them to the police station of Ward 25 on No. 340 Xo Viet Nghe Tinh street.
Blogger Huynh Anh Tuan went to the police station to gain information for the detainees. Before asking police, he was assaulted by plainclothes agents, militia and thugs who used batons attacked with iron nails to beat him, causing severe injuries on his body.
Tuan is one of numerous Vietnamese activist brutally beaten by police and plainclothes agents nationwide in the past few years.
Last week, Human Rights Watch released its report highlighting 36 assault cases against Vietnamese political dissidents, human rights campaigners, social activists and independent bloggers from early of 2016 to April 2017. Most of the attacked activists suffered severe injuries but none of perpettrators was investigated and tried.
HCM City is one of localities where many local activists were beaten by police and thugs, according to Human Rights Watch.
Vietnam’s communist government rejected the report of the New York-based human rights organization, saying the report is based on incorrect information.
============== End ================
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June 25, 2017
Vietnam Human Rights Defenders’ Weekly Report June 19-25,2017: HRW Highlights 36 Assaults against Vietnamese Activists, Calling Hanoi to Take Actions to Stop Physical Attacks against Government Critics
by Nhan Quyen • DEFENDER’S WEEKLY
Defend the Defenders | June 25, 2017
On June 19, Human Rights Watch released its report titled “No Country for Human Rights Activists: Assaults on Bloggers and Democracy Campaigners in Vietnam,” highlighting 36 incidents in which unknown men in civilian clothes beat rights campaigners and bloggers between January 2015 and April 2017, often resulting in serious injuries. While the precise links between the thugs and the government are usually impossible to pin down, in a tightly controlled police state there is little or no doubt that they are aligned with and serving at the behest of state security services, the report said.
The New York-based human rights organization called on Vietnam’s communist government to immediately order thorough and impartial investigations of all cases in which rights bloggers and activists are assaulted, intimidated, or threatened; prosecutors should bring charges against all persons credibly implicated in the attacks and other criminal acts, and take proper measures to prevent similar attacks in the future.
On June 20, Vietnam’s government held a press conference, rejecting the HRW’s accusation, saying the report is based on false information and lack of objectivity about the situation in Vietnam.
On June 21, Human Rights Watch slammed Vietnam’s newly-adopted Penal Code, saying the revised law contains a number of articles limiting basic human rights. HRW said Vietnam should immediately repeal a provision in its revised penal code that would hold lawyers criminally responsible for not reporting clients to the authorities for a number of crimes. In the new law, Vietnam’s parliament kept the national security provisions unchanged from the 1999 Penal Code which have been used to silence local political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists and independent bloggers. Among these new clauses in Article 109 (previously Article 79) and Article 117 (previously Article 88).
On June 23, authorities in Ho Chi Minh City detained former political prisoner Pham Minh Hoang and deported him to France in the midnight of June 24. Mr. Hoang, who has French citizenship, was expelled from the homeland one month after President Tran Dai Quang revoked his Vietnamese citizenship.
Hoang was not permitted to meet with his family before being deported to Paris. He is unlikely being able to return to Vietnam if the communist party still rules the country.
Authorities in Khanh Hoa province said Mrs. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan cannot attend an open trial on June 29 against her daughter human rights defender Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, a well-known blogger under her penname Me Nam or Mother Mushroom. Quynh was arrested on October 10 last year on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and faces imprisonment of between three to 12 years in prison.
On June 22, Pen International called on Vietnam’s government to drop all charges against Ms. Quynh, saying she is being targeted for peacefully exercising her right to freedom of expression. The organization also urged international community to pay attention to her case by sending petitions to Vietnamese leader to call for her immediate and unconditional release.
And many other news
===== June 19 =====
HRW Releases Report on Vietnam’s Attacks against Local Activists
Defend the Defenders: The New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has released a report on Vietnam’s physical assaults on local political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists as well as independent bloggers in the past few years, calling on Vietnam’s government to order an end to all attacks against local activists and hold perpetrators responsible accountable.
Many Vietnamese political dissidents, human rights advocates and social activists have been beaten, threatened, and intimidated with impunity, HRW said in its report released on June 19, urging donor government to tell the Vietnamese authorities to end the crackdown, and that repressing internet freedom, peaceful speech, and activism will carry consequences.
