Press Release
October 7, 2020
For immediate release
Joint Statement of Vietnam Human Rights Network and Defend the Defenders on
the Arrest of Activist Pham Doan Trang
Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has informed that in the late night of
October 6, 2020, the Hanoi police arrested Ms. Pham Doan Trang at her rent
apartment in Ho Chi Minh City on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda”
under Article 88 of Vietnam’s 1999 Penal Code and Article 117 of 2015 Criminal
Code.
Activist Pham Doan Trang is one of the leading Vietnamese activists who have
advocated and struggled for human rights, democracy and the environment for many
years. She is an excellent political writer with many works, such as Chính trị
Bình dân (Politics for the Common People), Phản kháng Phi bạo lực (Non-violent
Resistance), Politics of Police State, and Cẩm nang Nuôi tù (Handbook for
Prisoners’ Families). She is also an editor of several websites aimed at raising
citizen awareness such as the vietnamese.org or the Vietnam Legal Initiatives.
She has repeatedly stated that she fights peacefully to abolish the communist
dictatorship in Vietnam.
In recent years, Ms. Pham Doan Trang has been under various forms of repression
by the Vietnamese security forces, such as arrest for torture, beatings to the
point of disability, and restriction of freedom of movement, etc. She was forced
to move from one place to another for more than 50 times in the past three years
as the Vietnamese communist security forces are chasing her.
She will likely be held incommunicado for a period of at least 4 months of
investigation, and she will not be permitted to meet with her relatives and
lawyers, like other activists arrested on allegations in the National Security
provisions of the Criminal Code.
Vietnam Human Rights Network and Defend
the Defenders believe that Pham Doan Trang is a peaceful activist working to
promote democracy and human rights in Vietnam. She only exercises the rights
enshrined in Vietnam’s Constitution 2013 and international human rights treaties
that the Vietnamese communist government has signed.
Therefore, we demand the Vietnamese communist authorities
- Immediately and unconditionally free Ms. Pham Doan Trang and drop all the
charges against her;
- Permit her to contact with her lawyers and relatives, ensuring she was not
physically and mentally tortured and treated inhumanely while she is in police
custody;
- Ensure freedom of speech and other basic human rights, implement international
human rights commitments signed by the Vietnamese communist government, and
release all the activists who are charged with or convicted of the controversial
charges under the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code.
We call on the Vietnamese people and the international community to condemn the
Vietnamese communist government's repression of dissidents, social activists,
and human rights defenders, and demand that Hanoi free them immediately and
unconditionally.
End of the statement
On behalf of the Vietnam Human Rights Network: Head of the Executive Board,
Nguyen Ba Tung, DPA
On behalf of the Human Rights Defender: President, Vu Quoc Ngu, MSc
Vietnam Human Rights Network |