Truong Huy San, also known as Osin Huy Duc, is renowned for his book “The Winning Side” (Bên Thắng Cuộc) Volume I & II”. He was indicted on Feb. 12, 2025, under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code for “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state and the lawful rights and interests of organizations and individuals.” The following provides key details on the progress of his case.

Case Developments

On Feb. 12, 2025, Vietnamese state media reported that the Supreme People’s Procuracy finalized its indictment and formally charged Truong Huy San — also known by his pen name Huy Duc or Osin Huy Duc — under Clause 2, Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended in 2017). He was charged with “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state and the lawful rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”

• The Supreme People’s Procuracy has transferred the case file to the jurisdiction of the Hanoi People’s Court for trial.
• The indictment claims that between 2015 and 2024, Truong Huy San independently gathered information and wrote and published multiple articles on his personal Facebook page, “Truong Huy San (Osin Huy Duc).” Authorities allege that 13 of these articles “infringed upon the interests of the state, as well as the lawful rights and interests of organizations and individuals.”

His articles reportedly garnered a “high number of interactions, comments, and shares,” which authorities believe had a negative impact on social order and public safety. However, the specific content of these articles has not yet been publicly disclosed by the government

• State media reports that Truong Huy San admitted to independently gathering and assessing information for his writings. He also acknowledged that the content of the 13 articles in question impacted the interests of the state, certain lawful organizations, and private individuals. Nevertheless, he maintained that he “had no intention of opposing the party or the state.”

Earlier, on June 1, 2024, Le Nguyen Huong Tra posted on her personal Facebook page: “[The police] are searching the house and arresting journalist Huy Duc.”

• Also on June 1, 2024, Truong Huy San was scheduled to speak at an event at “Cà phê Thứ Bảy Hà Nội.” However, he did not attend. 

The function was hosted by Tran Thanh Canh, a writer and longtime friend of San. After the event, RFI Tiếng Việt released a 49-second audio recording of an interview with Canh. 

According to Canh, on the morning of June 1, he “could not send messages and call [Truong Huy San] by phone.” When he finally reached a family member, “she only said he was busy and did not provide any further details.” He speculated that “she might have been standing next to others at the time, that’s why she did not say more.”

Canh added that after making additional inquiries, he had heard “rumors and unverified information that the authorities had come to Huy Duc’s residence.”

• From June 1 to June 6, 2024, no further information regarding Truong Huy San was found. His Facebook page, which had 350,000 followers, was locked on Feb. 2, 2024. However, it remained unclear whether San had been arrested, as there had been no official announcement from the authorities.

On June 7, 2024, police officials confirmed his arrest through a brief statement published in state media. 

Who is Truong Huy San?

Truong Huy San was born in 1962 in Ha Tinh. He joined the military at the age of 18 and served on the Southwestern Front during the mid-1980s. He is a journalist, blogger, and a prominent political writer with significant influence both domestically and internationally. 

• Truong Huy San began his journalistic career in 1988, adopting the pen names Huy Duc and Osin Huy Duc. He rose to prominence as an investigative journalist focused on anti-corruption issues. He wrote for several leading newspapers in Vietnam at the time, such as Tuổi Trẻ, Sài Gòn Tiếp Thị, Nông Thôn, and others. 
• He received a Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship, which allowed him to study at the University of Maryland in the United States. He graduated and returned to Vietnam in 2006.
• According to veteran journalist Huynh Van Hoa, a longtime colleague of Truong Huy San, San was dismissed in August 2009 after working at Sài Gòn Tiếp Thị for some time. The reasons cited were his articles such as “Chị Hai Thủ tướng” (“The Prime Minister’s Sister”), “Bức tường Berlin” (“The Berlin Wall”), and “Biên giới tháng Hai” (“The February Border”). While these writings earned San widespread recognition, they also caused discomfort among the authorities. 
• Dang Tam Chanh, Sài Gòn Tiếp Thị’s editor-in-chief at the time, was summoned by the HCMC Party’s Propaganda Department for a meeting regarding the publication of 100 “problematic” articles, 57 of which were written by Huy Duc. By March 2014, the newsroom had been suspended and merged into Thời báo Kinh tế Sài Gòn, under the direct control of the HCMC People’s Committee.
• Truong Huy San turned to writing on social media and launched his blog, Osin, in August 2009. As his readership grew to “hundreds of thousands of visits per day,” the blog was eventually targeted and permanently shut down in February 2010.
• In May 2012, Truong Huy San was awarded a Nieman Fellowship and spent a year studying in the United States.

During this period, Truong Huy San wrote “Bên Thắng Cuộc” (The Winning Side) — the work that cemented his reputation. At the time, the book sparked discussion and criticism both domestically and internationally.