In its 65-page report titled “No Country for Human Rights Activists: Assaults on Bloggers and Democracy Campaigners in Vietnam,” HRW highlights 36 incidents in which unknown men in civilian clothes beat rights campaigners and bloggers between January 2015 and April 2017, often resulting in serious injuries. Many victims reported that beatings occurred in the presence of uniformed police who did nothing to intervene.
In addition to threats of arrest and prison, Vietnamese activists have to risk their safety on a daily basis simply for exercising their basic rights,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
The Vietnamese government needs to make it clear that it will not tolerate this kind of behavior and bring to an end this campaign against rights campaigners, he said.
Human Rights Watch has documented a strategy of beating bloggers and rights activists across the country, including in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Danang, Nha Trang, and Vung Tau, as well as in provinces such as Quang Binh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Binh Duong, Lam Dong, and Bac Giang. This pattern of assaults on bloggers and activists is clearly intended to silence critics, who in many cases have no other way to voice legitimate concerns, it said.
In all but one case included in this report, Human Rights Watch has found that no perpetrator has been identified and prosecuted despite the fact that victims often report their beating to the police. Paradoxically, some victims, including activists Nguyen Van Dai and Tran Thi Nga, were later arrested and charged with “conducting propaganda against the state” under Article 88 of the Penal Code. This raises the question about the relationship the authorities have with the assailants in these cases, which range from apparent passive tolerance to active collaboration, HRW said.
The HRW’s report is based on report of Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, the BBC, Saigon Broadcasting Television Network, social media including Facebook and YouTube, politically independent websites such as Dan Lam Bao (Citizen Journalism), Dan Luan (Citizen Discussion), Viet Nam Thoi Bao (Vietnam Times), Tin Mung Cho Nguoi Ngheo (Good News for the Poor), Defend the Defenders, and individual blogs.
Vietnamese activists and bloggers suffer persecution on a daily basis, yet they do not give up their cause, said Adams.
International donors and trade partners with Vietnam should support their struggle by urging the Vietnamese government to stop the beatings and to hold these violent assailants accountable, he said.
Vietnam: End Attacks on Activists and Bloggers
No Country for Human Rights Activists
——————–
Khanh Hoa Court Not Allows Mother to Attend Open Trial of Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh
Defend the Defenders: The People’s Court in Vietnam’s central province of Khanh Hoa will not allow Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuyet Lan to attend the upcoming open trial of her daughter Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, a prominent human rights defender and well-known government critic under penname of Me Nam or Mother Mushroom.
The deny is because the trial against Ms. Quynh is special one, Trinh Thi Bien, secretary of the trial, told Ms. Lan on June 19 when she came to the court to request for her presence at the event scheduled on June 29. Ms. Lan is not relevant to the case, Bien said.
Earlier, the court released a decision to hold the open trial against Quynh, who was arrested on October 10 last year and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code.
In many political trials, few relatives and friends of defendants are allowed to be in the courtrooms. While foreign diplomats and reporters are placed in an another room to watch the open trials on screen, relatives, friends and supporters of the defendants are not allowed to gather near the courtroom.
Last year, the Ministry of Public Security issued a circular to prevent relatives, friends and supporters of the defendants to come to the areas near the courtrooms. They may be arrested and face charge of “conducting public disorders” with imprisonment of up to two years in jail.
——————–
German MPs Not Allowed to Meet Jailed Blogger Anh Ba Sam during Vietnam Trip
By Defend the Defenders: Two German members of parliament (MPs), namely Martin Patzelt and Philipp Lengsfeld, were not permitted to visit prisoner of conscience Nguyen Huu Vinh, well known as blogger Anh Ba Sam.
Mr. Vinh who is serving a five-year sentence in prison, was sentenced in March 2016 on charge of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the interests of the state” under Article 258 of the 1999 Penal Code.
As part of their trip to Vietnam this June, the two parliamentarians, who are members of the Committee on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid of German parliament (Bundestag), visited the detention center where Mr. Vinh was held but was rejected a direct meeting with Mr. Vinh.
In conversation with the leadership of the prison, the MPs clearly emphasized the need for equal treatment of “regular” and political prisoners.
They noted that relatives of Vietnamese prisoners of conscience face severe pressure from the authority as well as ‘plainclothes police’.
As part of their visit, the two Germany MPs also met with representatives of some religious communities and independent civil society organizations in Vietnam, such as the Congregation of the Lovers of the Holy Cross in Thu Thiem in Ho Chi Minh City, which is facing threats of land grab.
