2013 conviction of Vietnamese dissidents

On January 8–9, 2013 a trial was held by the People's Court of Nghệ An Province, Vietnam for 14 democracy activists, primarily belonging to the Catholic church,[1] including high-profile blogger Paulus Le Son.[2][3] All of them were sentenced to 3–13 years in prison on charges of subversion.[4] Many human rights organizations have called this the "largest case of its kind" in Vietnam, and condemned the sentence.[5][6] Many organizations, including the US Embassy in Vietnam, have called for an immediate release of the dissidents.[7]

Defendants

All 14 defendants were arrested in 2011 as part of the 2011 crackdown on Vietnamese youth activists. They were writers and political and social activists, mainly belonging to Redemptorist group in the Roman Catholic Church.[1][5] They have engaged in community service and fighting against land seizures and corruption. Recently, many activists have been critical of the Vietnamese government, backing other dissidents and bloggers and called for democracy and human rights.[1][5] Some defendants have participated in peaceful protests in support of other previously-convicted dissidents.[5]

The defendants were:

NameAge at time of arrestHometownBackgroundDate of ArrestSentenceDate of Release
Dang Xuan Dieu[8][9][10]32Vinh CityBusinessmanJuly 30, 201113 years prison term[11]January 12, 2017 (sent to Paris)[12]
Ho Duc Hoa[8][9][10]37Vinh CityBusinessman[4]August 2, 201113 years prison term[11]Not released
Nguyen Van Oai[8][9]31Vinh CityCatholic activist[4]July 30, 20113 years prison term, 2 years house arrest[4][11]July 30, 2015
Paulus Le Son (Le Van Son) [3][8][9][10]26Thanh Hóa ProvinceHigh profile bloggerAugust 3, 201113 years prison term, 5 years of house arrest [4][11]August 3, 2015
Nong Hung Anh[8]23Lạng SơnPresbyterian activist and studentAugust 5, 20115 years prison term, 3 years house arrest[4][11]June 5, 2014
Nguyen Van Duyet[8][9][10]31Vinh CityCatholic activist[4]August 7, 20116 years prison term, 4 years house arrest[11]January 30, 2015
Nguyen Xuan Anh[8][13]29Vinh CityCatholic activistAugust 7, 20113 years prison term, 2 years house arrest[4]August 7, 2013
Ho Van Oanh[8][9][13]26Vinh CityCatholic studentAugust 16, 20113 years prison term, 2 years house arrest[4]February 16, 2014
Thai Van Dung[8]23Nghệ An ProvinceCatholic activistAugust 19, 20115 years prison term, 3 years house arrest[14][4][11]August 19, 2015[15]
Tran Minh Nhat[8]23Lâm Đồng ProvinceCatholic activist and studentAugust 27, 20114 years prison term, 3 years house arrest[15]August 27, 2015[15]
Nguyen Dinh Cuong[5]30Nghệ An provinceBusinessmanDecember 24, 20114 years prison term, 3 years house arrest[4]December 24, 2015
Dang Ngoc Minh[5]54Trà Vinh CityHousewifeAugust 2, 20113 years prison term, 2 years of house arrest[5]June 2, 2014
Nguyen Dang Minh Man[5]26Trà Vinh CityWorkerAugust 2, 20118 years prison term, 5 years of house arrest[5]Not released
Nguyen Dang Vinh Phuc[5]31Trà Vinh CityWorkerAugust 2, 20113 years prison term,[5] but the verdict was conditionally suspended[4]January 9, 2013

Nearly all defendants were bloggers or students.[16] Among the 14 defendants, three of them come from the same family (Dang Ngoc Minh, her son Nguyen Dang Vinh Phuc and her daughter Nguyen Dang Minh Man).[4]

2011 Arrests
Main article: 2011 crackdown on Vietnamese youth activists

Many of them were arrested in the 2011 by the Vietnamese government for protesting for land rights and circulating a petition to free prominent legal rights activist Cu Huy Ha Vu, a prominent human rights defender who was imprisoned for seven years in April 2011.[9]

Prior the trial, Dang Xuan Dieu was quoted saying "I have done nothing contrary to my conscience", and that in punishing him, the government was "trampling on the eternal good morals of the Vietnamese nation."[5]

Trial

The trial was held in the city of Vinh on January 8 and 9, 2013, by the People's Court of Nghệ An province, Vietnam.[4][5][17] The courtroom was packed due to the unusually large number of defendants on trial as well as police.[18]

