Phú Thọ police allegedly forced a citizen to their headquarters for questioning despite failing to present any legal basis or official decision.
What is Happening: On May 25, Trần Quyết Thắng wrote on his personal Facebook page that Phú Thọ provincial police had taken him to their headquarters for questioning and later unlawfully seized his phone.
According to him, at around 3 p.m. on May 9, six people who identified themselves as officers from Cao Dương Commune Police in Phú Thọ and provincial security officials arrived by car at his bicycle recycling workshop. They asked him to go to the police headquarters for “temporary residence and absence checks.”
But when Thắng asked them to show an invitation letter or an official decision requiring him to work with police, they “failed to present” any such document. The group then took him by car to the police headquarters, where he was questioned by “five to six people taking turns for nearly five hours.”
The questioning, he said, focused mainly on “personal life, relationships, and the Rebike for Kids bicycle recycling project,” rather than the residence check he had initially been told about.
At around 8:30 p.m. that day, after signing a working record and a commitment to comply with the law, police asked him to unlock his phone. He refused, saying he wanted “to protect his privacy.” But the phone was later seized without any confiscation record or appointment paper for the return of the property.
At around 9 p.m., he was allowed to leave.
On May 15, Thắng went to the Phú Thọ provincial police headquarters to ask about his phone. An officer from PA02, the Internal Security Division, told him that it was “not here” and said they would notify him if there was any related information.
In his post, Thắng also stressed that he had “never had a criminal record, prior conviction, or even an administrative violation.” He said the authorities’ retention of a citizen’s phone “for more than half a month without a temporary seizure decision, confiscation record, or any notice” was “against the law” and had affected his work and personal rights.
As of 10:30 a.m. on May 27, the post had received more than 11,900 likes, over 3,000 comments, and more than 800 shares.
What People are Saying: Thắng said that more than two days after he shared the incident, many anonymous Facebook accounts flooded his page with insults, vulgar comments, and links or screenshots of old articles that portrayed him and his bicycle recycling project maliciously.
Under the post, many social media users also expressed their views on the case.
One of the most engaged comments, with 600 likes, came from an account named Minh Thọ: “If this information is accurate, it is truly incomprehensible. Why would such humanitarian volunteer work be obstructed?”
Another account, Quốc Uy, wrote: “I truly feel helpless and sympathize with you. This is really an absurd story.” The comment later received nearly 300 likes.
Who is Trần Quyết Thắng? Trần Quyết Thắng, born in 1985 in Hà Tĩnh Province, is the founder of Rebike for Kids, or R4K, a community project he launched in 2020 to collect, recycle, repair, and donate old bicycles to disadvantaged students and people lacking transportation.
So far, R4K has collected, repaired, and donated more than 3,000 bicycles and over 500 wheelchairs to poor students and people with disabilities across the country.
In 2021, Hà Tĩnh Newspaper published an article about him titled “Hà Tĩnh: The Truth Behind Trần Quyết Thắng’s ‘Community Role Model’ Image.” In the article, the newspaper repeatedly claimed that Thắng had “connected with several reactionary elements,” “frequently incited protests,” and “promoted project activities of a ‘civil society’ nature,” among other accusations.
The next day, Thắng sent a petition to the Department of Information and Communications, asking that the article be removed and that a public correction be published.
According to Thắng, the article contained numerous false, distorted, and defamatory claims that harmed his reputation, honor, and dignity, as well as the reputation of related organizations.
As of April 14, 2021, 18 days after Thắng submitted the petition, the Department of Information and Communications had not issued any official response. The article remains online.
Lăng Nguyên wrote this article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on May 27, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine has the copyrights of the English translation.
