Vietnamese Activist Who Aids Jailed Dissidents' Families Arrested For
'Anti-State Documents'
RFA | 2021-04-07
Police in Vietnam’s capital Hanoi on Wednesday arrested a well-known activist
who raised funds for the families of jailed prisoners of conscience, for what
official media in the one-party state said was "disseminating
anti-state documents."
Nguyen Thuy Hanh, who had earlier run afoul of Communist Party authorities for
trying to run for election in 2016, was taken into custody Wednesday morning in
the lobby of her apartment building, said Dang Bich Phuong, a personal friend,
citing information from Hanh’s family members.
“I asked Hanh’s older sister, who lives in Phu Yen province, but she didn’t get
the news directly herself. She heard about it from other relatives,” she said,
speaking to RFA’s Vietnamese Service on April 7.
Police officers on the scene barred bystanders from taking photos or filming the
arrest, Phuong added.
Also speaking to RFA, former prisoner of conscience Vu Hung confirmed the
arrest, saying he had been away from Hanoi when Hanh was taken away and hadn’t
heard of her arrest until after 3:00 p.m., when he quickly returned to Hanoi.
“When I asked to visit Hanh, a receptionist in her apartment building told me
she had been arrested that morning,” Hung said. “She said that about 30 people
had been present at the arrest, and that police first read out the arrest
warrant and then sealed her apartment.”
A reporter’s call asking police in Hanoi’s Thuong Dinh ward about the arrest was
turned away by an officer who said “We don’t know” and then hung up, while a
receptionist at the Hanoi Police Investigation Agency said reporters should come
in person to the agency to ask their questions.
Born in 1963, Hanh is a well-known human rights activist in Hanoi and founder of
the 50K Fund, set up to provide financial support to family members of prisoners
of conscience who can’t afford to travel to the prisons where their loved ones
are held.
Her account at Vietcombank was blocked in 2020 after she raised about 500
million Vietnamese dong (US $21,600) to support the family of Le Dinh Kinh, the
elderly leader of the Dong Tam commune, who was shot dead by security forces
during a police raid on Dong Tam in Jan. 9, 2020 amid a long-running land
dispute that landed many of his family members in jail.
Hanh closed her fund in early December to have time to treat an illness, but
affirmed her continuing support for prisoners of conscience.
Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for
campaigns, called Hanh's arrest "a blatant and politically-motivated attempt
to silence one of the most respected human rights advocates in the country."
Hah noted that Vietnamese prisons are "notoriously overcrowded" and called for
Hanh's immediate release.
"It is a travesty that Nguyen Thuy Hanh is being targeted for her humanitarian
work in support of unjustly detained prisoners. She should be celebrated and
supported for this work–not punished," she said.
Crackdown on candidates
Hahn was a self-nominated candidate in 2016 for election to the country’s
National Assembly, a process tightly controlled by the ruling Communist Party
and restricted to Party-approved candidates, sources said.
Rights group Amnesty International called on Vietnam on April 1 to end its
crackdown on independent candidates for election to the country’s rubber-stamp
legislature in a vote scheduled for May 23, saying that two would-be Assembly
members have already been arrested and charged under Article 117 of Vietnam’s
Criminal Code for activities “opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
Le Trong Hung, a citizen journalist and member of Chan Hung TV—which broadcasts
Facebook livestreams on social and political issues—was arrested by police in
Hanoi on March 27, while blogger Tran Quoc Khanh was taken into custody in Ninh
Binh province on March 10, Amnesty said.
Emerlynne Gill, Deputy Regional Director for Amnesty International, noted that
while Vietnam has recently put itself forward as a candidate for membership in
the U.N. Human Rights Council, based in Geneva, “[Vietnamese] authorities are
engaging in blatant and widespread human rights violations at home.”
At least 173 known prisoners of conscience were being held in Vietnamese prisons
as of December 2020, Amnesty said in an annual report released on April 6, “the
highest recorded number since Amnesty International began publishing these
figures in 1996.”
“Among those, 72 were held for expressing their opinions online, a marked
increase on previous years,” the rights group said, adding, “Prison conditions
remained generally harsh, but prisoners of conscience in particular were
subjected to discrimination, harassment and ill-treatment.”
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Chau Vu. Written in English
by Richard Finney.
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