Human rights activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh
Defend the Defenders, November 30, 2017
The Danang Higher People’s Court has upheld the ten-year sentence for prominent human rights advocate Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, who is famous with her penname Mother Mushroom.
At the appeal hearing lasted few hours in Khanh Hoa on the morning of November 30, the court rejected her appeal and kept the sentence given to her by the People’s Court of the central province of Khanh Hoa on June 29.
Ms. Quynh was arrested on October 10, 2016 and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the country’s 1999 Penal Code, one of the many controversial articles in the law used by the communist government to silence local dissidents, human rights campaigners, social activists and online bloggers.
The so-called open appeal hearing held at the headquarters of the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa was closed for the defendant’s relatives and supporters as well as foreign diplomats and reporters. Ms. Tuyet Lan, the mother of Quynh, was also not allowed to enter in the courtroomto attend the hearing of her daughter but observed the hearing at another room via TV screen.
Nguyen Kha Thanh, one of Quynh’s lawyers in the hearing said the procuracy representative in the hearing remained silent when the defendant’s lawyers presented a number of arguments which proved her innocence.
Ms. Quynh said she practiced her civil rights but not intended to conduct any act against the state, lawyer Thanh told BBC News after the hearing.
Quynh also said during the hearing that Vietnam cannot not develop if the government try to imprison all of its critics, Thanh added.
Local authorities deployed hundreds of police, militia and thugs to the court areas, blocking all roads leading to the courtroom. Activists coming from Saigon and Hanoi and other localities were forced to stay away from the court area.
After the hearing, relatives and friends of Quynh, triggered by the unfair hearing and the hard sentence, held a small peaceful demonstration near the court area. In response, police reportedly attacked the protestors, beating many people, including Ms. Tuyet Lan and her younger brother Nguyen Minh Hung and bloggers Trinh Kim Tien, Tran Thu Nguyet, and Nguyen Cong Thanh as others. Police robbed phones and cameras of many activists, and detained bloggers Tien, Nguyet and Thanh, and took them away from the scene.
Several days before the hearing, authorities in the central coastal province of Phu Yen revoked a lawyer practice license of Vo An Don, one of lawyers hired by Quynh’s family to defend for her at the hearing. Other lawyers were allowed to meet her few times in recent weeks in prison to prepare for defense.
On June 29, the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa found that Ms. Quynh, the mother of two, guilty of conducting activities on Facebook and other social media, including writing, uploading and sharing articles and video content critical of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam and the state; producing, editing, and sharing a report titled “Stop Police Killing Civilians” that listed 31 people who, the report claimed, had died in police custody; for giving interviews with foreign media that “distorted” the situation in Vietnam; and for her possession of a poetry collection and compact disc recording that were deemed critical of the ruling party and the state.
Since 2006, Ms. Quynh has been blogging about human rights abuses and corruption in Vietnam. In 2013, she co-founded the independent Vietnamese Bloggers Network, which is now blocked in Vietnam. She has investigated and published widely on environmental protection, public health, correctional reform and anti-torture efforts, and has been critical of Vietnam’s foreign policy toward China over disputed islands in the East Sea (South China Sea). She has posted information about over 30 people who have died in police custody and has been active both online and offline in documenting and demanding redress for the 2016 Formosa environmental disaster, when the Taiwanese-Vietnamese Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation leaked toxic waste into the ocean having a devastating impact on tens of thousands of Vietnamese in four central coastal provinces. Because of her tireless defense of human rights, she has been frequently targeted for harassment by the state, previously detained, interrogated, and beaten.
Ms. Quynh was awarded a Hellman Hammett grant from Human Rights Watch in 2010 as a writer defending free expression, the 2015 Civil Rights Defender of the Year award from Civil Rights Defenders in 2015 and the International Women of Courage award from the US State Department this year.
Before and after the trial, international human rights organizations and foreign governments, including the US and the EU, called on Vietnam’s government to release her immediately and unconditionally, saying the charges against her violate the right to freedom of expression as provided in international human rights law, which binds Vietnam. Amnesty International considers Quynh a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for her peaceful activities promoting and defending human rights.
In order to maintain the country under a one-party regime, Vietnam has little tolerance for government critics. It has used controversial articles such as 79, 88 and 250 in the national security provision of the Penal Code to silence local activists.
So far this year, Vietnam has arrested, sentenced, and expelled abroad 25 activists.
Vietnam is holding around 90 prisoners of conscience, says Amnesty International while BPSOS and 14 other international and domestic human rights organizations placed the number of political prisoners as high as 165 prisoners. Hanoi always denies imprisoning any prisoner of conscience but only law violators.