Outside the courtroom, relatives and supporters of the defendants clashed with hundreds of uniformed as well as plainclothes security police blocking them from gathering outside the court.[6][13][19] The police physically attacked many supporters including elderly women and Catholic clergy and some were also temporarily detained.[4][19] Nguyen Dinh Cuong's mother attempting to attend the trial had also been beaten by police outside the building in the afternoon.[6]

Charges

The defendants were accused of having ties with Viet Tan.[11][20][21] All of the 14 defendants rejected the charges.[6] Defendant Nguyen Dinh Cuong's sister-in-law Kim Chi stated that many defendants have attended training workshops organized by Viet Tan on leadership skills and online security, but that their activism was aimed at helping the people, not at overthrowing the government.[6]

Dang Ngoc Minh and her daughter Nguyen Dang Minh Man were accused of painting the slogan "HS.TS.VN" on the walls of a school, which means "Hoang Sa, Truong Sa, Viet Nam". The slogan has been used to support the case in the Paracel and Spratly Islands disputes that the archipelagoes belong to Vietnam, a claim that the Vietnamese government actually endorses.[22]

Sentence

The verdict was announced by Judge Tran Ngoc on January 9, 2013. Three have been sentenced to 13 years, and 11 others to 3–8 years on charges violating Clause 1 of Article 79 of the Vietnamese criminal code for organizing "to attempt to overthrow the government".[5][11] At the trial, Paulus Le Son was the only one not to have acknowledged any wrongdoings.[11][23]

According to Human Rights Watch, the supposed charges included attending a training course by Viet Tan in Bangkok, being members of Viet Tan or actively participating with the organization.[18]

A BBC report says that these sentences were among "the harshest given to any political dissident in Vietnam in recent years".[18]

International Response

The United States Embassy in Hanoi stated that it was "deeply troubled" and called the trial a "part of a disturbing human rights trend in Vietnam."[5][7]

Brad Adams, Asia director of Human Rights Watch, condemned the arrest and calls for the "convictions to be squashed immediately". He states "The conviction of yet more peaceful activists is another example of a government that is increasingly afraid of the opinions of its own people. Instead of imprisoning critics, the Vietnamese government should be honoring them for their efforts to address the myriad problems facing the country that the government itself has also identified."[4] Phil Robertson, the deputy director of the Asia division of Human Rights Watch also followed up with "this was the largest group to be brought to trial together in recent times."[5]

Reporters Without Borders quickly emerged and stated that it is "appalled at the groundless verdict handed down yesterday by a court in northern city of Vinh" and that it is the position to prove his innocence. The statement also reads that "We have proof that the Vietnamese authorities use false pretexts to convict bloggers that criticize them."[11] The organization released a picture of Paulus Le Son attending a training course organized by Reporters Without Borders in Bangkok to prove that he was not meeting with Viet Tan as the prosecutors have claimed.[24]

In a news briefing in Geneva on January 11, Rupert Colville, a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations expressed alarm over the fact that "the convictions were handed down after only two days of trial [...] and that these latest convictions [...] exemplify the limited space for critical voices in Vietnam."[25]

In a press release by Amnesty International the organization says that "the conviction and heavy sentencing [...] flies in the face of justice and is part of an escalating government crackdown on freedom of expression."[26]

Duy Hoang, spokesman for Viet Tan, calls the trial "a disregard for peaceful political expression and democratic aspirations." The organization has neither confirmed nor denied that the 14 detained activists are among its members. [27] In an official statement, Viet Tan rejects "the fabrications peddled by the communist court to rationalize the 'subversion' charges".[28]

A statement by US Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez says "the final product of an unjust criminal justice system in this subversion case was a verdict of 100 years imprisonment forced upon 14 patriots."[29]

Other human rights organizations have called this the "largest subversion to be brought in years" in Vietnam[5]

Call for Release

Many other organizations have called for an immediate release of the defendants including the Amnesty International,[26] Electronic Frontier Foundation,[30] English Pen,[31] Human Rights Watch[5]

On January 4, 2013, Allen Weiner, the director of the Stanford Program in International and Comparative Law at Stanford Law School, filed an updated to a previous petition submitted to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in Geneva contesting the illegal arrest and detention of the defendants.[32]

