Hanoi Police Torture Detainees, Says Vietnam Imprisoned Activist

Human rights lawyer Don, land rights activists Theu (middle) and Anh

Human rights lawyer Don, land rights activists Theu (middle) and Anh, winners of Vietnam Human Rights Network’s prizes in 2016

During a meeting with her lawyer on November 15 in preparation of her appeal hearing scheduled on November 30, Mrs. Theu told him that a group of detained suspects in a criminal case has been brutally beaten by police investigators during interrogation in the Hanoi Detention Facility No. 1.

By Defend the Defenders, November 17, 2016

Hanoi-based well-known land right activist Can Thi Theu has informed the public from a local detention facility that the city’s police have tortured other detainees held in the facility, said her lawyer Ha Huy Son.

During a meeting with her lawyer on November 15 in preparation for her appeal hearing scheduled on November 30, Mrs. Theu told him that a group of detained suspects in a criminal case has been brutally beaten by police investigators during interrogation in the Hanoi Detention Facility No. 1.

Due to torture, the victims have suffered severe injuries, she claimed.

After Mrs. Theu’s information has been spread pn social networks, including Facebook, the authorities of the detention facility have not allowed her family to send her medicines for treatment of a number of diseases, said her son Trinh Ba Phuong.

Theu, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison by the People’s Court of Dong Da district on September 20 in a trumped-up case of causing public disorders under Article 245 of the Penal Code, will have her appeal heard on November 30. (For more information on Mrs. Theu case, please go to: /category/can-thi-theu/ )

Last week, Mrs. Theu, together with land right activist Tran Ngoc Anh and, human rights lawyer Vo An Don received the human rights prizes given by the U.S.-based Vietnam Human Rights Network for 2016. Vietnam Blogger Network was also honored with the same prize as a group.

Theu is among 82 prisoners of conscience Amnesty International has urged Vietnam to release unconditionally and immediately.

Meanwhile, torture and police power abuse are systemic in Vietnam but few perpetrators have been punished adequately, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch.

According to Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security, there were 226 deaths in police custody between October 2011 and September 2014. Police said illness and suicides were the main reasons for these deaths while families and human rights defenders blamed police torture and ill-treatment.

Dozens of people have been killed and tortured in police stations nationwide since the beginning of 2015.  Many people have been brutally beaten by police for minor infractions.

State media has reported a number of victims of miscarriage of justice whose sentences were based on coercion as result of police torture. These victims included Mr. Huynh Van Nen from the central province of Binh Thuan, Luong Ngoc Phi from the northern province of Thai Binh, and Nguyen Thanh Chan from the northern province of Bac Giang.

Mr. Nen and Mr. Chan were wrongly convicted in murder cases. They were freed after spending over ten years in prison, and received respective compensations of billions of dong. They said they were tortured by police investigators in the two murder cases in which the real killers confessed and turned themselves in after years of hiding.