Vu Quoc Ngu
Director of Defend the Defenders
January 25, 2022
Vietnam’s authoritarian regime continues its repression against local activists and bloggers as the ruling Communist Party of Vietnam is willing to ensure its absolute leadership amid growing social dissatisfaction regarding the increasing social gap, corruption, human rights violations, etc.
Along with imprisoning hundreds of political dissidents and outspoken bloggers, the regime is launching a new wave of crackdowns on local activists who are working in registered civil groups such as Law and Policy of Sustainable Development Research Center (LPSD), Media and Education Community (MEC), and Green Innovation and Development Center (GreenID).
Recently, MEC’s President Mai Phan Loi and LPSD’s Director Dang Dinh Bach have been convicted of tax evasion while GreenID’s Director Nguy Thi Khanh has been detained for the same accusation, the allegation Vietnam’s security forces often use against local activists if they fail to use other allegations in the National Security charter of the Criminal Code.
Both Mr. Loi, 51, and Mr. Bach, 44, were arrested in mid-2021 and taken to courts this month. On January 11, the People’s Court of Hanoi found Loi guilty of evading his organization’s tax and sentenced him to four years in prison. Nearly two weeks later, on January 24, Bach was convicted by the same court and given five years in prison. Both hearings failed to meet international standards for a fair trial and even Vietnam’s Criminal Procedure Code. Their cases were purely political and they were imprisoned for their activities, given the fact that according to Vietnam’s laws, all non-government organizations (NGOs) are not subject to tax.
Recently, Ms. Khanh, who is famous in both the domestic and international arena for her environmental protection efforts, has been arrested on the allegation of personal tax evasion. She faces imprisonment of up to seven years if convicted, according to the Criminal Code.
The common thing for the three activists is that they were engaged in Vietnam’s Domestic Advisory Group (DAG) for the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)’s implementation regarding labor rights and environmental aspects. DAG has been formed under Article 13 of the agreement which is economically important for the 26-country bloc and Vietnam.
While Bach is an environmentalist and focuses on education with the aim to raise community’s awareness of people’s rights, Loi is an outspoken journalist operating two Facebook pages Young Journalists Forum and Journalist-Citizen View which discuss many Vietnamese issues such as education, environment, corruption, and injustice, etc.
Since late 2015, Vietnam’s security forces have intensified their crackdown on political dissidents, social activists, human rights defenders, and bloggers. Hundreds of activists have been arrested and charged with controversial allegations in the National Security provisions of the Criminal Code, mostly subversion, “conducting anti-state propaganda,” and “abusing democratic freedom.” Meanwhile, tax evasion accusation has also been applied in a number of cases such as against pro-democracy activist Le Quoc Quan and independent journalist Nguyen Van Hai who has been forced to live in exile in the US after being sentenced to 11 years in prison.
Last year, Vietnam arrested 28 activists and sentenced 31 to a total of 209 years in prison and 47 years of probation. So far this year, the regime has detained four activists and sentenced six activists to a total of 23 years in prison.
According to Defend the Defenders’ latest statistics, Vietnam is holding at least 256 prisoners of conscience. Hanoi always denies holding prisoners of conscience but only law violators.
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