Two weeks before her arrest, a fallen soldier’s daughter wrote on Facebook that the complaint she had sent against the Sơn La Provincial Party Committee had gone unanswered.
The Latest: On Oct. 22, the Security Investigation Agency of Sơn La provincial police charged and arrested Đàm Thị Tươi for “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of the Penal Code.
- Born in 1965 and a resident of Tô Hiệu Ward in Sơn La,Tươi is accused of using the Facebook account “Đàm Tươi” since 2019 to post content that the agency describes as “bad” and “[damaging to] the prestige” of the Provincial Party Committee, the People’s Committee of the former Sơn La City, and several provincial leaders.
Leadup to Arrest: On March 10, Tô Hiệu Ward police issued Notice No. 04, signed by Ward Police Chief Lt. Col. Trần Hùng Mạnh.
- The notice stated that they had “prepared a report proposing that the provincial police leadership assign the provincial police’s professional departments to advise the leadership to propose that the Sơn La Provincial Party Committee direct the relevant units to review and resolve Đàm Thị Tươi’s grievances in accordance with the law.”
In April, Tươi sent a complaint against the Sơn La Provincial Party Committee to Trần Sỹ Thanh, chair of the Central Inspection Commission, and visited the commission twice.
On Oct. 8, two weeks before her arrest, she wrote on Facebook that after six months, the commission still had not sent any written reply.
Tươi’s Accusations: According to her Facebook posts, Tươi has claimed since 2004 that the People’s Committee of what was then Sơn La town took part of her family’s land and included it in a land-use certificate issued to a neighboring household.
- Tươi, whose family is that of a fallen soldier, alleged that the neighbor was the driver for Sơn La’s provincial chairman.
- In 2022, National Assembly Television aired a report on her case titled “Daughter of Fallen Soldier Spends Nearly 20 Years Reclaiming Her Land Because of Careless Officials.”
Tươi also claimed that a former provincial leader once offered her money to settle the case, which she refused.
- According to a record of a Feb. 5, 2026, meeting with Tô Hiệu Ward police, Tươi stated that on Oct. 18, 2024, Hoàng Quốc Khánh, then Sơn La provincial party secretary, met her, told her the earlier decisions and rulings “were wrong,” and offered to pay her 500 million đồng (about $19,000).
- The police record noted that this claim “has no supporting documents.”
At 5 p.m. on Oct. 26, Luật Khoa called the phone number Tươi says belongs to Khánh, but no one answered.
- A search of the number on the messaging app Zalo found it registered to someone named “Hoàng Q Khánh.”
On the morning of Oct. 28, Luật Khoa also called the phone number of Nguyễn Ngọc Tú, chief of the Sơn La Provincial Party Committee office, to request an interview, but no one answered.
From the Police: On Oct. 23, Sơn La provincial police stated that the land-use certificate for the neighboring household had only a drawing error, overlapping 13.7 square meters of her land on paper, but “did not overlap on the ground.”
- According to police, city and provincial authorities, and three levels of courts—including the Supreme People’s Court—concluded that the certificate had been issued in error, resulting in its revocation and the disciplining of the involved officials. However, police asserted that Tươi’s claim for compensation “has no basis.”
Police maintained that although the case “has been resolved by the competent authorities in accordance with the law,” Tươi continued filing complaints and accusations.
- They allege that since 2019, she had posted content that was “false, distorted, and defamatory toward state agencies.”
Thành Phương wrote this news article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on October 29, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine translated it into English.
