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Vietnam Says Human Rights Attorney Nguyen Van Dai Charged with Articles 79, 88
Defend the Defenders August 27, 2017
Vietnam’s authorities have announced that prominent human right attorney Nguyen Van Dai is charged with subversion under Article 79 of the country’s 1999 Penal Code and the previous charge of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 will remain.
The lawyer, who was arrested in late 2015, will be held further for investigation and the pre-trial detention may be extended to 20 months. If convicted, he will face hard sentence as the punishment for the subversion allegation is life imprisonment or capital punishment while for the second allegation the imprisonment may be up to 20 years.
His assistant Le Thi Thu Ha is also probed for the two charges.
Vietnam has also extended the investigation period for second time against human rights defender Luu Van Vinh, who was arrested on November 6, 2017 and charged with subversion. Mr. Vinh will be kept incommunicado at least until late October, and he has not been permitted to meet with his lawyer nor relatives, the practice Vietnam has applied in political cases.
On August 20, the People’s Court of Hoang Mai town in Vietnam’s central province of Nghe An announced that it delayed the trial against former prisoner of conscience Nguyen Van Oai scheduled on August 21. The reason is the absence of one of witnesses, it said.
Amnesty International launched a campaign calling international community to take an urgent action on the case of human rights defender Nguyen Bac Truyen, who was kidnapped by Vietnam’s security forces on July 30 and later charged with subversion. Specifically, the London-based human rights organization urged people worldwide to write petitions to Vietnam’s prime minister, minister of public security and foreign minister to demand to release the former prisoner of conscience immediately and unconditionally.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |