Vietnam arrests famous noodle vendor on anti-State charges

• Vietnamese police, on September 7, arrested Bui Tuan Lam, a beef noodle vendor in the city of Danang, who became famously known after making a viral video mocking the country’s minister of public security, To Lam, last year. Lam was charged under Article 117 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code which forbids “distributing propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
• Tuan Lam, 38, was summoned by the local police in November 2021 after filming himself imitating the signature moves of Turkish celebrity chef Nusret Gökçe, or “Salt Bae,” after the Vietnamese minister To Lam was caught on camera eating gold-encrusted steak at the chef’s restaurant in London a few days earlier. A gold-encrusted steak at Salt Bae’s London restaurant can cost as much as US$2,000. Vietnam’s State-owned media had not reported on the incident.
• According to a police statement via Reuters, Lam is accused of “posting online content that distorted guidelines and policies of the ruling party.” “Lam is also a member of many ‘civil society organizations,’ which are in fact anti-State groups,” said the police statement. The police added that local authorities had repeatedly warned and educated him against uploading content that insulted the Communist country’s leaders, their honor and reputation.
• In an interview, Le Thanh Lam, Tuan Lam’s wife, told BBC News that she believed her husband was abducted after leaving his brother’s house. Thanh Lam added that she lost contact with her husband around 4 p.m. on the day he was arrested.
• In another interview with RFA, she claimed that at about 7 p.m. on the same day, the police surrounded their home and demanded a house search, although they didn’t present a warrant. The police reportedly proceeded with their search after assaulting Lam’s younger brothers and escorting them to the police station. After searching the house, the police confiscated three T-shirts printed with the message “Human rights should be respected in Vietnam,” said Thanh Lam.
• New York-based Human Rights Watch condemned the arrest and said that “Vietnam should abolish rights-abusing article 117 of the Penal Code, and immediately free Bui Tuan Lam and others locked up for simply expressing views the communist party dislikes.”
• “Vietnamese authorities regularly define any comment they don’t like as ‘propaganda against the state’ making Vietnam one of the most thin-skinned governments in the region when it comes to public criticism,” said Phil Robertson, Deputy Asia Director at HRW. “Mockery is a legitimate form of expression that should not be considered a crime,” added Robertson.

Vietnamese music teacher arrested on “anti-State” charges

• Vietnamese police in Dak Lak Province on September 8 arrested Dang Dang Phuoc, a music teacher, on charges of “making, storing, and distributing information, documents, products against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
• Phuoc’s last online post on his social media was about the recent arrest of Bui Tuan Lam, the noodle vendor. According to a friend, he was arrested while doing morning exercises near his house and wished to remain anonymous due to security concerns.
• Phuoc, 59, worked at Dak Lak Provincial Musical College. He was also an online commentator who frequently shared his critical opinions of Vietnam’s human rights violations, corruption, and social injustice. His personal Facebook account has more than 6,000 followers.
• The Dak Lak Police claimed that Dang Dang Phuoc had used his Facebook account to write and publish content that “contains distorted propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” It added that the local authorities “had informed and educated Phuoc to halt the illegal activities but he refused to comply and even advanced such activism.”

Hanoi police arrest Youtuber on alleged “anti-State” charges

• The Hanoi Police on September 9 arrested Phan Son Tung, a local Youtuber, on charges of “making, storing, and distributing information, documents, products against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. The arrest was approved by the Hanoi People’s Procuracy.
• Tung, 38, owns two Youtube channels, Son Tung TV and For a Prosperous Vietnam. Last August, Tung publicly declared that he would form a new political party named “For a Prosperous Vietnam,” while proclaiming that the establishment of different political entities was not illegal in Vietnam and that his aim was not fighting against the ruling Communist Party. His Youtube channel “For a Prosperous Vietnam” has more than 80,000 followers, but all the videos were no longer on display one day before Tung was arrested.
• The Vietnamese Communist Party (VCP) remains the only legitimate ruling party in Vietnam, despite the country’s Constitution not prohibiting the formation of different political parties. Vietnam’s state media accused Tung of “publishing videos and posts containing content which is against the Party and the State.”

Vietnamese blogger Le Anh Hung jailed for five years after a trial without a lawyer

• Le Anh Hung, a Vietnamese political dissident blogger, was sentenced to five years in prison on August 30 after spending more than four years in a mental hospital on the charge of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the State and individuals’ legitimate rights,” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, RFA reported with confirmation from Hung’s family.
• Tran Thi Niem, Hung’s mother, claimed that she didn’t know about his trial until she contacted the police officer investigating his case, which was one week after the trial was held. The police investigator also told Niem that after spending around four years in a detention center and a psychiatric hospital, Hung “will probably be released next year.”
• Hung was a blogger for Voice of America. He was arrested on July 5, 2018, after sending petitions to a variety of central agencies accusing then-Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai of smuggling and spying for China. In 2019, the investigation agency declared that Hung had a mental illness and sent him to a State-run psychiatric facility for forced treatment. Hung was sent back to his former detention center on May 9, 2022. There were allegations that he was drugged and abused while receiving mental treatment.
• Nguyen Thuy Hanh, another Vietnamese activist known for her funding campaign to help the families of political prisoners in Vietnam, was also transferred to a State-run psychiatric facility earlier this year. The Vietnamese authorities alleged that Hanh was sent to the mental hospital to treat her depression. But Hanh’s family expressed concerns that the police might forcibly hold the activist in the facility and not bring her case to trial.

Livestreamer fined for deriding Vietnamese officials as bald, porn addicts

RFA:

• According to State media, authorities in Vietnam have fined an online gaming streamer for defaming unnamed government officials as “bald” and addicted to pornography.
• Nguyen Thi Thanh Loan, also known as Milona, was ordered to pay an administrative fine of 10 million dong (US$425), reports said Tuesday, citing a statement from the Internal Security Office of the Thai Binh Provincial Police.
• Milona, who has more than 200,000 followers on Facebook and is a well-known streamer, did not mention specific heads of state or specific countries, but many Vietnamese Facebook users and State media suggested that she should be punished if she had referred to one of the country’s four top leaders. But rights lawyers told RFA Vietnamese at the time that authorities were overreacting to her comments, which appeared to have been made in jest.

Vietnamese authorities walk back the decision ordering an artist to destroy his 29 paintings

RFA: