Defend the Defenders, Press Release, January 4, 2026
For immediate release
According to Defend the Defenders’ statistics, as of December 31, 2025, Vietnam’s communist regime is holding at least 268 prisoners of conscience in prisons or other forms of detention.
As many as 23 of the prisoners of conscience identified by Defend the Defenders are women human rights defenders (WHRDs).
In total, 176 people, or 66% of the list, are from the Kinh ethnic majority. The second-largest ethnic grouping on the list is Montagnards, a loose set of religious and ethnic minorities who live in the mountains of the Central Highlands. Their number is 67 or 25% of those on the list. There are 17 prisoners of conscience from Khmer Krom ethnic minority and eight on the list are Hmong religious activists.
Bloggers, lawyers, unionists, land rights activists, political dissidents, and followers of non-registered minority religions have been arrested and detained for peacefully exercising their internationally and constitutionally protected rights, principally the right to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and religion or belief. The list does not include individuals who have engaged in or advocated violence.
Vietnam still holds 53 activists in pre-trial detention or their trials and sentences have not been publicized, many of them have been held since 2018 and there is no information on their cases.
The above includes 215 who have been convicted – mostly of political crimes under Articles 79, 87 and 88 of the1999 Penal Code or Article 109, 117, and 331 respectively in the 2015 Criminal Code. The total number includes:
– 42 activists convicted or charged with subversion (Article 79 of 1999 Penal Code or Article 109 in the 2015 Criminal Code);
– 72 activists convicted or charged with anti-state propaganda (Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code or Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code);
– 59 people from ethnic minorities were convicted of undermining the national unity policy (Article 87 of the 1999 Penal Code or 116 of the 2015 Criminal Code);
– 59 activists were convicted or charged with “abusing democratic freedom” (Article 258 of the 1999 Penal Code or Article 331 of the 2015 Criminal Code);
– The charges for 13 individuals are unknown, including three Montagnards followers of the Ha Mon sect arrested in March 2020.
Vietnam is among world’s biggest prisons for journalists and Facebookers, holding 28 of them in police custody, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s report released on December 1. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also listed Vietnam among the global biggest prisons for journalists with 16 journalists being imprisoned.
Background
In order to ensure a “stable society” for the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) to carry out local party congresses and prepare for its 14th National Congress scheduled for late January 2026, the communist regime has tightened control over the nation, intensifying its crackdown on local political dissidents, government critics, social activists, and human rights defenders.
As US President Donald Trump does not pay attention to human rights while the EU focuses on the Ukraine-Russia military conflict, Vietnam’s communist regime used the opportunity to intensify its crackdown on local dissent without being criticized by the international community. The persecution has peaked in recent months with the arrests of a dozen of activists who have been charged with controversial articles of the national security provisions in the Criminal Code.
Arrest in 2025
Between January 1 and December 31, Vietnam arrested 34 activists. As many as ten activists were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 and among them are prominent Protestant pastor Nguyen Manh Hung and former political prisoner Huynh Ngoc Tuan, who was sentenced to ten years in 1992 for the same allegation.
A few days prior to the 80th anniversary of the country’s independence (September 2), Vietnam’s security arrested four young activists named Ho Sy Quyet, Nguyen Quang Trung, Tran Quang Nam, and Nguyen Tuan Nghia on allegation of subversion although they have done nothing but focused on economic activities for years.
As many as 18 Khmer Krom religuous activists, land petitioners, and bloggers were detained and charged with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331.
Convictions in 2025
In 2025, Vietnam’s communist regime convicted at least eight activists.
On December 31, in a very short first-instance hearing, the People’s Court of Hanoi convicted Do Van Nga, Pham Quang Thien, and Huynh Bao Duc of “conducting anti-state propaganda” together with Germany-based journalist Le Trung Khoa, the owner and chief editor of Thoibao.de for their articles which were considered harmful for the authoritarian regime in Vietnam. Nga was sentenced to seven years in prison while Thien and Duc were given six years and six months while Khoa is given 17 years in prison although he is living in Germany.
