Author and journalist Truong Huy San (aka Huy Duc) in mid-2024. (Truong Huy San via Facebook)
A well-known Vietnamese author of a book about the Vietnam War and its consequences is being prosecuted for “abusing democratic freedoms,” state media reported.
Truong Huy San, 64, better known as “The Winning Side” author Huy Duc, has been detained for more than eight months.
On Wednesday, VnExpress reported that the Supreme People’s Procuracy had completed an indictment against San under the loosely worded Article 331 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code. It then transferred the case file to the Hanoi People’s Court for trial.
The indictment said that from 2015 to 2024, San collected information and documents and posted many articles on his personal Facebook page, some with content that “infringed upon the interests of the state and the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals.”
The articles were widely shared and commented on, which prosecutors said negatively affected security, order and social safety.
In his defense, San “denied having any anti-Party or anti-State intentions,” VnExpress said.
Musician Tuan Khanh told Radio Free Asia that, as a journalist, San had to see both sides of every story.
“A journalist must have his own perspective and his own judgment,” he said. “Huy Duc is accused of taking advantage of democratic freedoms, but I think he only used a small part of the freedom he had to present his views and it cannot be said that he took advantage.”
A Hanoi-based economist, who didn’t want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, said that based on Huy Duc’s writings, the accusation that he was opposing the party, the state and the people was unfounded.
“The arrest of Huy Duc may be intended to suppress dissenting opinions about changing the political model and may be related to factional struggles before the party congress,” he said, adding that he thought conservative forces within the Communist Party wanted to block the institutional reform proposals that Huy Duc advocated.
“Many leaders make radical statements but it is just a populist stunt. Their actions are not that same as their public statements,” the economist said.
Leaders seeking to consolidate their authority at next year’s party congress can be sensitive to perceived criticism in the run-up.
“When an author and journalist like Truong Huy San is silenced, it’s not just his voice that is stifled — it’s the right of an entire society to seek truth and accountability,” said research and advocacy manager Anh-Thu Vo.
“Criticism is not a crime. Vietnam must stop using its laws as weapons against those who dare to speak the truth.”
Who is ‘Huy Duc’?
The author fought in Cambodia in North Vietnam’s volunteer army, which invaded in late 1978 to oust the Khmer Rouge regime.
He has written for many Vietnamese newspapers, including Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien, Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep, Nong Thon Ngay Nay, and Sai Gon Tiep Thi.
He released “The Winning Side” in late 2012, earning acclaim in Vietnam and among the Vietnamese community around the world.
Professor Peter Zinoman, former head of the history department at the University of California, Berkeley, said the book was not like official histories of Vietnam, which characterize the Vietnam War as a conflict between Vietnam and the United States. Instead it asserts that the conflict was also a civil war, leaving winners and losers among the Vietnamese.
Zinoman also said “The Winning Side” is one of the few works to be written by a member of the winning side in the Vietnam war – the North – that sympathizes with the losing side – the South.
Vietnamese activist arrested in Cambodia
In a separate case, Cambodian authorities have detained a Vietnamese human rights activist who was heading to the U.S. to attend a religious conference, his sister told Radio Free Asia.
Police at Phnom Penh’s international airport accused Huynh Trong Hieu, 35, of using a fake passport, which he denied.
His sister, the blogger Huynh Thuc Vy, told RFA that Hieu crossed into Cambodia from Vietnam on Feb. 2 and visited a friend in Phnom Penh before heading to the airport the following day. After being arrested, Hieu was taken to an immigration detention center, Vy said.
“I was summoned by the Dak Lak police who said they suspected Hieu had committed a crime in Cambodia and that’s why he was arrested, but that’s not true. Cambodian police only suspected he was using a fake passport. They didn’t accuse him of doing anything else illegal. It is a false accusation,” she said.
Vy said she helped her brother apply for a passport through the public security ministry’s electronic identification app, VNeID. He received a new passport last July. Police confiscated his previous travel document 12 years ago as he tried to fly to the U.S. to receive the Hellman-Hammett award from Human Rights Watch on behalf of his sister and father Huynh Ngoc Tuan.
Activist and blogger Huynh Trong Hieu in a photo taken in June 2024. (Facebook: Huynh Thuc Vy)
Last November, the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City issued Hieu a B1/B2 tourism/conference visa, Vy said, showing RFA photographs of the document and passport.
“If it is a fake passport, the responsibility lies with the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security,” Vy said. “Our family requests that the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security, in coordination with the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia, find a way to bring Hieu safely back home.”
Radio Free Asia’s Khmer service contacted a spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Interior’s Immigration Department, Sok Someakhea, and the Ministry of Interior’s spokesperson Touch Sokhak to ask about Hieu’s case but they didn’t reply.
Minister of the State for the Civil Aviation Authority of Cambodia, Sao Wathana, on Wednesday confirmed Hieu’s arrest by immigration police to the Cambodian Journalists Union Association. He said he had forwarded reporters’ questions to the head of the relevant immigration agency.
RFA’s Vietnamese service emailed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Public Security to ask about Hieu’s case but didn’t receive a reply by time of publication. (RFA)
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February 13, 2025
Vietnamese author may face prison for political posts on Facebook
by Defend the Defenders • [Human Rights]
Author and journalist Truong Huy San (aka Huy Duc) in mid-2024. (Truong Huy San via Facebook)
A well-known Vietnamese author of a book about the Vietnam War and its consequences is being prosecuted for “abusing democratic freedoms,” state media reported.