In addition, they also visited provinces hurt by impacts of the environmental disaster caused by the illegal discharge of toxic industrial waste of the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant in the country’s central coast.
===== June 20 =====
Vietnam Rejects HRW’s Report on Beating Local Activists
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s government has rejected the recent report released by the New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) on ongoing physical attacks against local political dissidents, human rights defenders and social activists as well as independent blogger, saying the country acted in accordance with international human rights treaties.
The report is based on false information and lack of objectivity about the situation in Vietnam, said Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at a press conference in Hanoi on June 20.
On June 19, HRW released its 65-page report documenting 36 assaults cases between January 2015 and April 2017 in which unknown men in civilian clothes beat rights campaigners and bloggers, often resulting in serious injuries. Many victims reported that beatings occurred in the presence of uniformed police who did nothing to intervene.
“The Vietnamese government needs to make it clear that it will not tolerate this kind of behavior and bring to an end this campaign against rights campaigners,” say Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch.
According to the report, Vietnam’s government is adopting a strategy of beating bloggers and rights activists across the country, including in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Nha Trang, and Vung Tau, as well as in provinces such as Quang Binh, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Binh Duong, Lam Dong, and Bac Giang.
This pattern of assaults on bloggers and activists is clearly intended to silence critics, who in many cases have no other way to voice legitimate concerns, HRW said.
Calling Vietnam to stop such kind of persecution, HRW also urged international donors and trade partners with Vietnam to support Vietnamese activists by urging the Vietnamese government to stop the beatings and to hold these violent assailants accountable.
HRW also said Vietnam holds at least 112 political prisoners who are jailed just because exercising their basic rights enshrined in the country’s 2013 Constitution.
——————–
Vietnam Parliament Adopts Revised Penal Code, Controversial Articles Remain
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s highest legislative body National Assembly on June 20 adopted the revised Penal Code in which controversial articles on national security provision remain unchanged in content.
The 2017 Penal Code which will replace the 1999 Penal Code from Jan 1, 2018 still impose heavy sentences to silence local political dissidents, human rights defenders and social activists.
The parliament, with domination of communists, agreed to keep Article 19 which requires lawyers to denunciate their clients in cases serious to national security. Many lawyers nationwide protested the article, asking the legislative body to remove it from the draft.
Many foreign governments and international human rights organizations have called on Vietnam to remove many articles in the Penal Code’s national security provisions which aim to prosecute local activists who just exercise their basic rights enshrined in the country’s 2013 Constitution.
The new Penal Code is with a highlight being ages subject to penal liability. It stipulates that persons aged from 14 to under 16 bear penal liability for very serious crimes or particularly serious crimes committed.
To gather with the Criminal Procedure Code, the Law on Organization of Criminal Investigation Agency, and Laws on Custody and Temporary Detention, the 2017 Penal Code will become effective from next year.
On the same day, the parliament also passed the draft laws on the guard force and on the management and use of weapons, explosive materials and support tools.
===== June 21 =====
Human Rights Watch Slams Vietnam’s Newly-adopted Penal Code
Defend the Defenders: The New York-based NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) has slammed Vietnam’s newly-adopted Penal Code, saying the revised law contains a number of articles limiting basic human rights.
In its press release on June 21, HRW said Vietnam should immediately repeal a provision in its revised penal code that would hold lawyers criminally responsible for not reporting clients to the authorities for a number of crimes.
The revised code also contains a number of changes heightening criminal penalties against criticism of the government or Vietnam’s one-party state.
HRW reacted one day after Vietnam’s highest legislative body National Assembly adopted the revised Penal Code which will become effective from January 1, 2018.
In the revised law, Article 19 requires lawyers to denounce their clients in serious cases relating to national security.
“Requiring lawyers to violate lawyer-client confidentiality will mean that lawyers become agents of the state and clients won’t have any reason to trust their lawyers,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW.
“Vietnam considers any criticism or opposition to the government or Communist Party to be a ‘national security’ matter, this will undermine any possibility of real legal defense in such cases,” he said.
“Vietnam’s foreign investors and trading partners should be very concerned about laws that would require their lawyers to pass on confidential information to the authorities to avoid getting into trouble,” Adams said.
In the new law, Vietnam’s parliament kept the national security provisions unchanged from the 1999 Penal Code which have been used to silence local political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists and independent bloggers. Among these new clauses in Article 109 (previously Article 79) and Article 117 (previously Article 88).