On the same day, another court in Hanoi found former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Van Dai guilty of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and gave him 17 years in prison. Dai was freed in 2018 but forced to live in exile in Germany after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for subversion in a case involved many key members of the Brotherhood for Democracy. Like Khoa, the most recent conviction does not harm Dai who continues his pro-democracy campaign in the center of the EU bloc.
Along with sentencing Protestant pastor Nguyen Manh Hung to six years in prison, Vietnam’s authoritarian regime also sentenced Protestant pastor Y Nuyen Ayun to seven years and six months in prison for “undermining the national unity policy” per Article 116.
All of the trials were closed for public and families of the convicted activists as well as foreign diplomats.
Prominent human rights activist and land right campaigner Trinh Ba Phuong, who is serving his ten-year imprisonment in An Diem prison camp. Police found a banron with content “Down with the Communist Party of Vietnam violating human rights” in his cell and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117. In a short trial in late September, a court in Danang City gave him 11 years in prison and on December 27, the Higher People’s Court in Danang uphold the verdict although the activist and his lawyer confirmed that the banner belongs to Phuong’s cellmate Nguyen Bac Truyen, who was released to live in exile in Germany in 2024.
Y Quynh Bdap, a religious activist fleeing to Thailand in 2018 and got political asylum status by the UN Higher Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok, was arrested by the Thai police in June 2024. In November, Thailand extradited him to Vietnam where he is forced to serve his ten-year imprisonment given by the Dak Lak court in early 2024 in which he was convicted in absence for terrorism against the people’s government under Article 113 of the Criminal Code.
Mistreatment in prison
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security continues its policy to keep prisoners, especially prisoners of conscience, under hard living conditions in a bid to punish them for their non-violent activities but harmful for the communist regime and break their mental strength. Along with sending prisoners of conscience to prisons far from their families, it allows authorities in the prisons and the temporary detention centers to apply other psychological measures to make the life of jailed activists harder, such as denying them their rights to regular meetings with their families and receiving additional food and medicines from their relatives, placing them in solitary cells or isolated areas, or forcing them to work hard without proper protective equipment. It also puts added psychological and financial trauma on the family members.
According to Vietnam’s Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments effective in 2019, imprisoned people in prisons and temporary detention facilities across the nation enjoy relatively good food supplies. However, in fact, the food they receive from prison camps and detention centers is not enough for maintaining their health so their families have to supply them with additional food and stuff periodically, often twice a month. In many cases, authorities of prison camps and detention facilities refuse to allow their families to send food for them but deposit money so they can purchase at the facilities’ canteens at prices much higher than the market prices. It has caused difficulties for prisoners of conscience’s families given the fact that activists and families are under constant persecution of the local authorities which strive to block their economic activities.
Many former prisoners of conscience reported that most of prisoners of conscience from ethnic minorities have no family visits and their lives in prisons are very hard since they rely on prison’s supply only.
Release from prison in 2020
In 2025, 19 prisoners of conscience were released or expected to complete their imprisonments. Defend the Defenders has no information which would confirm the release of most of them. However, Defend the Defenders still excludes their names from this list.
Tran Thi Xuan, Nguyen Thi Tam, Dinh Van Hai, Vũ Quang Thuan are among released activists this year.
A few of them were released several months before their sentences ended.
=============
The term “prisoner of conscience” (POC) was coined by Peter Benenson in the 1960s. It refers to any individual “imprisoned for his/her political, religious or conscientiously held beliefs, ethnic origin, sex, color, language, national or social origin, economic status, birth, sexual orientation or another status who have not used violence or advocated violence or hatred.”
Defend the Defenders is Vietnam’s independent non-profit organization working to promote human and civil rights in the Southeast Asian nation. It has a network of dozens of human rights defenders across the nation who report human rights abuse in their areas.
