Vietnam arrests Facebook user over land rights clash
Vietnamese
Authorities, on Monday arrested a Facebook user for posting information related
to a recent land rights clash between locals and police, state media reported.
On Jan. 9, three villagers, including a community leader, and at least three
police officers died in Dong Tam village, following a dispute over land rights
in the village on the outskirts of Hanoi.
Around one kilometre away from the village lies Mieu Mon Airport, around which
Vietnam’s Defense Ministry is currently constructing a fence to protect the
land.
Villagers have expressed anger about the demarcation of land, which they say has
led to farmland being taken away from them by the government.
According to Thanh Nien newspaper, authorities detained Chung Chuong in Can Tho
City, around 300 kilometres South of Ho Chi Minh City, for posting information.
This, the
authorities described, as misleading the armed forces who were on duty in Dong
Tam Village.
He’s been charged with abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the
interests of the state, lawful rights and the interests of organizations and/or
citizens.
Police searched Chuong’s house and found numerous electronic devices and data
storage systems which he used to operate a Facebook account.
The police, however, said the account was used between 2018 and 2019 to share
over 100 pages containing negative information about the state.
Chuong would, however, faced a sentence of up to seven years if found guilty.
Vietnam is a single-party communist state with a poor human rights record that
regularly arrests political dissidents and activists.(dpa/NAN)