Civil society activist Dang Dinh Bach, who was arrested together with journalist Mai Phan Loi in July last year for “tax evasion” at the trial in Hanoi on January 24. Mr. Bach was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
A court in Hanoi on January 24 sentenced Mr. Dang Dinh Bach, director of an NGO and environmental rights lawyer, to 5 years in prison for “tax evasion“, less than 2 weeks after journalist Mai Phan Loi was sentenced to four years in prison for the same crime.
Mr. Bach and Mr. Loi, both members of Vietnam’s Advisory Group on the Free Trade Agreement with the European Union (EVFTA), were both detained on July 2, 2021, and probed in December of the same year on charges of “tax evasion.”
According to the indictment filed at the People’s Court of Hanoi on January 24, Bach, director of the Center for Legal Research and Policy on Sustainable Development (LPSD), was found guilty of having “connected with foreign organizations, negotiate to receive grants to implement many programs and projects that (Mr.) Bach considers appropriate to the principles and purposes of the LPSD Center.”
The indictment cited by the Vietnam News Agency said that LPSD Center – a science and technology organization specializing in scientific research and implementation of topics and projects in the field of law and policy of sustainable development – received more than VND10 billion from domestic and foreign organizations.
The indictment also states that the LPSD Center, headed by Mr. Bach, 44, “has repeatedly failed to submit tax returns, evaded taxes, and left out the books of money received from abroad.” According to VOV, Bach’s center is accused of tax evasion of more than VND1.3 billion.
Earlier on January 11, the People’s Court of Hanoi also heard the case of “tax evasion” against Mr. Loi, former chairman of the scientific council of the Media and Education Community Center (MEC), and sentenced him to 4 years in prison. Mr. Loi, 51, was one of the civil society representatives who met US President Barack Obama in Hanoi in May 2016.
Mr. Bach and Mr. Loi were arrested after applying to join the VNGO-EVFTA Network, a group of 7 community service organizations established to coordinate EVFTA-related activities.
Immediately after the arrest of these two civil activists, the EU Advisory Group on EVFTA on July 14, 2021, sent a letter to the Vice President of the European Commission for Trade, Valdis Dombrovskis, and the Vice President of the European General Department of Commerce, Denis Redonnet, raised concerns about this. The letter said that Mr. Loi and Mr. Bach were detained by the police after applying to be members of the Vietnam Advisory Group, which was established under Chapter 13 of the EVFTA.
According to the letter signed by the chairwoman of the EU Advisory Group, Mr. Loi and Mr. Bach are both members of the Executive Board of the VNGO-EVFTA Network including 7 civil society organizations, including LPSD and LPSD. MEC, was established in November 2020 to disseminate and inform about the EVFTA agreement as well as the composition of civil society in Vietnam.
The letter mentions that Mr. Bach is an ecological defender who is little known among the dissidents in Vietnam because he focuses his activities in the field of education to help the community understand and protect the rights of people. Meanwhile, Mr. Loi used to run the Facebook pages “Journalism – Citizen’s Perspective” and “Young Journalists Forum.” and had his journalist card revoked in 2016 for “seriously insulting the honor of the People Army of Vietnam” through a survey on the reason why aircraft CASA 212 of the Vietnamese Navy went missing.
In the letter, the chairwoman of the EU Advisory Group, Judith Kirton-Darling, called on the European Commission to raise these cases with Vietnamese officials and ask for an explanation of the detention of Mr. Bach and Mr. Loi.
Before the EVFTA was approved by the EU Parliament, independent journalist Pham Chi Dung was arrested and later sentenced to 15 years in prison. Mr. Dung, also a well-known blogger of VOA, called on the European Union to set human rights conditions for Vietnam before signing the EVFTA.
In a separate court hearing on January 21, Nguyen Bao Tien, a publisher of books of the Free Publishing House, including books by dissident journalist Pham Doan Trang, was found guilty and sentenced to 6 and a half years in prison for 2 crimes of the Penal Code 2015, including “conducting propaganda against the state” under Article 117.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