See also

References
  1. "In Vietnam, muzzled voices". Washington Post. 2013-01-12. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
  2. "Eight Catholics arrested after taking part in protests". Asia Pacific News. 2011-08-09. Archived from the original on 2013-01-29. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  3. Maira Sutton (2012-02-03). "This Week in Censorship: Arrested Bloggers in Vietnam, Google's New Censorship Policy, and China Blocks Tibetan-Language Blogs". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  4. "Vietnam: Release Convicted Activists - Drop Charges Against Blogger Le Quoc Quan". Human Rights Watch. 2013-01-09. Retrieved 19 July 2012.
  5. Seth Mydans (2013-01-09). "Activists Convicted in Vietnam Crackdown on Dissent". New York Times. Retrieved 2013-01-01.
  6. "14 Tried for Dissent". Radio Free Asia. 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  7. "Statement on the Conviction of 14 Redemptorist Bloggers in Nghe An Province". US Embassy. 2013-01-09. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  8. "Request for the immediate release of Dang Xuan Dieu, Ho Duc Hoa, Nguyen Van Duyet, Nong Hung Anh and Paulus Le Van Son, and the dismissal of all charges". Human Rights Watch. 2012-09-30. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  9. "Vietnam: Update – Front Line Defenders informed of the locations of detained human rights defenders". Frontline Defenders. 2011-10-10. Archived from the original on 2012-06-04. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  10. "In Vietnam, crackdown on journalists in past six months". CommitteeToProtectJournalist. 2011-10-03. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  11. "Vietnam RWB Says Can Prove Innocence Of Convicted Blogger Paulus Le Son". Eurasia Review. 2013-01-11. Archived from the original on 2014-04-08. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  12. Boliek, Brooks. "Vietnam Sends a Dissident to France but Blocks Another From Leaving". Radio Free Asia. Radio Free Asia. Retrieved 17 January 2017.
  13. "Vietnam: Call To Release Convicted Activists". Albany Tribune. 2013-01-09. Archived from the original on 2013-01-13. Retrieved 2013-01-13.
  14. "Kết quả phiên xử các thanh niên Công giáo và Tin lành" (in Vietnamese). RFA. 9 January 2013.
  15. "Hai tù nhân lương tâm Trần Minh Nhật và Thái Văn Dung mãn án tù" (in Vietnamese). RFA. 27 August 2015.
  16. Luke Hunt (2013-01-11). "Vietnam Jails More Bloggers". The Diplomat. Retrieved 2012-06-11.
  17. "Vietnam Puts 14 Activists on Trial for Dissent". Associated Press. 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  18. "Vietnam is targeting its critics, HRW says". UPI. 2013-01-11. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  19. Simon Roughneen (2013-01-10). "Vietnam Jails Dissidents in Echo of Military-ruled Burma". The Irrawaddy. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  20. "Testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs" (PDF). 2008-03-12. Archived from the original (PDF) on May 2, 2008. Retrieved 2008-05-07.
  21. Alistair Coe (2009-11-12). "Alistair commends Vietnam pro-democracy movement". Archived from the original on 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2009-12-06.
  22. Paul Carston (2013-01-09). "Vietnam jails 13 for subversion under "draconian" charges". Reuters. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  23. "Vietnam finds 14 activists guilty of subversion". 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  24. "Reporters Without Borders Can Prove Innocence Of Convicted Blogger Paulus Le Son". Reporters Without Borders. 2013-01-11. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  25. "UN human rights office concerned over convictions of 14 activists in Vietnam". United Nations. 2013-01-11. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  26. "Viet Nam: Release 13 activists jailed on baseless charges, stop crackdown on dissidents". Amnesty International. 2013-01-09. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  27. Michael Lipin (2013-01-08). "Vietnam Opens Biggest Subversion Trial in Years". Voice of America. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  28. "Fourteen Human Rights Defenders Convicted in a Sham Trial in Vietnam". Viet Tan. 2013-01-09. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  29. "Db Sanchez Lên Tiếng Phản Đối Bản Án Của 14 Người Yêu Nước Tại Vinh". Việt Báo Daily News. 2013-01-10. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  30. Eva Galperin (2013-01-07). "Free Expression in Danger as Bloggers and Activists Go On Trial in Vietnam". Electronic Frontier Foundation. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  31. Cat Lucas (2013-01-07). "Jailed bloggers to face trial". English Pen. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
  32. Judith Romera (2013-01-07). "STANFORD LAW SCHOOL'S ALLEN WEINER FILES UPDATE WITH UNITED NATIONS WORKING GROUP ON ARBITRARY DETENTION ON BEHALF OF 17 VIETNAMESE SOCIAL AND POLITICAL ACTIVISTS". SLS News. Archived from the original on 2013-01-25. Retrieved 2013-01-11.
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