Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Nhu Phuong sentenced to 5 years on “anti-State” charges

• On December 26, the An Giang Provincial People’s Court held a trial for Nguyen Nhu Phuong, a Vietnamese blogger, on charges of “making, storing, and distributing anti-State materials” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. Phuong was subsequently sentenced to five-year imprisonment and three-year probation.
• Phuong, 31, resides in Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province. He studied in Japan in 2014 and later opened a convenience store selling imported Japanese products in Vietnam. The Vietnamese blogger regularly used his personal Facebook account as a platform to raise concerns about multiple political and social issues in Vietnam.
• According to the indictment mentioned in State media, Phuong had used his social media account to “publish information, documents, images, and audio files containing content” that “distorts the guidelines and policies of the Party and State; incites opposition against the Party and State; and offends the honor and dignity of individuals and organizations.”
• Last year, Phuong uploaded a recording on his Facebook account in which Col. Dinh Van Noi, the police head of An Giang Province, was heard talking to an official from the province’s Party committee. In the recording, that police officer claimed defiantly that he rejected an order from his superior to bar local people from returning to the province to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the time, hundreds of thousands of migrant workers were flocking out of Ho Chi Minh City to return to their hometowns after the Vietnamese government lifted its months-long draconian lockdowns. Social media users widely shared the recording in Vietnam.
• Police of An Giang Province claimed that the recording was “modified,” damaging Col. Dinh Van Noi’s reputation and adversely affecting the province’s security, public order, pandemic prevention and control policy. At that time, the Vietnamese government used the police to prevent residents from returning to their hometowns, fearing the virus could be spread among these localities. This policy created a humanitarian crisis when people were prevented from traveling from place to place. The defiance was a rare move in Vietnam’s top-down political system.
• The Vietnamese authorities arrested Phuong on August 30 under the allegation of “illegally possessing and using narcotics.” He was additionally indicted under Article 117 on September 29. According to Dang Dinh Manh, Phuong’s lawyer, the trial on “anti-State” charges lasted about two hours. Phuong has been transported back to Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province to be further investigated for narcotics-related charges.

Another Vietnamese Facebook user was sentenced on the charge of “abusing democratic freedoms”

• Phan Van Phu, 42, a Vietnamese Facebook user from Ben Tre Province, was sentenced to two years and three months for “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe on the State and individuals’ legitimate rights” under Article 331 of the Penal Code. A court announced the verdict in Binh Tan District, Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam’s State media reported on the trial results on December 26.
• According to the indictment, since 2015, Phan Van Phu has created and managed a Facebook account named Gau Dai ca (Big Brother Bear). From December 2021 to May 2022, Phu published five articles, which the authorities claimed had content that “seriously offended the honor, reputation, and dignity of Party and government leaders.” The published articles were classified as “containing defamatory information,” violating Section 3, Article 16 of the 2018 Cybersecurity Law.
• Vietnam has regularly used Article 117 of the Penal Code to prosecute social media users who criticize the government and State leaders. The law is vaguely defined and could be used to stifle freedom of expression. According to a database from The 88 Project, an advocate for speech freedom in Vietnam, 60 people are detained or imprisoned under Article 331.

Freedom of Religion in Vietnam: What happened last week?

• Police in Vietnam’s Dak Lak Province detain Protestant Montagnards as they attend a Christmas service

RFA reported that the police in Vietnam’s Dak Lak Province detained two Montagnard Christians, including religious freedom advocate Y An Hdrue, as they tried to attend a Christmas service of the Evangelical Church of Christ, a local Protestant sect. This Protestant church is an independent religious organization that the Fatherland Front of Vietnam does not control.

According to RFA via the Montagnard Stand for Justice Facebook page, on the morning of December 25, Y An Hdrue, 52, and a fellow worshiper, Y Pok Eban, 37, travelled to Cuor Knia 2 Village in Buon Don District’s Ea Bar Commune to attend a Christmas service at the invitation of the church. But the traffic police stopped them as soon as they arrived, demanding to see their vehicle documents and driver’s licenses.