Vietnam has granted early release to two prisoners of conscience, each serving a five-year sentence after separate arrests and convictions in 2019 under a law frequently used by authorities to stifle dissent. said activists with knowledge of the situation.
The two were convicted of violating article 117 of the country’s penal code, which defines as a crime “making, storing, distributing or disseminating information, documents and articles” against the State. Violators can be sentenced from five to 20 years in prison.
Authorities released Huynh Thi To Nga, 40, on Tuesday, some 10 months ahead of schedule. Police arrested the doctor in Ho Chi Minh City on January 28, 2019, along with her older brother, Huynh Minh Tam, for their online activities.
In November of the same year, they were sentenced to five and nine years in prison, respectively, for negative comments they posted on Facebook about Vietnam’s leaders, national sovereignty, corruption, and economic mismanagement.
Nga’s brother is still serving his sentence in Gia Trung prison in Gia Lai province.
Authorities also released Nguyen Van Cong Em, 52, some 11 months ahead of schedule on March 26. He was arrested on February 28, 2019, for allegedly using Facebook to misrepresent information about the US-North Korea Summit, which took place in Hanoi that month.
Police accused him of using four Facebook accounts to post and share stories and broadcast live video content that distorted the summit and called for protests during the event.
Both former prisoners of conscience refused to give interviews to Radio Free Asia after their release.
Former prisoner of conscience Le Thi Binh, who was held in the same jail, An Phuoc Prison in Binh Duong province, as Nga from December 2021 to December 2022, told Radio Free Asia that Nga “followed the prison rules and worked hard to get the mitigation of the sentence and return home early.”
Authorities also accused Nga of participating in illegal demonstrations, writing and publishing nearly 50 articles inciting people to take to the streets to protest against the government, call for freedom and democracy, and oppose the Cybersecurity Law.
The law, which took effect in 2019, partly restricts citizens’ use of the Internet and requires companies such as Google and Facebook to remove posts deemed a threat to national security.
Vietnam responds to the UN
In a related development, Vietnam’s permanent delegation to the United Nations in Geneva issued a response on March 24 to a November 2022 request from the UN human rights agency’s Special Procedures Branch regarding the arbitrary arrests of nine activists.
The authorities convicted them for spreading false information and abusing the right to freedom of expression and democracy to distort and defame the government.
Hanoi said the arrests, detention and sentencing of Nguyen Van Nghiem, Le Van Dung, Dinh Thi Thu Thuy, Do Nam Trung, Dinh Van Hai, Chung Hoang Chuong, Le Trong Hung, Le Chi ThanhTran Quoc Khanh, complied with the Vietnamese law and that of Vietnam. international human rights commitments.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said Thursday that the Vietnamese government was “all two-faced in refusing to meet its international obligations, but then wrote its response as if it were doing so.”
“Hanoi’s position has been regularly repudiated by the Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council, but the government continues to blatantly make the same argument,” he said in an email to RFA. “Judging by Vietnam’s rights abusive actions and complete refusal to accept blame, let alone change its practices, it’s hard to see why Vietnam thinks it deserves to be on the UN Human Rights Council.”
In October 2022, Vietnam was elected to the 47-member UN Human Rights Council, despite calls from human rights groups that the country should be excluded due to its dismal rights record. The Southeast Asian nation began his three-year term on January 1, 2023.
Translated by Anna Vu for Vietnamese FRG. Edited by Roseanne Gerin and Malcolm Foster.
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