Tuoi Tre newspaper reported that the Office of the Hanoi Police’s Bureau of Investigation announced on February 8 that the agency had probed the 46-year-old famous environmental activist for “tax evasion” under Article 200 of the country’s Criminal Code.
The founder of the Green Innovation and Development Center (GreenID) was arrested last month, but her detention was reported by the state-controlled media on February 9. Ms. Khanh, a Goldman Prize winner, and Eisenhower scholar is a campaigner for Vietnam to adopt greener energy strategies.
Nguyen Thi Khanh is one of the few voices in Vietnam to speak out against plans to increase coal power to fuel the country’s economic development, according to AFP.
Her organization GreenID, Vietnam’s most prominent environmental NGO, convinced the government to reduce some coal targets and spark a national dialogue on growing air and water pollution.
But while gaining international acclaim, she has also been the target of smear campaigns on state-backed media sites and is regularly attacked by critics of her work on Facebook, the Facebook page, AFP said.
Similarly, The Guardian reports that her voices pit her against the country’s ambitions to boost coal production.
However, Khanh’s organization also succeeded in convincing the Vietnamese government to remove 20,000 MW of coal power from the national energy plan by 2030, according to AFP.
Her goal in the coming years is for Vietnam to scale back its ambitious coal plans to include more renewable energy options.
In a 2020 interview with AFP, she said there are risks stemming from her active activities.
“When we gain global recognition, empowered interest groups realize who their enemies are and how powerful they are,” she told the AFP news agency.
In 2018, Ms. Nguy Thi Khanh was the first Vietnamese woman to receive the Goldman Environmental Prize, the world’s largest award for grassroots environmental activists, honoring her for her efforts to help Vietnam eliminate 115 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year.
In 2019, Ms. Khanh became a scholar of the program named after former US President Eisenhower, a program for leaders who innovate through transformative experiences, dynamic change agents, and commitment to create a more peaceful, prosperous, and just world.
Last month, her office and home were searched and documents and equipment confiscated, according to The Guardian.
Ms. Khanh is the latest activist to be arrested by the authorities in connection with the crime of “tax evasion.”
In January 2022, Mr. Dang Dinh Bach, Director of the Center for Legal Studies and Policy for Sustainable Development (LPSD), was sentenced to 5 years in prison for “tax evasion” while journalist Mai Phan Loi, leader of the Media Education Center, was sentenced to four years in prison for the same charge.
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