The book is divided into two volumes, Giải Phóng (Liberation) and Quyền Bính (Power). It was first published in the United States in 2013. The book primarily examines historical events from the post-Vietnam war period, starting in 1975 and extending to the late 1990s.

In an article, written by Huynh Van Hoa, he remarked: “[...] To this day, no book about the situation in the South after 1975 has provided as comprehensive a set of information and facts as Huy Duc’s work, although the author’s perspective is still based on the viewpoint of the ‘winning side’ [...].”

After the book was released, Pham Thi Hoai commented, “Bên Thắng Cuộc [...] has quickly become a phenomenon [...].”

However, considerable controversy surrounds the book in Vietnam. 

On Jan. 31, 2013, Công an Nhân dân newspaper published an article titled, “Bên Thắng Cuộc and the Praise of the Obscure,” in which the author argued that the book was “not remarkable” and only presented “half of the truth.”

In the same month, Pháp Luật newspaper also released a commentary by Nguyen Duc Hien (now the newspaper’s editor-in-chief), in which he claimed that the information in Bên Thắng Cuộc was “deliberately arranged to serve the author’s personal viewpoints.”

• In an interview with Vietnamese Studies Journal (JVS) in 2013, Truong Huy San expressed concerns about the possibility of being arrested in Vietnam and even considered staying in the United States. However, he spoke about the “coming storm,” saying: “Recently, I told a friend that no one in their right mind would choose to go to prison. But in some cases, imprisonment is inevitable to protect freedom. If everyone avoids prison, we will never achieve freedom.”
• Truong Huy San returned to Vietnam in 2014 and was not immediately arrested. In the same year, he, along with several other journalists and intellectuals, co-founded the Hoàng Sa Bridge Fund (Quỹ Nhịp cầu Hoàng Sa). Through this initiative, he raised funds for the families of South Vietnamese soldiers who died in the 1974 battle to defend the Paracel Islands from Chinese forces. He also supported the veterans and the families of soldiers who perished in China’s 1988 attack on the Spratly Islands. The Hoàng Sa Bridge Fund is the first and only effort by a non-governmental organization to assist soldiers from both sides of the conflict. 
• Since 2020, Trương Huy San has been a freelance journalist, continuing to write political and social commentary in Vietnam on his personal page, which has 350,000 followers.
• In the same year, he founded another non-profit organization, the Vietnam Reforestation and Restoration Social Enterprise (VARS). The organization has planted trees across 313 hectares of deforested land in the provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and the mountainous region of Son La.

The Abuse of Article 331 

This is not the first time that Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended in 2017) has been applied to Vietnamese journalists, bloggers, and human rights defenders.

• Article 331 is based on provisions from Article 258 of the 1999 Penal Code. Both articles address the crime of "exploiting the rights of freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state, and the legal rights and interests of organizations and individuals."
• Article 331 has two clauses. Specifically:

Clause 1: Anyone who exploits the rights of freedom of speech, press, belief, religion, assembly, association, and other democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state, or the legal rights and interests of organizations and individuals, may face a warning, non-custodial reform for up to 3 years, or imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years.

Clause 2: If the offense causes harm to national security, public order, or social safety, the offender may face imprisonment from 2 to 7 years.

• Article 331 is part of a broader legal framework designed to protect national security and public order in Vietnam. It is often cited by authorities to easily handle individuals or organizations accused of distorting facts, insulting the reputation of individuals or organizations, or inciting actions that may destabilize political order.

However, the application of Article 331 has sparked significant debate over the boundary between protecting national security and safeguarding citizens' freedom of speech.

• According to a report published by the Supreme People's Court, at least 67 sentences have been handed down under this penal code between 2018 and 2024. The majority of those convicted are individuals who have voiced criticism on political issues, freedom of the press, or shortcomings within the public administration system.
• Luật Khoa magazine published an article titled “Article 331 Of The Vietnam Penal Code Is Completely Redundant” on March 29, 2022, which The Vietnamese Magazine translated on May 6, 2022. The writer, Trinh Huu Long, argued that Article 331 does not address any specific legal issue but merely serves as a statement of legislative law philosophy. This has led to concerns that the law could be misused to restrict freedom of speech and other democratic rights. The article also analyzes the reasons behind enacting this law, including the government's need to protect its power and create a legal tool with a broad and arbitrary scope of application.

Huỳnh Kha and Đức Nhân wrote this article in Vietnamese, which was published in Luat Khoa Magazine on February 14, 2025. Thúc Kháng translated most of the content of this article into English for The Vietnamese Magazine.