Vietnam jails activist-journalist over anti-state videos

Vietnam

Le Van Dung, 51, is a prominent social commentator who highlights sociopolitical issues on YouTube

A prominent social commentator has been jailed for allegedly defaming Vietnam’s communist government in a dozen videos he posted on social media.

State-run Hanoimoi newspaper reported on March 23 that the People’s Court of Hanoi City had imposed a sentence of five years on Le Van Dung after a three-hour trial

The activist, who goes under the name “Le Dung Vova,” was charged with making and posting 12 videos on social media in 2017-18 to defame the government, cause bafflement to the people and offend the honor and prestige of the party and state leaders.

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The 51-year-old defendant was also convicted of partaking in public protests causing public disorder and opposing the government.

Dung, a Hanoi native, will be given five years’ probation after finishing the jail term. The sentence comes almost a year after his arrest in June 2021. 

The newspaper further reported that the court also gave his relative Nguyen Van Son an 18-month suspended sentence for hiding Dung in his home.

“Le Van Dung is one of more than 60 people the Vietnamese authorities are prosecuting or imprisoning simply for criticizing the government” 

Lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, one of two attorneys defending Dung in court, said Dung’s mother and wife were not allowed to enter the court despite court officials saying the trial would be public.

Manh said the defendant took an active part in protests against China’s marine invasion of Vietnam, supporting victims of land grabbing, and protesting environmental pollution caused by Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, a unit owned by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group.

The lawyer said Dung firmly denied all the charges leveled against his videos and maintained he had exercised his freedom of speech under the constitution.

Dung is well known as an independent journalist who comments on social and political issues on his YouTube account, which also served as a forum for other people to speak against unfair treatment from government authorities.

His lawyer said Dung did not commit a crime and asked the court to free him immediately. Dung will file an appeal against the sentence.

Human Rights Watch asked Vietnam to immediately drop the politically motivated charges against Dung and release him.

“Le Van Dung is one of more than 60 people the Vietnamese authorities are prosecuting or imprisoning simply for criticizing the government,” said Phil Robertson, the group’s deputy Asia director. “The Vietnamese penal code provision on propaganda seeks to intimidate people with the threat to shut up or be locked up.”

Robertson said Vietnam persists in treating any sort of criticism of the government as a grave threat to be prosecuted with long prison terms and called on international donors and trade partners to press Hanoi to listen to its critics instead of persecuting them.

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