In most politically-motivated arrests and convictions in Vietnam, the authorities use Article 79 to punish people for being affiliated with a particular group or organization disapproved by the ruling communist party. Article 87 is often used to punish people for participating in religious groups not sanctioned by the state. Article 88 is a tool to gag dissidents and bloggers critical of the party or the government. Article 89 is used to punish independent labor activists who help organize wildcat strikes, HRW said.
“The revised penal code illustrates Vietnam’s lack of commitment to improve its abysmal human rights record,” said Adams.
“If Vietnam sincerely wants to promote the rule of law, it should facilitate the work of lawyers instead of introducing new laws to make it impossible to do their jobs.”
Vietnam: New Law Threatens Right to a Defense
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Police Say Blogger Nguyen Van Hoa Refuses to Have Lawyer
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s police have said that imprisoned blogger Nguyen Van Hoa had rejected to have own lawyer even who his family had hired to defend him, human rights lawyer Ha Huy Son has said.
The Hanoi-based lawyer who was hired by Hoa’s family to defend him, said when he asked authorities in Ha Tinh to grant a permission for him, the police said Hoa needs no lawyer but will defend himself.
However, police have not provided any written confirmation from Hoa.
Some activists, including former prisoner of conscience Bui Thi Minh Hang doubted Hoa’s decision, saying his family needs to meet him to clarify this refusal. When she was detained in a trumped-up case of “causing public disorder” four years ago, police also provided wrong information to public that she did not plan to hire lawyers while in fact she demanded to have a number of lawyers to defend her in the politicized case.
Earlier this month, Vietnam’s authorities changed the charge against blogger Hoa, from “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 258 to “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code. With the new charge, Hoa will face severe punishment which is up to 20 years if he is convicted, according to Vietnam’s current law.
Hoa, who was the first blogger to use flycam to report peaceful demonstrations of Ha Tinh residents against Formosa, was arrested on January 11. He was said to make confession, admitting wrongdoings and beg for mercy.
Many international human rights organizations have called for his immediate and unconditional release, saying he did nothing wrong but exercised his basic rights of freedom of press.
For more information about Hoa’s case, please see our archive: /category/nguyen-van-hoa-ky-anh/
===== June 22 =====
Pen International Calls on Vietnam to Drop All Charges against Blogger Mother Mushroom
Defend the Defenders: Pen International has called on Vietnam’s government to drop all charges against blogger and government critic Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known by her pen name Me Nam (‘Mother Mushroom’), ahead of her trial, which is expected to take place on 29 June 2017, saying she is being targeted for peacefully exercising her right to freedom of expression.
Pen International has also urged international community to pay attention to her case by sending petitions to Vietnamese leader to call for her release. Pending her release, Quynh should be granted access to her family and a lawyer of her choice immediately, the organization said.
Details: Viet Nam: charges against blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh must be dropped
===== June 23 =====
HCM City Authorities Violently Detain Former Political Prisoner Pham Minh Hoang
Defend the Defenders: Security forces in Ho Chi Minh City have violently detained former prisoner of conscience Pham Minh Hoang and took him to unknown direction, his wife Le Thi Kieu Oanh announced local activists.
Mrs. Oanh said police jumped in their private residence in the city and took him away. They used special equipment to stop telecommunication wave in the areas and closed her inside the house so she cannot inform anyone about the detention.
She was freed after they withdrew.
The detention of university lecturer Hoang was made few days after the city’s police summoned him to a local police station but he refused to go.
Mr. Hoang, a France-trained master, is facing deportation to France after President Tran Dai Quang issued a decision to revoke his citizenship last month.
Hoang, who also has French nationality, had sent his letter to the French authorities to give up his French nationality earlier this month to demonstrate his willingness to live in Vietnam with family and his old mother and ill brother.
Many international human rights organizations have condemned Vietnam’s decision on revoking Hoang’s citizenship while his lawyers said the move is illegal and violates Vietnam’s law.
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RSF calls for urgent French response to Vietnam’s arrest of blogger
Reporters Without Borders: Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of Pham Minh Hoang, a blogger with French and Vietnamese dual nationality who was arrested at his home in Ho Chi Minh City this evening, and urges the French authorities to take action in his defense.
