The Vietnam Briefing, which is released every Monday morning Vietnam time, looks at Vietnam’s social and political developments of the past week.

Vietnamese courts approve appeal requests for local activists

• On February 14, the Hanoi Supreme People’s Court sent a notice to attorney Dang Dinh Manh that on January 27 it had approved his application as a defense lawyer for the appeal trial of journalist Pham Doan Trang.
• The court’s decision was followed by Doan Trang’s request for an appeal after her conviction of “distributing anti-state propaganda” and received nine years of imprisonment. The appeal hearing is expected to take place within 90 days of the approval day.
• Also, the family of activist Do Nam Trung announced last week that the Hanoi Court on the same day had approved attorney Dang Dinh Manh as a defense lawyer for his appeal hearing. Trung was given a 10-year prison sentence for “distributing anti-state propaganda” last year, which was considered relatively harsh given his less well-known activism.
• Meanwhile, attorney Manh also told RFA Vietnamese in an interview that he would defend Le Huu Minh Tuan, a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam (IJAVN), in his appeal hearing scheduled on February 28. Tuan was sentenced to an 11-year prison sentence in January 2021, along with two other members of IJAVN, on allegations of “distributing anti-state propaganda.
• At the same time, Tran Quoc Khanh, who self-nominated himself as a candidate for Vietnam’s National Assembly elections last year, had his previous conviction upheld at an appeal trial on February 17. Khanh was sentenced to six and a half years of imprisonment last October under allegations of “distributing anti-state propaganda.”

Vietnamese court to try another independent journalist on “anti-state” charges

• The Hanoi People’s Court is scheduled to hold a trial on March 11 for the independent journalist Le Van Dung, commonly known by his pen name Le Dung Vova, on accusations of “distributing anti-state propaganda,” according to his defense lawyer Ha Huy Son.
• Dung, 52, was detained in late June last year after the police issued a national warrant for his arrest. He was on the run when the investigation authorities announced their decision to prosecute and arrest him in May 2021.
• Le Van Dung owned a Vietnamese language personal media channel, Chan Hung Nuoc Viet TV, where he reported and live-streamed his comments on different social and environmental issues. According to Dung’s family, the evidence used to prosecute him mostly consists of his online live streamings.
• Attorney Son also told RFA Vietnamese during an interview that his client’s health and mentality remained stable.

Local citizens assaulted over land rights disputes

• Last week, a video showing a group of people wearing uniforms beating up several female protesters was widely circulated on Vietnamese social media. The conflict was later confirmed to have occurred at a construction site on February 18 in Hoang Hoa District, Thanh Hoa Province.
• According to RFA’s investigation, the citizens who were assaulted during the conflict are members of a local family who had disputes over land ownership with an investment company called Flamingo. The company is carrying out a luxury resort project at the locality. Meanwhile, the attackers were said to be Flamingo’s security guards.
• Tran Huy Hiep, who recorded the video, and who also has a land ownership dispute with Flamingo, said that his land was forcefully confiscated by the investment company without any compensation. When asked about whether or not his family had informed the provincial authorities of the conflict, Hiep said his family had contacted the district authorities, but that they claimed that “the land was owned by the local district government” and therefore it has the right to “sell that [land] to the company.”

The Archdiocese of Hanoi calls for respect for religious freedom in a letter to authorities

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