Vietnam: Free Imprisoned Bloggers
Appeals Court to Rule on Convictions of Peaceful Critics
Human Rights Watch
September 20, 2016
New York – Vietnamese authorities
should quash the politically motivated convictions of two bloggers and release
them from prison, Human Rights Watch said today. On September 22, 2016, the
Higher People’s Court of Hanoi will hear the appeal of prominent blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh and
his colleague Nguyen Thi Minh
Thuy who ran a website critical of the Vietnamese government.
Police arrested Nguyen Huu Vinh,
also known as Ba Sam, and Nguyen Thi Minh
Thuy in May 2014 and
charged them under article 258 of Vietnam’s penal code for “abusing the rights
to freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interest of the state.” In March
2016, the People’s Court of
Hanoi sentenced Nguyen Huu Vinh to
five years in prison and Nguyen Thi Minh
Thuy to three years. Nguyen Huu Vinh’s wife,
Le Thi Minh
Ha, said that his family has not been allowed to see him for more than 11
months, despite multiple requests.
“Vietnamese authorities have decided it is a crime to provide independent
information to the Vietnamese public,” said Brad
Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The
appeals court now has an important opportunity to uphold the right to free
speech in Vietnam.”
Nguyen Huu Vinh,
60, is a former police officer and a Communist Party member from a prominent
communist family. In September 2007, he founded the
blog Ba Sam (Talking
Nonsense). Using the motto “Pha vong no
le” (“breaking the slavery ring”), the stated goal of Ba
Sam was to bring news from
various perspectives to its readers. Ba
Sam provided links to “hot news”
– sometimes accompanied by short comments from the blog’s administrators – about
politics, economics, culture, society, the environment, and world events from a
variety of sources, including state-controlled media and individual blogs. It
also published critical commentary and Vietnamese translations of overseas
articles related to Vietnam’s social and political situation. Over
the six years it was published up until the arrests of Nguyen Huu Vinh and
Nguyen Thi Minh
Thuy, Ba Sam had
attracted several million readers in Vietnam and abroad.
During the bloggers’ trial in March, police put many people under house arrest
so they could not go to the court to show solidarity. Nevertheless, dozens of
bloggers and rights activists managed to stage a protest calling for their
release on the sidewalk across from the court. The police briefly detained
several people, including prominent rights activist Nguyen QuangA.
In 2016, repression of Internet writers has accelerated, Human Rights Watch
said. During the first nine months of the year, Vietnamese courts have convicted
and sentenced to prison terms at least 18 bloggers and activists for violating a
series of articles in the penal code that criminalize freedom of speech and
religion.
“Vietnam has more than a thousand state newspapers, websites, and radio and
television stations that provide news approved by the authorities, and yet it
prosecutes the courageous bloggers and journalists unwilling to publish the
official line,” said Adams. “Vietnamese leaders should know that locking up
these bloggers and journalists will not stop them from informing the Vietnamese
people about the state of their country. International donors and trade partners
should publicly press Vietnam to stop persecuting its citizens for peacefully
exercising their rights.”
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on Vietnam, please visit:
https://www.hrw.org/asia/vietnam
For more information, please contact:
In San Francisco, Brad Adams (English): +1-347-463-3531 (mobile); or adamsb@hrw.org.
Twitter: @BradMAdams
In Bangkok, Phil Robertson, (English, Thai): +66-85-060-8406 (mobile); or robertp@hrw.org.
Twitter: @Reaproy
In Washington, DC, John Sifton (English): +1-646-479-2499 (mobile); or siftonj@hrw.org.
Twitter: @johnsifton