Pro-democracy bloggers face harsh penalties in upcoming trial
JOINT PRESS RELEASE - THE OBSERVATORY
Viet Nam:Pro-democracy bloggers face harsh penalties in upcoming trial
Bangkok-Paris-Geneva,August 1, 2012. The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, ajoint FIDH and OMCT programme, together with the Vietnam Committee on HumanRights (VCHR), call on the Vietnamese authorities to drop all charges againstthree pro-democracy bloggers and release them immediately and unconditionally. Mr.Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay), Mr.Phan Thanh Hai and Ms. Ta Phong Tan are scheduled to be tried by the Ho ChiMinh People’s Court on August 7, 2012 at 8am.
Puttingthese bloggers on trial during summer holidays behind closed doors reveals thegovernment’s fear of media and international scrutiny. On July 31, 2012, theObservatory and VCHR wrote to the European Union delegation to Viet Nam and to31 embassies of African, Asian, European, and Latin American states,[1]urging them to call on Viet Nam to drop the charges against the bloggers and tosend high-level observers to access the courtroom in order to attend the trialon August 7.
Thethree outspoken bloggers have been charged under Article 88.2 of the CriminalCode for “conducting propaganda against the state” for their online writingsand criticisms of the government. They face a maximum of 20 years in prison ifconvicted. Article 88 is among several repressive provisions in Vietnamese lawthat are routinely used to criminalise free speech and imprison peacefuldissidents.
Duringhis detention, Mr. Dieu Cay has reportedly faced intense pressure from theauthorities to plead guilty to the charges laid against him, which he hasconsistently refused. His lawyers also stated that Mr. Dieu Cay went on hungerstrike in prison in March 2012 to protest his detention, and had to behospitalised. He was previously convicted on trumped-up charges of ‘taxevasion’ after a manifestly unfair and closed trial in 2009 and the UnitedNations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention declared his detention to bearbitrary and in violation of international law[2].His current prolonged detention began on October 19, 2010, the same day hecompleted the prison terms he received in 2009. Mr. Phan Thanh Hai and Ms. TaPhong Tan have also been in pre-trial detention in Ho Chi Minh City since theirarrest, respectively on October 18, 2010 and on September 5, 2011.
Inhis online writings, Mr. Dieu Cay, one of the founders of the Club of FreeJournalists, calls for greater respect for human rights and democratic reforms.He is also known for his criticisms of China’s claims over disputed islands inthe South China Sea. In January 2008, Mr. Dieu Cay and other activists stagedan anti-China demonstration in Ho Chi Minh City.. Before their arrests, Mr. Haihas published a number of articles on his blog, including one that criticisedand called for the repeal of Article 88 of the Criminal Code, while Ms. Tan hasblogged about police abuse and violations of human rights by the State.
“Vietnamplans to run for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council, but it no longer evenmakes an effort to put up a façade of compliance with international humanrights law, as it regularly parades human rights defenders before kangaroocourts and makes a crime out of free speech”, said Mr. Vo Van Ai, Presidentof VCHR.
Inaddition, on July 30, 2012, Ms. Ta Phong Tan’s mother (Mrs. Dang Thi Kim Lieng)immolated herself outside the People’s Committee headquarters in Bac Lieu toprotest her daughter’s unfair imprisonment. She had suffered repeated Policeharassments and interrogations since her daughters’ arrest. She died later thesame day.
Since2009, Vietnamese human rights and pro-democracy bloggers have been harassed,intimidated, arrested and jailed for their online writings and activism. Thoseimprisoned for their Internet activities include Mr. Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, Mr.Nguyen Tien Trung, Mr. Le Thang Long, and Mr. Tran Kim Anh[3].On July 13, Government agents attacked bloggers Nguyen Hoang Vi, Bui Thi MinhHang and Lee Nguyen while they were driving back after a birthday party in HoChi Minh City. Mrs. Duong Thi Tan, Mr. Dieu Cay’s wife, was also in the carwhen the attack occurred.
Bloggersand other netizens who participated in or tried to attend anti-Chinademonstrations in several cities in early July also faced intimidation. On July1, a group of knife-wielding men, allegedly led by the son of a local official,entered the house of outspoken blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh in Hanoi and attackedhim, after he came home from the demonstrations. Bloggers Ms. Nguyen Hoang Viand Ms. Huynh Thuc Vy were among several people briefly taken into policecustody and interrogated during or after the anti-China demonstrations in HoChi Minh City. Following an appeal to support the July 1 demonstrationslaunched by Venerable Thich Quang Do, leader of the Unified Buddhist Church ofVietnam (UBCV), Police forcibly impeded Thich Quang Do and at least sixteenUBCV monks from joining demonstrations in Ho Chi Minh City and Hue. Severalmonks were assaulted by Police.
BloggerNguyen Xuan Dien, whose online writings focus on abuses of land rights, hasrecently been questioned by the authorities over his Internet activities. Italso appears that his blog had been attacked by hackers. As of writing,articles no longer appear on Mr. Dien’s blog[4].
Theescalation of crackdown on online dissent comes amidst a government effort topass a new Decree on Management, Provision, and Use of Internet Services andInformation on the Network that, if adopted in its current form, would grantthe authorities expansive discretionary power to censor, control and possiblycriminalise Internet use in Viet Nam. In June 2012, the UN Human Rights Counciladopted by consensus a resolution affirming the right to freedom of expressionmust be protected online, and that States are called on to “promote andfacilitate access to the Internet”.
“Suchprosecution of ‘speech crimes’ will only worsen if the new draft Internetdecree is adopted, and the international community must urge Viet Nam to breakaway from its already atrocious record in respecting freedom of expression”,warned Debbie Stothard, Deputy Secretary-General of FIDH.
“Judicialproceedings behind closed doors not only violate Viet Nam’s obligations underinternational law, they also clearly indicate that the judicial authoritieshave no intention to try the defenders according to international fair trialstandards. But the bloggers’ pleas for justice will be heard even behind thosedoors”, said Gerald Staberock, Secretary-General of the World OrganisationAgainst Torture (OMCT).
Presscontact:
VCHR: VoTran Nhat: +33 1 45 98 30 85
FIDH: Karine Appy +33 1 43 55 14 12 / + 33 1 43 5525 18
OMCT: Isabelle Scherer: +41 22 809 49 39
[1] These countries are: Argentina, Australia, Austria,Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France,Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Mexico, theNetherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, South Africa,Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and NorthernIreland, and the United States of America.
[2] See Opinion No. 1/2009 (Viet Nam). Available at: http://www.unwgaddatabase.org/un/Document.aspx?id=2371.
[3] See Observatory/VCHR non-exhaustive list of humanrights defenders in detention or under house arrest (January 2012): http://www.fidh.org/Viet-Nam-EU-Release-of-rights-and /http://www.omct.org/human-rights-defenders/urgent-interventions/viet-nam/2012/01/d21585/.