Vietnam Human Rights Defenders’ Weekly Report
On March 2, the Higher People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City rejected the appeals of Vietnamese Australian Chau Van Kham and two local pro-democracy activists Nguyen Van Vien and Tran Van Quyen, upholding the jail sentences given by the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City in the first-instance hearing on November 11 last year.
The trio was arrested in mid-January, 2019 and charged with “terrorism” just because they are members of the California-based political group Viet Tan. After months of being held incommunicado, they were convicted and sentenced to respective 12, 11 and ten years in prison.
Y Ngun Knul, land rights and religious activist from Montagnard ethnic minority in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, has been released in late February after being held 16 years in prison. He was arrested in 2004 and sentenced to 18 years in prison on the charge of “Undermining the unity policy” under Article 87 of the country’s Criminal Code 1999 for demanding land rights and religious freedom. He returned home in Dak Lak province, with critical health conditions from kidney failure, high blood pressure, and stomach problems. However, he could not effort to go for a medical check-up due to financial difficulties.
Political blogger Bui Thanh Hieu (Wind Trader) who lives in exile in Germany was forced to stop his writing on the social network Facebook after his mother and other relatives have been harassed by Vietnam’s authorities. He announced his decision one week after police searched his mother’s house which caused her health fell and she has been hospitalized for urgent treatment.
On March 4, Mrs. Du Thi Thanh, the widow of murdered Dong Tam 84-year-old resident Le Dinh Kinh, submitted her petition to the Supreme People’s Procuracy and the Ministry of Public Security to request for an investigation on his death. In her petition, she also requested the release of her sons and grandchild, who were detained by Vietnam’s police during the bloody attack in Dong Tam in the early hours of January 9. Her sons Le Dinh Cong and Le Dinh Chuc, and grandchild Le Dinh Doanh are held by Hanoi Police Department and investigated for murdering three police officers during the attack. Earlier this week, Mathematic professor Hoang Xuan Phu released his second report which says Dong Tam residents are not responsible for the deaths of three police officers.
Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, a long-time critic of Vietnam’s communist regime, is recovering from a recent heart attack on February 28 but remains in poor health at his home in the central city of Hue. He has been placed de facto under house arrest in Hue since his release in 2016.
On March 4, authorities in Binh Duong province interrogated local resident Nguyen Thien Nhan, who is a member of the unregistered group Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN). During the interrogation which lasted few hours, four security officers questioned him about the IJAVN and its imprisoned President Pham Chi Dung. They threatened that if Nhan continues to work for the association, he would be arrested.
The Higher People’s Court in Hanoi says it will hold the appeal hearing for educator and human rights campaigner Nguyen Nang Tinh on March 18, four months after the first-instance hearing in which the pro-democracy activist and environmentalist was convicted of “conducting anti-state propaganda” and sentenced to 11 years in jail and five years of probation just because of writing about multi-party democracy, human rights and the country’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea).
US Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, a member of the Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights and co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on Vietnam, formally became an advocate for the release of Vietnamese prisoner of conscience Nguyen Bac Truyen through the Defending Freedoms Project. She is the second US Representative to adopt Mr. Truyen, after Harley Rounda also from California.
Source: Defend The Defenders