Press Release May 06, 2021
Statement of Vietnam Human Rights Network and Defend The Defenders on the
Conviction of Ms. Can Thi Theu and her son Trinh Ba Tu On May 5, 2021, in a hasty trial, the People’s Court of Hoa
Binh Province sentenced human rights activist Can Thi Theu and her second son,
Trinh Ba Tu, to 8 years in prison and 3 years of house arrest for each person
based on fabricated accusation “making, storing, spreading information,
materials, items to oppose the State of Socialist Republic of Vietnam” per
Article 117 of the Criminal Code. According to the indictment, Mrs.
Theu and Tu shared 8 videos on Facebook with untrue content
and caused social confusion. As Mrs.
Theu and Mr. Tu confirmed at the trial, the videos contain true content about
land disputes in Dong Tam commune, My Duc district, Hanoi city, before and after
the attack of 3,000 riot
policemen into the commune in the early morning of
January 9, 2020. Mrs.
Theu and Mr. Tu were arrested by the Hoa Binh province police on June 24, 2020,
held in solitary confinement for nine
months, and only allowed to see their lawyers
for a few months before this first-instance
trials. On the same day, her eldest son, Trinh Ba Phuong, was also arrested by
the Hanoi police and accused of “conducting anti-state
propaganda” under Article 117. We found that the arrests of Mrs.
Theu and her two sons were arbitrary solely because of their peaceful human
rights activities. They were held in solitary confinement during the
investigation period, not witnessed by lawyers during interrogations, and were
treated inhumanely and even threatened by
a
state procuracy
officer as Tu confirmed at the trial. We believe that the human rights
activities of Mrs.
Theu’s family do not violate Vietnamese law, and this trial does not guarantee
trial fairness. We urge the Vietnamese government to
immediately and unconditionally release Mrs.
Theu and her two sons and ensure that human rights defenders in Vietnam operate
without fear of retaliation. We urge Vietnam’s
highest legislative body National Assembly to
remove Article 117 and many other provisions in the
National
Security
provisions
of the Criminal Code, which have
been used to silence peaceful criticism. For
sustainable development, Vietnam needs to seriously implement international
human rights commitments. We also urge democratic governments and international human
rights organizations to continue to pressure the Vietnamese communist rulers to
seriously enforce international human rights conventions they have signed. May 06, 2021 Representative of the Vietnam Human Rights Network: Nguyen Ba Tung, President Representative of Defend The Defenders: Vu Quoc Ngu, Director [Home] [About us] [Bills of Rights] [Documents] [H R Reports] [VNHR Awards] [HR Forum] [Links]
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