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January 4, 2026
Defend the Defenders’ Latest Statistics: Vietnam Holds 268 Prisoners of Conscience
by Defend the Defenders • [Human Rights]
Defend the Defenders, Press Release, January 4, 2026
For immediate release
According to Defend the Defenders’ statistics, as of December 31, 2025, Vietnam’s communist regime is holding at least 268 prisoners of conscience in prisons or other forms of detention.
As many as 23 of the prisoners of conscience identified by Defend the Defenders are women human rights defenders (WHRDs).
In total, 176 people, or 66% of the list, are from the Kinh ethnic majority. The second-largest ethnic grouping on the list is Montagnards, a loose set of religious and ethnic minorities who live in the mountains of the Central Highlands. Their number is 67 or 25% of those on the list. There are 17 prisoners of conscience from Khmer Krom ethnic minority and eight on the list are Hmong religious activists.
Bloggers, lawyers, unionists, land rights activists, political dissidents, and followers of non-registered minority religions have been arrested and detained for peacefully exercising their internationally and constitutionally protected rights, principally the right to freedoms of expression, peaceful assembly, and religion or belief. The list does not include individuals who have engaged in or advocated violence.
Vietnam still holds 53 activists in pre-trial detention or their trials and sentences have not been publicized, many of them have been held since 2018 and there is no information on their cases.
The above includes 215 who have been convicted – mostly of political crimes under Articles 79, 87 and 88 of the1999 Penal Code or Article 109, 117, and 331 respectively in the 2015 Criminal Code. The total number includes:
– 42 activists convicted or charged with subversion (Article 79 of 1999 Penal Code or Article 109 in the 2015 Criminal Code);
– 72 activists convicted or charged with anti-state propaganda (Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code or Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code);
– 59 people from ethnic minorities were convicted of undermining the national unity policy (Article 87 of the 1999 Penal Code or 116 of the 2015 Criminal Code);
– 59 activists were convicted or charged with “abusing democratic freedom” (Article 258 of the 1999 Penal Code or Article 331 of the 2015 Criminal Code);
– The charges for 13 individuals are unknown, including three Montagnards followers of the Ha Mon sect arrested in March 2020.
Vietnam is among world’s biggest prisons for journalists and Facebookers, holding 28 of them in police custody, according to the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF)’s report released on December 1. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has also listed Vietnam among the global biggest prisons for journalists with 16 journalists being imprisoned.
Background
In order to ensure a “stable society” for the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) to carry out local party congresses and prepare for its 14th National Congress scheduled for late January 2026, the communist regime has tightened control over the nation, intensifying its crackdown on local political dissidents, government critics, social activists, and human rights defenders.
As US President Donald Trump does not pay attention to human rights while the EU focuses on the Ukraine-Russia military conflict, Vietnam’s communist regime used the opportunity to intensify its crackdown on local dissent without being criticized by the international community. The persecution has peaked in recent months with the arrests of a dozen of activists who have been charged with controversial articles of the national security provisions in the Criminal Code.
Arrest in 2025
Between January 1 and December 31, Vietnam arrested 34 activists. As many as ten activists were charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 and among them are prominent Protestant pastor Nguyen Manh Hung and former political prisoner Huynh Ngoc Tuan, who was sentenced to ten years in 1992 for the same allegation.
A few days prior to the 80th anniversary of the country’s independence (September 2), Vietnam’s security arrested four young activists named Ho Sy Quyet, Nguyen Quang Trung, Tran Quang Nam, and Nguyen Tuan Nghia on allegation of subversion although they have done nothing but focused on economic activities for years.
As many as 18 Khmer Krom religuous activists, land petitioners, and bloggers were detained and charged with “abusing democratic freedom” under Article 331.
Convictions in 2025
In 2025, Vietnam’s communist regime convicted at least eight activists.
On December 31, in a very short first-instance hearing, the People’s Court of Hanoi convicted Do Van Nga, Pham Quang Thien, and Huynh Bao Duc of “conducting anti-state propaganda” together with Germany-based journalist Le Trung Khoa, the owner and chief editor of Thoibao.de for their articles which were considered harmful for the authoritarian regime in Vietnam. Nga was sentenced to seven years in prison while Thien and Duc were given six years and six months while Khoa is given 17 years in prison although he is living in Germany.
