Three weeks after detention, Vietnam police yet to inform five activists’ families about their situations

Defend the Defenders, September 16, 2025

Vietnam’s security forces have yet informed the families of five human rights defenders about their whereabouts three weeks after arresting them in a new suppression wave against political dissidents and social activists ahead of the 14th National Congress of the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam slated in early January 2026.

As Defend the Defenders (DTD) reported, in late August prior to the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (later renamed the Socialist Democratic Republic of Vietnam), Vietnam’s police detained at least five activists named Ho Sy Quyet (Facebooker Quyet Ho), Tran Quang Trung (Facebooker Ly Quang Son), Tran Quang Nam, Nguyen Tuan Nghia, and a man with the short name Khanh.

They were arrested separately on August 28 by security officers from the Ministry of Public Security and the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department, according to sources.

According to these sources, police conducted a house search of the detainees. However, they did not provide arrest warrants and requested their relatives not to provide information about their cases for independent media “in order to keep secret for the cases related to national security.”

Police have also not issued official charges against the five detainees, leaving their relatives unknown about their whereabouts.

Due to the police’ request, the families of the detainees remain silent regarding their loved situations.

So far, the state-controlled media has not covered the detentions. Only a few pages on social media of some pro-government groups reported that Facebooker Ly Quang Son was arrested in An Giang near the border with Cambodia while entering illegally from the neighboring country.

These detainees participated in social campaigns last decade such as peaceful demonstrations against China’s violations of Vietnam’s sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea), against the Taiwanese Formosa for discharging industrial waste and causing environmental disaster in the central coast in 2016 or the massive chop of aged trees in Hanoi by the local authorities in 2015 as well as voicing against human rights violations and illegal grabbing of land of farmers in Dong Tam (Hanoi) and other localities by the local authorities.

However, due to the fierce suppression against political dissidents and social activists peaked in 2016 and years after that with the arrest and convictions with lengthy imprisonment for hundreds of people, these detainees were forced to stop their activities many years before and focused on economic activities only. Some of them have to move from one place to another as security forces chase them and cause troubles for them, including forcing landlords to cancel rent contracts.

Activist Ho Sy Quyet has recently worked for a media company established by Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, who served nearly 16 years in prison on the allegation of subversion. He established the firm shortly after being released last September. However, Quyet’s detention is not related to the firm, according to reliable sources.

According to activist Hoang Dung who is living as a political asylum in the US, police arrested around ten people in the case of Tran Quang Trung.

Some sources said Mr. Quyet is being investigated on subversion according to Article 109 of the Criminal Code while the others are under investigation for their connection with Tập Hợp Dân Chủ Đa Nguyên (Movement for Democracy and Pluralism).

However, its leader, Mr. Nguyen Gia Kieng from France says they are not members of the foreign-based group which has two members Trand Khac Duc and Quach Gia Khang are under investigation for “conducting anti-state propaganda” per Article 117 of the Criminal Code.

According to Vietnam’s Criminal Procedure Code, police can hold a detainee for the maximum of nine days. After that, they have to free the detainee or launch an official arrest with official charge(s) approved by the procuracy authorities.

“In the cases of the five activists, the continous holding them without official charge violates Vietnam’s Criminal Procedure Code,” said DTD’s Director Vu Quoc Ngu.

Detaining them for their peaceful activities and failure to inform their families of their status are the clearest manifestations of arbitrary detention by Vietnamese police against activists and human rights defenders, he said.

“Vietnam’s authorities must release the five activists and other prisoners of conscience who have conducted no wrongdoings but only peacefully exercised basic rights enshrined in the country’s Constitution and the international human rights treaties that Vietnam is a signatory party,” said Vu Quoc Ngu, who was awarded with the 2019 Franco-German Human Rights and the Rule of Law Prize by the two Foreign Ministries of France and Germany.

Over the years, the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) has accused Vietnam of arbitrary detention of dozens of activists and human rights defenders. Hanoi has consistently denied or ignored these accusations.

According to the head of DTD, the continued persecution of former civil society activists by Vietnamese police shows that the new government led by To Lam, who became party leader after the death of General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, has no intention of political reform and opening up to independent civil society. Along with appointing police officers and people of Hung Yen origin to key positions of the regime in central and local agencies as well as eliminating political opponents in the ruling apparatus, To Lam used security forces to arrest remaining activists after a campaign to suppress dissidents that lasted more than 10 years when he became Minister of Public Security.

With the recent arrests of five activists, Vietnam is now holding nearly 270 prisoners of conscience, according to DTD statistics. Hanoi has always denied holding prisoners of conscience, saying it only imprisons law violators.