Defend the Defenders’ Latest Statistics: Vietnam Holds 242 Prisoners of Conscience

Defend the Defenders, Press Release, April 1, 2020

According to Defend the Defenders’ statistics, as of March 31, 2020, Vietnam’s communist regime is holding at least 240 prisoners of conscience in prisons or similar forms of detention, and female activist Huynh Thuc Vy is under house arrest while Ngo Hao (m) is in suspended jail for medical treatment.

The above number includes 218 who have been convicted – mostly of political crimes such as subversion, “propaganda against the state,” “abusing democratic freedom,” “disruption of security,” and “undermining the national unity” – and 24 others held in pre-trial detention. The list does not count Vietnamese American Michael Minh Phuong Nguyen (m) and Vietnamese Australian Chau Van Kham (m), the first was convicted of conducting “attempts to overthrow the government” under Article 109 of the country’s 2015 Criminal Code while the second was found guilty of terrorism under Article 113 of the code.

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 freedom of expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of religion or belief. The list does not include individuals who have engaged in or advocated violence.

Vietnam still holds 24 activists in pre-trial detention, 20 of them were arrested in 2018-2019 and four of them were arrested in 2020. Among them is prominent dissident journalist Pham Chi Dung (m), who was detained on November 21, 2019, and Nguyen Trung Linh (m), who was arrested in May 2018.

Twenty of the prisoners of conscience identified by Defend the Defenders are female. All of these women come from the majority Kinh ethnic group. In total, 174 people, or 71.9% of the list, are ethnic Kinh. 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. They account for 60 people, 24.9% of those on the list. Six from Hmong and two on the list are Khmer Krom.

Most prisoners of conscience have been charged with or convicted of allegations under Articles 79, 87 and 88 of the1999 Penal Code or Article 109, 117 and 331 in the 2015 Criminal Code:

– 48 activists convicted or charged with subversion (Article 79 of 1999 Penal Code or Article 109 in the 2015 Criminal Code);

– 40 activists convicted and five charged with anti-state propaganda (Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code or Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code);

– 56 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);

– 8 activists were convicted or charged with “abusing democratic freedom” (Article 258 of the 1999 Penal Code or Article 331 of the 2015 Criminal Code);

– 13 activists were charged with “disruption of security” under Article 118 of the 2015 Criminal Code;

– 48 individuals were convicted of or charged with “disrupting public orders” (under Article 245 of the 1999 Penal Code or Article 318 of the 2015 Criminal Code) for their peaceful activities. Thirty-five of them were imprisoned for participating or being suspected of planning to participate in the mass demonstrations in mid-June 2018 and their aftermath;

– Two activists Nguyen Van Vien (m) and Chan Van Quyen (m) were convicted of “terrorism” under Article 113 of the 2015 Criminal Code.

– The charges for 13 individuals are unknown, including three Montagaards followers of the Ha Mon sect arrested on March 19 this year.

Background: After arresting more than 40 activists and bloggers and convicted around 40 political dissidents last year, Vietnam’s communist regime conducted a few detentions in the first quarter. However, the crackdown on local dissent continues in different ways.

In recent months, authorities in a number of cities and provinces have interrogated hundreds of local Facebookers for their posts regarding the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the Ministry of Public Security, more than 300 Facebookers were punished with administrative fines of between VND7.5 million ($320) and VND15 million by mid-March and the number of harassed and intimidated Facebookers is increasing.

In early January, the Ministry of Public Security sent thousands of riot policemen to Dong Tam commune, Hoai Duc district, Hanoi where land disputes have not been settled since 2017. In early hours of January 9, police attacked the private residence ò 84-year-old veteran Le Dinh Kinh, killing him and arresting more than 30 his relatives and neighbors. Police have accused 22 of them of causing the death of three police officers during the raid. Four of them have been forced to make confessions which were aired on Vietnam’s central television channel VTV four days later. Their coerced confessions were detailly described, together with 12 other cases in the report of Safeguard Defenders named Coerced on Camera: Vietnam’s Televised Forced Confessions, the first kind of this report regarding the Vietnamese police’s treatment against detainees.

Arrest in January-March 2020: Between January 1 and March 31, Vietnam arrested 5 local activists: Dinh Van Phu (m) from Dak Nong was arrested on January 9 and charged with “anti-state propaganda” and Chung Hoang Chuong (m) from Can Tho was arrested two days later and accused of “abusing democratic freedom.” Three Montagnards male followers of Ha Mon sect named Ju, Lup, and Kunh were arrested on March 19 after being chased in the past eight years. They may be charged with “undermining the national unity policy” with lengthy imprisonment if are convicted.

