Human Rights Defender Trinh Ba Tu on Hunger Strike in Police Custody, Reason
Unknown
Defend the Defenders | August 25, 2020 The
family of Hanoi-based human rights activist Trinh Ba Tu has informed the online
community that he has been conducting a hunger strike twenty days ago while
being held in the Cham Mat temporary detention center under the authority of the
Hoa Binh province’s Police Department. It seems
that one staff of the detention facility had passed the information about his
fasting to his family. However, the reason for Mr. Tu’s hunger strike remains
unclear. Tu, 31,
was arrested on July 24 by the Hoa Binh province’s police and charged with
“conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code
for his advocacy for land petitioners in Dong Tam commune. On the same day, his
mother Can Thi Theu was also arrested by the Hoa Binh police while his older
brother Trinh Ba Phuong was detained by the Hanoi police, and both were charged
with the same allegation in the National Security provision of the code. The
mother and two sons have been held incommunicado for at least four months, the
practice the Vietnamese security forces apply in most political cases. For their
works in documenting land seizures and mobilization for the returns of lands and
fair compensation from Hanoi’s authorities as well as advocacy for human rights,
the family of Mrs. Theu has been suffered from persecution for years. Firstly,
Mrs. Theu and her husband were arrested in April 2014 for recording video of
land confiscations in Ha Đông district and police attacking protestors with
sticks and batons. She was beaten by police and charged with “resisting on-duty
state officials” under Article 257 of the Penal Code. In September of that year,
Theu and her husband were sentenced to 15 months in prison each. In 2016,
Theu was arrested after participating in a peaceful demonstration in which
participants demanded human rights and multi-party democracy. She was charged
with “causing public disorder” and later sentenced to 20 months in prison. On the
day of welcoming his parents released from prison in late June, 2015, Tu and
other family’s friends and activists were beaten by policemen and plainclothes
agents near the Prison camp No. 6 in Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province. In recent
years, due to their peaceful activities to assist land petitioners and support
other activists as well as protest China’s violations of the country’s
sovereignty in the East Sea (South China Sea), Phuong and Tu have been detained
by police many times and in police stations, they were interrogated and tortured
by police officers.
Meanwhile, Hanoi’s authorities have a plan to hold the first-instance hearing on
September 7 to try 29 land petitioners in Dong Tam, who were arrested during the
bloody attack of the police in the commune on January 9 this year. During the
attack, police killed veteran community leader Le Dinh Kinh. Police said three
police officers were killed during the attack and blamed the local land
petitioners for killing them with gasoline although there is no clear evidence
for the accusation. Police have also not shown the solid facts about the deaths
of the three officers, including their corpses.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |