Vietnamese Land Activist Sent to Mental Hospital for Refusing to Speak to Police
RFA | 2021-03-22
Vietnamese land-rights activist Trinh Ba Phuong is being held in a state-run
mental hospital after being transferred from his former detention center,
according to his wife, who was informed of his whereabouts on Monday.
After visiting Hanoi police on March 22 to ask about her husband, Phuong’s wife
Do Thi Thu was told he had been sent to the hospital in Hanoi’s Thuong Tin
district for “evaluation” after refusing to cooperate with investigators, Thu
told RFA on Monday.
“It was [investigating officer] Le The Bac who told me in person that my husband
had been sent to the National Psychiatric Hospital No. 1 on March 1,” Thu said,
adding she was told that her husband had been “uncooperative” with police,
refusing to look at his interrogators or answer their questions.
“Because of this behavior, prosecutors asked that an assessment of Phuong’s
health be carried out for around four to six weeks,” Thu said she was told.
Investigators had previously summoned Phuong’s family members on Sept. 3, 2020
to ask about Phuong’s behavior at home and whether there was a history of mental
illness in the family, Thu said. “I told them that when he was at home, Phuong
was healthy and loved his wife and children, and that there is no one in my
family with mental health problems.”
“Then, in December, Phuong asked someone to call me, and that person told me
that Phuong had said he would uphold his right to silence until he could see his
lawyer. That person also said that Phuong wanted to remind us not to say
anything to police ourselves, as we too have the right to silence.”
Calls seeking comment from the National Psychiatric Hospital No. 1 were answered
by a receptionist who said she did not know of any patient there named Trinh Ba
Truong and that there were over 600 patients in the hospital.
Calls to the hospital’s General Planning Department were not picked up on
Monday.
The right to maintain silence
Speaking to RFA, Phuong’s defense attorney Dang Dinh Manh said his client was
within his rights under Vietnam’s Criminal Code “not to give testimony against
himself or to plead guilty,” adding that he plans to file a complaint in the
case with prosecutors and the Hanoi Security Investigation Office.
“The Criminal Code stipulates that defendants have the right to maintain
silence,” the lawyer said. “Thus I was very surprised to hear that not giving
responses [to investigators] should be taken as a sign of mental illness and
that ‘assessments’ are needed.”
“Because I got this information from Phuong’s family and not in an official
notice given to me as his lawyer, I’ll ask the Security Investigation Office to
confirm it," he said.
"And if they do, I’ll take further legal steps which could include filing a
complaint about Phuong’s transfer for health assessments without legal
justification."
A well-known land-rights activist in Hanoi, Trinh Ba Phuong was arrested on June
24, 2020 with his younger brother, Trinh Ba Tu, and his mother, Can Thi Theu, on
charges of “creating, storing, and disseminating information, documents, items
and publications opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The three family members had been outspoken in social media postings about the
Jan. 9, 2020 clash in Dong Tam commune in which 3,000 police stormed barricaded
protesters’ homes at a construction site about 25 miles south of the capital,
killing a village elder.
They had also offered information to foreign embassies and other international
figures to try to raise awareness of the incident.
While all land is ultimately held by the state, land confiscations have become a
flashpoint as residents accuse the government of pushing small landholders aside
in favor of lucrative real estate projects, and of paying too little in
compensation to farming families displaced by development.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Chau Vu. Written in English
by Richard Finney.
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