Vietnam Arbitrarily Re-arrests Former Prisoner of Conscience for Unknown Charge

Former prisoner of conscience and labor activist Doan Huy Chuong

Defend the Defenders, December 26, 2017

On December 24, authorities in Vietnam’s southern province of Dong Nao arrested former prisoner of conscience Doan Van Dien, father of ex-political prisoner Doan Huy Chuong, the family told Defend the Defenders.

Mr. Dien was arrested in his private residence in the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, the family said.

Accordingly, police gave an oral notice to the family, saying he is held in the Dong Nai province-based B5 detention facility without informing the cause of the arrest.

Without providing the written arrest order, police asked the family to provide supplements for him while he is in custody.

Mr. Dien is a former prisoner of conscience. He and his son Chuong were arrested in November 2006 and later he was sentenced to four years and six months in prison on allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the country’s 1999 Penal Code while his son was given one and half years of prison sentence.

Chuong, who was re-arrested in 2010 on charge of “disrupting security and order against the people’s administration” under Article 89 of the Penal Code and later sentenced to seven years in jail, is also facing arrest threat as security forces are reportedly to seek for him.

Chuong is a labor activist, member of the unsanctioned Viet Labor Movement which has sought to help workers fight for better working conditions and higher salary. Ms. Do Thi Minh Hanh, the president of the movement, has been a subject of constant persecution of the government.

The detention of Mr. Dien is part of Vietnam’s ongoing crackdown on local political dissidents, human rights defenders, social activists and online bloggers. In order to maintain the country under a one-party regime amid increasing social dissatisfaction, the communist government has launched the most severe suppression against local activists.

So far, Vietnam has arrested, tried or expelled abroad over 30 activists. Many of them have been charged with severe accusations such as subversion under Article 79 or “anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code.

Vietnam is holding over 100 political prisoners, according to Human Rights Watch while BPSOS, Defend the Defenders and other 13 partners have listed 165 prisoners of conscience in their recent publication. Hanoi always denies of holding activists but only law violators.