Many activists, including Trinh Ba Phuong (m) and Nguyen Thuy Hanh (f) as well as Nguyen Tuong Thuy (m) in Hanoi and Nguyen Thien Nhan (m) in Binh Duong province, were harassed and threatened with arrest for their support given to Dong Tam land petitioners in the case of the first two and their relationship with detained Chairman Pham Chi Dung of the unregistered Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam in the remaining cases.

Convictions: In the first quarter of 2020, Vietnam’s communist regime was planned to carry out the first-instance hearing against eight members of the unregistered group Hiến Pháp (Constitution) named Tran Thi Ngoc Hanh (f), Hoang Thi Thu Vang (f), Ngo Van Dung (m), Doan Thi Hong (f), Tran Thanh Phuong (m), Le Quy Loc (m), Do The Hoa (m) and Ho Van Cuong (m) who were arrested in early September 2018 and charged with “disruption of security” under Article 118 of the Penal Code. However, the trial was suspended due to the spread of COVID-19 in Ho Chi Minh City.

The Higher People’s Court in Hanoi has also postponed the appeal hearing of pro-democracy activist and environmental campaigner educator Nguyen Nang Tinh (m), who was arrested in May 2019 and convicted to 11 years in prison and five years of probation on the allegation of “conducting anti-state propaganda” by the People’s Court in the central province of Nghe An in mid-November last year.

Mistreatment in prison: Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security continues its policy to keep prisoners, especially the 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 prisons to apply other measures to make the life of jailed activists harder such as denials of their rights to regular meetings with their families, receiving additional food and medicines from their relatives, or force them to work hard without proper protective equipment.

In early January, authorities in Ba Sao Prison camp in the northern province of Ha Nam held Phan Kim Khanh (m) and Nguyen Viet Dung (m) in solitary cells in weeks in revenge for their protest against inhumane treatment in prison.

Detained activist Doan Thi Hong (f) told her family that she is held in severe living conditions in a temporary detention facility under the authority of Ho Chi Minh City’s Police Department during the investigation period as well as during the time waiting for the first-instance hearing. Hong, the single mother arrested in early September 2018 when her daughter was less than three years old, was charged with “disruption of security” and faces imprisonment of between three and seven years if she is convicted.

In recent months, as COVID-19 is spreading across the nation, authorities in Vietnam’s prison camps and temporary detention facilities have not allowed the families and relatives of prisoners of conscience to meet them or provide them with additional food and medicines as well as essential items. Given the low-quality food provided by prisons, the lives of prisoners of conscience are under serious threat.

On March 24, CIVICUS, a South Africa-based global alliance of civil society organizations and activists dedicated to strengthening citizen action and civil society throughout the world, issued a press release calling on authoritarian regimes, including Vietnam, to “Release all human rights defenders and political prisoners who were imprisoned for their human rights activities, or for expressing views contrary to those of the state” as COVID-19 is spreading fast globally.

One day later, on March 25, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet called on governments to take urgent action to protect the health and safety of people in detention and other closed facilities, as part of overall efforts to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In many countries, detention facilities are overcrowded, in some cases dangerously so. People are often held in unhygienic conditions and health services are inadequate or even non-existent. Physical distancing and self-isolation in such conditions are practically impossible,” she said in the press release.

“Governments are facing huge demands on resources in this crisis and are having to make difficult decisions. But I urge them not to forget those behind bars, or those confined in places such as closed mental health facilities, nursing homes, and orphanages because the consequences of neglecting them are potentially catastrophic,” the High Commissioner said.

“Now, more than ever, governments should release every person detained without sufficient legal basis, including political prisoners and others detained simply for expressing critical or dissenting views,” Bachelet stressed.

So far, Vietnam’s regime has only suspended the imprisonment of Ngo Hao (m) to allow him to return home for medical treatment. The 72-year-old activist, who was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to 15 years on the charge of subversion, is suffering from severe diseases due to bad living conditions and lacks proper medical treatment in prison.

Release from prison in January-March: In late February, Christian follower Y Ngun Knul was released after spending the last 16 years in prison. He was arrested in 2004 and later sentenced to 18 years in prison on the charge of “undermining the unity policy.” He has a number of health problems as a result of long inhumane treatment in different prisons.

Blogger Quach Nguyen Anh Khoa, who was convicted of “abusing democratic freedom” and sentenced to six months in prison in 2019, is expected to be being released. Defend the Defenders has yet to contact him or his family to confirm his release.

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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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