Truong Huy San, 64, better known as “The Winning Side” author Huy Duc, has been detained for more than eight months.
On Wednesday, VnExpress reported that the Supreme People’s Procuracy had completed an indictment against San under the loosely worded Article 331 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code. It then transferred the case file to the Hanoi People’s Court for trial.
The indictment said that from 2015 to 2024, San collected information and documents and posted many articles on his personal Facebook page, some with content that “infringed upon the interests of the state and the rights and legitimate interests of organizations and individuals.”
The articles were widely shared and commented on, which prosecutors said negatively affected security, order and social safety.
In his defense, San “denied having any anti-Party or anti-State intentions,” VnExpress said.
Musician Tuan Khanh told Radio Free Asia that, as a journalist, San had to see both sides of every story.
“A journalist must have his own perspective and his own judgment,” he said. “Huy Duc is accused of taking advantage of democratic freedoms, but I think he only used a small part of the freedom he had to present his views and it cannot be said that he took advantage.”
A Hanoi-based economist, who didn’t want to be identified due to the sensitivity of the subject, said that based on Huy Duc’s writings, the accusation that he was opposing the party, the state and the people was unfounded.
“The arrest of Huy Duc may be intended to suppress dissenting opinions about changing the political model and may be related to factional struggles before the party congress,” he said, adding that he thought conservative forces within the Communist Party wanted to block the institutional reform proposals that Huy Duc advocated.
“Many leaders make radical statements but it is just a populist stunt. Their actions are not that same as their public statements,” the economist said.
Leaders seeking to consolidate their authority at next year’s party congress can be sensitive to perceived criticism in the run-up.
Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders have demanded San’s immediate release and on Wednesday writers’ rights group PEN America denounced his indictment
“When an author and journalist like Truong Huy San is silenced, it’s not just his voice that is stifled — it’s the right of an entire society to seek truth and accountability,” said research and advocacy manager Anh-Thu Vo.
“Criticism is not a crime. Vietnam must stop using its laws as weapons against those who dare to speak the truth.”
Who is ‘Huy Duc’?
The author fought in Cambodia in North Vietnam’s volunteer army, which invaded in late 1978 to oust the Khmer Rouge regime.
He has written for many Vietnamese newspapers, including Tuoi Tre, Thanh Nien, Dien Dan Doanh Nghiep, Nong Thon Ngay Nay, and Sai Gon Tiep Thi.
He released “The Winning Side” in late 2012, earning acclaim in Vietnam and among the Vietnamese community around the world.
Professor Peter Zinoman, former head of the history department at the University of California, Berkeley, said the book was not like official histories of Vietnam, which characterize the Vietnam War as a conflict between Vietnam and the United States. Instead it asserts that the conflict was also a civil war, leaving winners and losers among the Vietnamese.
Zinoman also said “The Winning Side” is one of the few works to be written by a member of the winning side in the Vietnam war – the North – that sympathizes with the losing side – the South.
Vietnamese activist arrested in Cambodia
In a separate case, Cambodian authorities have detained a Vietnamese human rights activist who was heading to the U.S. to attend a religious conference, his sister told Radio Free Asia.
Police at Phnom Penh’s international airport accused Huynh Trong Hieu, 35, of using a fake passport, which he denied.
His sister, the blogger Huynh Thuc Vy, told RFA that Hieu crossed into Cambodia from Vietnam on Feb. 2 and visited a friend in Phnom Penh before heading to the airport the following day. After being arrested, Hieu was taken to an immigration detention center, Vy said.
“I was summoned by the Dak Lak police who said they suspected Hieu had committed a crime in Cambodia and that’s why he was arrested, but that’s not true. Cambodian police only suspected he was using a fake passport. They didn’t accuse him of doing anything else illegal. It is a false accusation,” she said.
Vy said she helped her brother apply for a passport through the public security ministry’s electronic identification app, VNeID. He received a new passport last July. Police confiscated his previous travel document 12 years ago as he tried to fly to the U.S. to receive the Hellman-Hammett award from Human Rights Watch on behalf of his sister and father Huynh Ngoc Tuan.
Last November, the U.S. Consulate General in Ho Chi Minh City issued Hieu a B1/B2 tourism/conference visa, Vy said, showing RFA photographs of the document and passport.
“If it is a fake passport, the responsibility lies with the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security,” Vy said. “Our family requests that the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security, in coordination with the Vietnamese Embassy in Cambodia, find a way to bring Hieu safely back home.”
Radio Free Asia’s Khmer service contacted a spokesman for the Cambodian Ministry of Interior’s Immigration Department, Sok Someakhea, and the Ministry of Interior’s spokesperson Touch Sokhak to ask about Hieu’s case but they didn’t reply.
Minister of the State for the Civil Aviation Authority of Cambodia, Sao Wathana, on Wednesday confirmed Hieu’s arrest by immigration police to the Cambodian Journalists Union Association. He said he had forwarded reporters’ questions to the head of the relevant immigration agency.
RFA’s Vietnamese service emailed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Public Security to ask about Hieu’s case but didn’t receive a reply by time of publication. (RFA)