Vietnam arrests 2 bloggers in new crackdown

By: 11 years ago

In this Jan. 20, 2010 file photo, Nguyen Tien Trung, second from left, listens to the verdict with Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, left, and Le Thang Long at a court in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Vietnam granted early release to two high-profile dissidents, Nguyen Tien Trung and Vi Duc Hoi, bringing the number of democracy activists freed in April 2014 to three in what the government called a “policy of leniency.” The unusual moves come as Hanoi is negotiating a free trade deal with the United States that is expected to help Vietnam’s stumbling economy. American officials have said the deal might not get congressional approval unless Vietnam’s government shows it is taking steps to improve its human rights record. Vi Duc Hoi and Nguyen Tien Trung were released over the weekend of April 12, 2014 with 1.5 years and nine months remaining of their sentences respectively. They were convicted of crimes relating to their peaceful advocacy of multiparty democracy in Vietnam, ruled by an authoritarian government that doesn’t allow freedom of expression or political assembly. AP

HANOI, Vietnam—Vietnam has arrested two democracy activists for posting articles critical of the government on the Internet, signaling a continued crackdown on dissent despite the early release of three dissidents last month.

Authorities said the pair were arrested Monday in the capital, Hanoi.

Nguyen Huu Vinh and Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy are accused of violating Article 258, which carries a maximum seven-year jail sentence.

Vinh is the founder of the widely read Basam blog, which publishes highlights of local press as well as dissident tracts critical of the government.

Basam and its U.S-based managing editor Ngoc Thu have been repeatedly targeted by hackers with suspected links to the Vietnam state over the last 18 months. She said the arrests were “groundless” and insisted that the struggle for basic democratic freedoms in the country would continue.

“Dissident bloggers can be arrested, blogs can be shut down, but they are like wild grass with deep roots that can’t be dug up,” she wrote in a posting on the blog on Tuesday. “The government cannot control information on the Internet, because no one can control the thoughts of other people.”

Vinh, 58, was a regular in anti-China protests in Hanoi condemning Beijing’s territorial claims in the disputed South China Sea. At a recent one, he wore a camera fitted to his head to record the action and publish it online later.

He was a former security police officer. In 1999, he quit and started one of Vietnam’s first private detective agencies. His father was a former labor minister and ambassador to the former Soviet Union.

Vietnam’s authoritarian government is under international pressure to respect basic human rights such as free speech and political assembly, but still maintains a tight grip on its citizens. The emergence of the Internet over the past five years has opened up new avenues for political dissent and organization, spooking the country’s rulers.

Last month, the government granted early release to three dissidents, one of which flew directly from prison to the United States, which brokered a deal to secure his release. The unusual move was seen by some as a ploy to help ease ongoing trade negotiations between Hanoi and Washington, which has said that progress on the deal — the Trans-Pacific Partnership — would be hard without human rights improvements.

New York-based Human Rights Watch says that the number of people sentenced in political trials in Vietnam has increased every year since 2010, and that at least 63 people were imprisoned for peaceful political expression last year.