Prominent Human Rights Defender Pham Doan Tranh Listed among Ten Most Urgent Cases of OFPO

Prominent HRD Pham Doan Trang

 

Defend the Defenders, March 7, 2021

The Online Free Press Coalition (OFPC) has included Vietnamese prominent human rights defender and political blogger Pham Doan Trang in its Ten Most Urgent Cases for March 2021 which highlights journalists who are incarcerated, under threat, or facing injustice.

The list was made on March 1 and used by the organization for advocacy campaign for their freedom and safety, OFPC said on its website.

Ms. Trang, who has been awarded Press Freedom Prize by the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Homo Homini Award by the Czech-based human rights organisation People In Need (PIN), was arrested on October 6 last year and charged with “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code (1999) and Article 117 of the country’s Criminal Code (2015) which replaced the Penal Code in 2018 due to her advocacy for multi-party democracy and human rights in the Southeast Asian nation.

Trang, who has been under constant persecution of Vietnam’s commmunist regime in recent years, faces imprisonment up to 20 years if she is convicted. She has been held incommunicado since being detained last year. It is likely that the Security Investigation Agency under the Hanoi Police Department has extended her pre-trial detention for further more four months after the first four months of detention ended on February 6.

Since her arrest, the international community including numerous international NGOs and domestic independent civil society organizations have condemned Vietnam’s move and urged Hanoi to drop all the charges against her and free her immediately and unconditionally.