<\/p>\n
PARIS, 25th<\/sup> October 2017 (VCHR) \u2013 The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) strongly protests Vietnam\u2019s systematic crackdown on the fundamental rights of citizens to freedom of expression, association, religion or belief and the right to participate in public affairs on the pretext of protecting \u201cnational security\u201d. Today\u2019s sentencing of a student, Phan Kim Kh\u00e1nh<\/strong> to six years in prison and four years house arrest for \u201cspreading propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam\u201d<\/em> (Article 88 of the Criminal Code) is the latest example of this alarming trend.<\/p>\n Phan Kim Kh\u00e1nh<\/strong>, 24, a student in international relations at Th\u00e1i Nguy\u00ean University was arrested on 21st<\/sup> March 2017 for posting \u201cfabricated and distorted\u201d information against the state since 2015 on his two blogs, three Facebook accounts and two Youtube accounts. He is also accused of being in contact with \u201creactionary elements\u201d in Vietnam and overseas. Born into a poor family, he denounced endemic corruption, lack of democracy and lack of press freedom which he believes are the main obstacles to Vietnam\u2019s development.<\/p>\n Kh\u00e1nh was convicted at an unfair trial at the People\u2019s Court in Th\u00e1i Nguy\u00ean province (north of Hanoi). He was denied access to adequate defence, and, as is the custom in \u201cnational security\u201d trials, his guilty sentence was decided in advance. Article 88 of the Criminal Code, which is routinely invoked to detain government critics and human rights defenders, has been strongly denounced by the United Nations as inconsistent with international human rights law.<\/p>\n \u201cPhan Kim Kh\u00e1nh\u2019s sole \u201ccrime\u201d was to peacefully express his legitimate views. His unfair trial and groundless conviction show just one thing: that Vietnam is afraid of criticism; it feels threatened when its citizens communicate, get together and share concerns about their country\u2019s future\u201d, <\/em><\/strong>said VCHR President V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i.<\/p>\n Today\u2019s sentence takes place against a backdrop of escalating repression in Vietnam in which many bloggers, human rights defenders, political and religious dissidents have been arrested and condemned to harsh prison sentences. Several have been convicted under the notorious Article 88, such as blogger M\u1eb9 N\u1ea5m<\/strong><\/a> (10 year sentence, 29 June 2017) or labour rights and land rights activist Tr\u1ea7n Th\u1ecb Nga<\/strong><\/a> (9 years, 25 July 2017).<\/p>\n VCHR is particularly concerned about the recent spate of arrests of citizens on charges of subversion (\u201cactivities aimed at overthrowing the people\u2019s administration\u201d – <\/em>Article 79 of the Criminal Code). This vaguely-worded crime, which makes no distinction between violent acts and the legitimate exercise of freedom of expression or participation in public affairs, is punishable by death.<\/p>\n Most recently, on 17th<\/sup> October 2017, Catholic activist Tr\u1ea7n Th\u1ecb Xu\u00e2n<\/strong>, 41, was arrested at her home in H\u00e0 T\u0129nh Province under Article 79 of the Criminal Code. According to information published in the Vietnamese official press today (Thanh Ni\u00ean<\/em> and Ph\u00e1p Lu\u1eadt<\/em>), she is accused of being a member of the unofficial Brotherhood for Democracy (H\u1ed9i Anh Em D\u00e2n Ch\u1ee7 – she reportedly headed the Brotherhood\u2019s section in Central Vietnam in 2016), posting information and photos on the Internet slandering the Communist Party and state, calling for demonstrations and receiving 170 million VND from \u201creactionary and terrorist organizations overseas and extremist elements in Vietnam\u201d. <\/em>Ms. Xu\u00e2n had participated in protests in 2016 against the massive fish deaths and pollution caused by the Taiwanese company Formosa. She is also actively engaged in youth activities in her local parish.<\/p>\n Human rights lawyer Nguy\u1ec5n V\u0103n \u0110\u00e0i,<\/strong> founder of the Brotherhood for Democracy, has been imprisoned without trial since December 2015. Initially charged under Article 88, on 30th<\/sup> July 2017 the charge was changed to subversion under Article 79. Five other members of the group were arrested in July-August 2017, and all face harsh prison sentences for this capital crime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PARIS, 25th October 2017 (VCHR) \u2013 The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) strongly protests Vietnam\u2019s systematic crackdown on the fundamental rights of citizens to freedom of expression, association, religion or belief and the right to participate in public affairs on the pretext of protecting \u201cnational security\u201d. Today\u2019s sentencing of a student, Phan Kim …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":37895,"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":[379,313,528,293,529],"class_list":["post-37889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-me-nam","tag-national-security","tag-phan-kim-khanh","tag-tran-thi-nga","tag-tran-thi-xuan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37889","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\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37889"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37889\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}