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November 30, 2017
Vietnam Upholds Ten-year Sentence for Prominent Human Rights Defender Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh
by Nhan Quyen • Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (Me Nam)
Human rights activist Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh
Defend the Defenders, November 30, 2017
The Danang Higher People’s Court has upheld the ten-year sentence for prominent human rights advocate Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, who is famous with her penname Mother Mushroom.
At the appeal hearing lasted few hours in Khanh Hoa on the morning of November 30, the court rejected her appeal and kept the sentence given to her by the People’s Court of the central province of Khanh Hoa on June 29.
Ms. Quynh was arrested on October 10, 2016 and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the country’s 1999 Penal Code, one of the many controversial articles in the law used by the communist government to silence local dissidents, human rights campaigners, social activists and online bloggers.
The so-called open appeal hearing held at the headquarters of the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa was closed for the defendant’s relatives and supporters as well as foreign diplomats and reporters. Ms. Tuyet Lan, the mother of Quynh, was also not allowed to enter in the courtroomto attend the hearing of her daughter but observed the hearing at another room via TV screen.
Nguyen Kha Thanh, one of Quynh’s lawyers in the hearing said the procuracy representative in the hearing remained silent when the defendant’s lawyers presented a number of arguments which proved her innocence.
Ms. Quynh said she practiced her civil rights but not intended to conduct any act against the state, lawyer Thanh told BBC News after the hearing.
Quynh also said during the hearing that Vietnam cannot not develop if the government try to imprison all of its critics, Thanh added.
Local authorities deployed hundreds of police, militia and thugs to the court areas, blocking all roads leading to the courtroom. Activists coming from Saigon and Hanoi and other localities were forced to stay away from the court area.
After the hearing, relatives and friends of Quynh, triggered by the unfair hearing and the hard sentence, held a small peaceful demonstration near the court area. In response, police reportedly attacked the protestors, beating many people, including Ms. Tuyet Lan and her younger brother Nguyen Minh Hung and bloggers Trinh Kim Tien, Tran Thu Nguyet, and Nguyen Cong Thanh as others. Police robbed phones and cameras of many activists, and detained bloggers Tien, Nguyet and Thanh, and took them away from the scene.
Several days before the hearing, authorities in the central coastal province of Phu Yen revoked a lawyer practice license of Vo An Don, one of lawyers hired by Quynh’s family to defend for her at the hearing. Other lawyers were allowed to meet her few times in recent weeks in prison to prepare for defense.
On June 29, the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa found that Ms. Quynh, the mother of two, guilty of conducting activities on Facebook and other social media, including writing, uploading and sharing articles and video content critical of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam and the state; producing, editing, and sharing a report titled “Stop Police Killing Civilians” that listed 31 people who, the report claimed, had died in police custody; for giving interviews with foreign media that “distorted” the situation in Vietnam; and for her possession of a poetry collection and compact disc recording that were deemed critical of the ruling party and the state.
Since 2006, Ms. Quynh has been blogging about human rights abuses and corruption in Vietnam. In 2013, she co-founded the independent Vietnamese Bloggers Network, which is now blocked in Vietnam. She has investigated and published widely on environmental protection, public health, correctional reform and anti-torture efforts, and has been critical of Vietnam’s foreign policy toward China over disputed islands in the East Sea (South China Sea). She has posted information about over 30 people who have died in police custody and has been active both online and offline in documenting and demanding redress for the 2016 Formosa environmental disaster, when the Taiwanese-Vietnamese Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation leaked toxic waste into the ocean having a devastating impact on tens of thousands of Vietnamese in four central coastal provinces. Because of her tireless defense of human rights, she has been frequently targeted for harassment by the state, previously detained, interrogated, and beaten.
Ms. Quynh was awarded a Hellman Hammett grant from Human Rights Watch in 2010 as a writer defending free expression, the 2015 Civil Rights Defender of the Year award from Civil Rights Defenders in 2015 and the International Women of Courage award from the US State Department this year.
Before and after the trial, international human rights organizations and foreign governments, including the US and the EU, called on Vietnam’s government to release her immediately and unconditionally, saying the charges against her violate the right to freedom of expression as provided in international human rights law, which binds Vietnam. Amnesty International considers Quynh a prisoner of conscience, imprisoned solely for her peaceful activities promoting and defending human rights.
In order to maintain the country under a one-party regime, Vietnam has little tolerance for government critics. It has used controversial articles such as 79, 88 and 250 in the national security provision of the Penal Code to silence local activists.
So far this year, Vietnam has arrested, sentenced, and expelled abroad 25 activists.
Vietnam is holding around 90 prisoners of conscience, says Amnesty International while BPSOS and 14 other international and domestic human rights organizations placed the number of political prisoners as high as 165 prisoners. Hanoi always denies imprisoning any prisoner of conscience but only law violators.