Police officers knocked on Hoang’s door at around 6 pm, saying they wanted to do an ID check. But, after entering his home, they arrested him in a heavy-handed manner and told him he would be expelled within 24 hours in accordance with an “extradition” order issued by the Bureau of Immigration.
Sources say the police had a camera to film the arrest, as they have in the past when arresting Vietnamese activists. The recordings are often used for state propaganda purposes.
RSF urges the Vietnamese government to refrain from expelling Hoang. His expulsion, which would be iniquitous and contrary to Vietnamese legislation, is simply designed to reinforce the climate of fear that the Communist Party has created in Vietnam.
RSF also calls on the French government to take swift and effective measures to prevent his expulsion. Hoang appealed for action by the French government in an interview for RSF last week.
The Vietnamese authorities paved the way for Hoang’s expulsion by announcing that a presidential decree stripped him of his Vietnamese citizenship last month.
Vietnam has one of the worst scores in RSF’s 2017 World Press Freedom Index, in which it is ranked 175th out of 180 countries.
===== June 25 =====
Vietnam Government Critic Pham Minh Hoang Expelled to France
Defend the Defenders: Vietnam’s authorities have deported former political prisoner Pham Minh Hoang to France one month after President Tran Dai Quang signed a decision to revoke his Vietnamese citizenship, his wife Le Thi Kieu Oanh said.
Police in Ho Chi Minh City violently detained Mr. Hoang on late afternoon of June 23, holding him in unknown place before forcing him to take an international flight from the Tan Son Nhat International Airport to Paris in the midnight of June 24.
He had not been allowed to meet his family before being deported to France.
Hoang, who has also French citizenship, is unlikely permitted to return to his homeland if the country remains controlled by the ruling communist party. He was forced to leave his family which consists of his wife, a daughter, old mother and ill brother.
Earlier this month, Hoang, who became a permanent resident of HCM City since 2007, received a copy of President Quang’s decision which said his Vietnamese citizenship revoking is based on Hoang’s violations of the country’s security. The decision automatically made the former prisoner of conscience’s stay in Vietnam illegal.
Mr. Hoang, a member of the California-based pro-democracy group Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform Party), was arrested in August 2011 and later sentenced to three years in jail on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the country’s 1999 Penal Code for his online postings and interviews to foreign media calling for multi-party democracy and human rights enhancement. Under international pressure, Vietnam was forced to free him after 17 months in prison.
The Vietnamese decision to strip off his Vietnamese citizenship has been condemned by many local activists and a number of international human rights organizations, including the Front Line Defenders and Reporters Without Borders.
Along with arresting, intimidating, beating local activists, Vietnam’s communist government has forced a number of government critics to live in exile in foreign countries. The victims include France-trained law expert Cu Huy Ha Vu, bloggers Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay) and Ta Phong Tan and Dang Xuan Dieu.
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HCM City Activist Brutally Beaten by Plainclothes Agents, Militia Near Police Station after Suppressed Anti-China Protest
Defend the Defenders: On June 25, plainclothes agents, militia and thugs in Ho Chi Minh City brutally beat local activist namely Huynh Anh Tuan near the police station of Ward 25, Binh Thanh district, activists said.
In the morning of Sunday, a small group of activists in HCM City held a peaceful demonstration to protest China’s deployment of its HYSY-981 giant oil rig in Vietnam’s exclusive economic zone in the East Sea (South China Sea). The protests was violently suppressed few minutes later by local security forces.
Police arrested some protesters, including a facebooker with nickname Pham Minh Ngoc and took them to the police station of Ward 25 on No. 340 Xo Viet Nghe Tinh street.
Blogger Huynh Anh Tuan went to the police station to gain information for the detainees. Before asking police, he was assaulted by plainclothes agents, militia and thugs who used batons attacked with iron nails to beat him, causing severe injuries on his body.
Tuan is one of numerous Vietnamese activist brutally beaten by police and plainclothes agents nationwide in the past few years.
Last week, Human Rights Watch released its report highlighting 36 assault cases against Vietnamese political dissidents, human rights campaigners, social activists and independent bloggers from early of 2016 to April 2017. Most of the attacked activists suffered severe injuries but none of perpettrators was investigated and tried.
HCM City is one of localities where many local activists were beaten by police and thugs, according to Human Rights Watch.
Vietnam’s communist government rejected the report of the New York-based human rights organization, saying the report is based on incorrect information.
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