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

Vietnamese journalist Pham Doan Trang’s appeals trial is set for August 25

• The Hanoi People’s High Court announced that it would hold an appeals trial for Vietnamese journalist and human rights defender Pham Doan Trang at 8 a.m. on August 25. Doan Trang’s hearing will occur in Courtroom No. 6 at the high court’s Cau Giay District headquarters. The trial is declared that it will be open to the public.
• Doan Trang, 44, was convicted of “distributing anti-State propaganda” under Article 88 of Vietnam’s 1999 Penal Code and received a nine-year prison sentence on December 14, 2021. She previously said that she would appeal her conviction. The international community and organizations advocating for press freedom have condemned the sentencing of Pham Doan Trang and asked the Vietnamese government to release her immediately and unconditionally.
• Ngo Anh Tuan, one of Doan Trang’s defense lawyers in the coming appellate court hearing, told RFA that he believed “the probability of the first-instance judgment being upheld is over 90 percent” since “it’s about the attitude [of the defendant].”
• The evidence used to prosecute Doan Trang included several reports and assessments on Vietnam’s marine environment disaster in 2016, the human rights situation, and the right to freedom of religion and belief in Vietnam. She was also accused of giving interviews to foreign broadcasters, such as BBC News Vietnamese and RFA Vietnamese.
• Bui Thi Thien Can, Doan Trang’s mother, said that her daughter was mistreated during the investigation and hadn’t received proper medical treatment despite her critically declining health. Thien Can also added that her daughter did not have any family visitations since her arrest, which was more than 22 months ago.

Vietnam holds appeals trials for three NGO leaders

• The Hanoi People’s High Court, on August 11, held two appeals hearings for three civil society leaders, Mai Phan Loi, Bach Hung Duong, and Dang Dinh Bach, on earlier convictions of “committing tax evasion.” After the trials concluded, the court slightly reduced the prison terms of Loi and Duong while upholding their previous conviction of Bach.
• Bach, Loi, and Duong are executive board members of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA)-VNGO network, a coalition of seven civil society groups that had applied to become part of the official Vietnamese Domestic Advisory Group (DAG). The formation of DAG was required as part of the EVFTA to monitor each side’s commitment to fair trade, labor rights protection and sustainable development.
• According to the court’s final verdict via State media, Loi and Duong each had their prison sentences mitigated by three months, and will now serve 45 and 27 months in jail, respectively. Meanwhile, Bach had his earlier conviction of five-year imprisonment upheld by the court.
• The court announced that its decision was based on Mai Phan Loi’s efforts to reimburse the government a portion of the alleged evaded taxes and his willingness to confess and cooperate with the investigation agency in solving the case, while his alleged crime partner, Bach Hung Duong, had not “financially benefited from the evasion.” Meanwhile, Dang Dinh Bach’s sentence was upheld because he reportedly denied all of the allegations and didn’t recompense the government for the alleged “tax evasion” money.

Families of political prisoners in Vietnam demand better healthcare for inmates in an open letter

• On August 9, about 30 families of political prisoners in Vietnam co-signed an open letter titled “Healthcare is also a Human Right,” calling for the improvement of living conditions, as well as proper and prompt healthcare for their relatives who are currently behind bars. The letter was published following the death of a prisoner of conscience, Do Cong Duong, due to a lack of proper healthcare and mistreatment in detention.
• The letter noted that Duong was not the first political inmate to die in Vietnamese custody due to the maltreatment of prison authorities. Duong’s family said he was healthy before his arrest in 2018. According to the letter, Dinh Danh Dinh and Dao Quang Thuc, both former teachers and prisoners of conscience, also passed away in prison following their prolonged illnesses and harsh imprisonment conditions.
• “Prisoners are human, too. Their human rights must be protected just like anybody else because the government of Vietnam is a signatory to the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights,” the open letter said. “For prisoners of conscience — people who accept imprisonment as the price to pay for the rights and human dignity of others, this principle is even more critical.”
• The families of Vietnamese prisoners of conscience also called on democratic governments and human rights organizations around the world to join hands “in demanding that Vietnam respect the rights of its political prisoners,” as well as “that inmates be provided with water that is clean, food that is safe and healthcare that is proper and timely.”

Vietnamese security forces reportedly harassed the wife of an imprisoned Protestant pastor

• Nguyen Thi Lanh, the wife of the imprisoned Protestant pastor Nguyen Trung Ton, was summoned by Thanh Hoa Provincial security forces on August 10 regarding the frequency of the visitations to her husband. Ton was a former member of the now defunct Brotherhood for Democracy; he was jailed for 12 years on April 5, 2018, allegedly for “carrying out activities to overthrow the government” under Article 79 of Vietnam’s 1999 Penal Code.
• It was reported that Lanh had received dozens of police summons following her visits to Pastor Ton, who is now being held at Gia Trung Prison, Gia Lai Province. During the interrogation on August 10, the police reportedly questioned Lanh on the details of her trips and threatened to limit the visits to her husband. The Thanh Hoa police added that they would regularly summon Lanh to the police station for future interrogation of her husband’s case.
• Since Pastor Ton was arrested, Lanh, a market vendor, became the breadwinner of the whole family. Lanh reportedly suffers from heart disease; meanwhile, she also needs to take care of her mother-in-law, who has liver disease, and their daughter, who is disabled. It was reported that the Thanh Hoa Police frequently harassed Pastor Ton’s family and prevented them from visiting him in prison.

Vietnamese refugees held in Thailand say they fear being forced home

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