On the same day, another court in Hanoi found former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Van Dai guilty of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and gave him 17 years in prison. Dai was freed in 2018 but forced to live in exile in Germany after being sentenced to 15 years in prison for subversion in a case involved many key members of the Brotherhood for Democracy. Like Khoa, the most recent conviction does not harm Dai who continues his pro-democracy campaign in the center of the EU bloc.
Along with sentencing Protestant pastor Nguyen Manh Hung to six years in prison, Vietnam’s authoritarian regime also sentenced Protestant pastor Y Nuyen Ayun to seven years and six months in prison for “undermining the national unity policy” per Article 116.
All of the trials were closed for public and families of the convicted activists as well as foreign diplomats.
Prominent human rights activist and land right campaigner Trinh Ba Phuong, who is serving his ten-year imprisonment in An Diem prison camp. Police found a banron with content “Down with the Communist Party of Vietnam violating human rights” in his cell and charged him with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117. In a short trial in late September, a court in Danang City gave him 11 years in prison and on December 27, the Higher People’s Court in Danang uphold the verdict although the activist and his lawyer confirmed that the banner belongs to Phuong’s cellmate Nguyen Bac Truyen, who was released to live in exile in Germany in 2024.
Y Quynh Bdap, a religious activist fleeing to Thailand in 2018 and got political asylum status by the UN Higher Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR) in Bangkok, was arrested by the Thai police in June 2024. In November, Thailand extradited him to Vietnam where he is forced to serve his ten-year imprisonment given by the Dak Lak court in early 2024 in which he was convicted in absence for terrorism against the people’s government under Article 113 of the Criminal Code.
Mistreatment in prison
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security continues its policy to keep prisoners, especially prisoners of conscience, under hard living conditions in a bid to punish them for their non-violent activities but harmful for the communist regime and break their mental strength. Along with sending prisoners of conscience to prisons far from their families, it allows authorities in the prisons and the temporary detention centers to apply other psychological measures to make the life of jailed activists harder, such as denying them their rights to regular meetings with their families and receiving additional food and medicines from their relatives, placing them in solitary cells or isolated areas, or forcing them to work hard without proper protective equipment. It also puts added psychological and financial trauma on the family members.
According to Vietnam’s Law on Execution of Criminal Judgments effective in 2019, imprisoned people in prisons and temporary detention facilities across the nation enjoy relatively good food supplies. However, in fact, the food they receive from prison camps and detention centers is not enough for maintaining their health so their families have to supply them with additional food and stuff periodically, often twice a month. In many cases, authorities of prison camps and detention facilities refuse to allow their families to send food for them but deposit money so they can purchase at the facilities’ canteens at prices much higher than the market prices. It has caused difficulties for prisoners of conscience’s families given the fact that activists and families are under constant persecution of the local authorities which strive to block their economic activities.
Many former prisoners of conscience reported that most of prisoners of conscience from ethnic minorities have no family visits and their lives in prisons are very hard since they rely on prison’s supply only.
Release from prison in 2020
In 2025, 19 prisoners of conscience were released or expected to complete their imprisonments. Defend the Defenders has no information which would confirm the release of most of them. However, Defend the Defenders still excludes their names from this list.
Tran Thi Xuan, Nguyen Thi Tam, Dinh Van Hai, Vũ Quang Thuan are among released activists this year.
A few of them were released several months before their sentences ended.
=============
The term “prisoner of conscience” (POC) was coined by Peter Benenson in the 1960s. It refers to any individual “imprisoned for his/her political, religious or conscientiously held beliefs, ethnic origin, sex, color, language, national or social origin, economic status, birth, sexual orientation or another status who have not used violence or advocated violence or hatred.”
Defend the Defenders is Vietnam’s independent non-profit organization working to promote human and civil rights in the Southeast Asian nation. It has a network of dozens of human rights defenders across the nation who report human rights abuse in their areas.