<\/p>\n
PARIS, 22 September 2016 (FIDH & VCHR) – Vietnam must end the ongoing repression of peaceful dissent, repeal its repressive laws, and immediately release all political prisoners, FIDH and its member organization Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) said today. FIDH and VCHR\u2019s call followed the imprisonment of three government critics in three days.<\/p>\n
\u201cVietnam\u2019s relentless persecution of government critics using repressive laws and kangaroo courts shows that compliance with the country\u2019s international human rights obligations ranks at the bottom of Hanoi\u2019s priorities,\u201d <\/em><\/strong>said FIDH President Dimitris Christopoulos.<\/p>\n Today, the People\u2019s Supreme Court in Hanoi upheld a lower court\u2019s conviction of blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh and his assistant Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy for \u201cabusing democratic freedoms to harm the interests of the State\u201d under Article 258 of the Criminal Code and sentenced them to five and three years in prison respectively. The trial was held behind closed doors. In addition, Vinh\u2019s wife, Le Thi Minh Ha, has not been allowed to visit him in prison for the past five months.<\/p>\n Nguyen Huu Vinh and Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy were arrested on 5 May 2014<\/a> and accused of \u201cpublishing online articles with bad contents and misleading information to lower the prestige and create public distrust of government offices, social organizations, and citizens.\u201d On 23 March 2016, a People\u2019s Court in Hanoi sentenced the two to five and three years in prison respectively<\/a>.<\/p>\n On 20 September 2016, the Dong Da District Court in Hanoi sentenced land rights activist Can Thi Theu, 54, to 20 months in prison on charges of causing public disorder under Article 245 of the Criminal Code. Theu was arrested on 10 June 2016 for leading protests against land confiscation outside various government offices in Hanoi. Police beat and detained several activists and family members who attempted to attend the trial.<\/p>\n \u201cVietnam\u2019s protracted refusal to repeal its repressive laws and release all political prisoners shows it has absolutely no intention of respecting fundamental human rights. Hanoi\u2019s repression must be met by stronger international condemnation, not friendly overtures,\u201d<\/em><\/strong> said VCHR President Vo Van Ai.<\/p>\n Vietnamese authorities have repeatedly used legislation inconsistent with Vietnam\u2019s obligations under international law to suppress the right to freedom of opinion and expression and to detain government critics (1).<\/p>\n Vietnam holds about 130 political prisoners \u2013 the largest number among Southeast Asian countries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Press contacts: <\/p>\n <\/p>\n ———————————————————-<\/p>\n (1) Clauses of the Criminal Code that are inconsistent with Vietnam\u2019s obligations under international law include: Article 79 (\u2018activities aimed at overthrowing the people\u2019s administration\u2019); Article 80 (\u2018spying\u2019); Article 87 (\u2018undermining national solidarity, sowing divisions between religious and non-religious people\u2019); Article 88 (\u2018conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam\u2019); and Article 258 (\u2018abusing democratic freedoms to harm the interests of the State\u2019).<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PARIS, 22 September 2016 (FIDH & VCHR) – Vietnam must end the ongoing repression of peaceful dissent, repeal its repressive laws, and immediately release all political prisoners, FIDH and its member organization Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) said today. FIDH and VCHR\u2019s call followed the imprisonment of three government critics in three days. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":491,"featured_media":34089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,113,98,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/491"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n<\/strong>FIDH: Mr.\u00a0Arthur Manet (French, English, Spanish) – Tel: +33672284294 (Paris)
\nFIDH: Mr.\u00a0Andrea Giorgetta (English) – Tel: +66886117722 (Bangkok)
\nVCHR: Ms. Penelope Faulkner (Vietnamese, English, French) – Tel: +33611898681 (Paris)<\/p>\n