Updated July 25, 2024, 4:23 p.m. ET
A court in Vietnam has sentenced Ngo Thi To Nhien, director of a clean energy think tank, to three-and-a-half years in prison, according to human rights group Project88.
Citing three unnamed sources, the group said the closed-door trial in the capital, Hanoi, was held on June 27. State-controlled media have not reported on it.
Nhien was executive director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition Social Enterprise, or VIETSE. The group worked with Vietnamese authorities, foreign governments and corporations to try to reform the energy sector and accelerate its transition to carbon neutrality.
She was arrested in Hanoi on Sept. 15, 2023, and charged five days later with “stealing, buying, selling, or destroying the seal or documents of a state agency or organization” under Article 342 of the criminal code.
Government officials Le Quoc Anh and Duong Viet Duc, who VIETSE hired as consultants, were also arrestedand charged under Article 342.
Project88 said the two also received prison sentences, although it didn’t give details. VIETSE closed shortly after Nhien’s arrest.
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Nhien is the sixth climate activist to be imprisoned by the Vietnamese government since 2021. Dang Dinh Bach, Mai Phan Loi, Nguỵ Thi Khanh, Bach Hong Duong, and Hoang Thi Minh Hong received sentences of up to five years on charges of “tax evasion.”
“The imprisonment of Ngo Thi To Nhien, along with the arrests of other climate activists, has decimated the ability of Vietnam’s civil society to monitor the country’s energy transition,” said Michael Altman-Lupu, Human Rights Researcher at Project88.
“Now, Vietnam has begun to ignore its climate obligations with impunity, and there is nobody left to speak out,” he said.
Radio Free Asia emailed Vietnam’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to confirm Nhien’s sentence and request comment on Project88's statement, but did not immediately receive a response by the time of publication.
European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell is set to visit Vietnam on July 29-31 to discuss cooperation on sustainable development and climate policy.
In a joint letter sent to Borrell, the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights and the Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights asked him to urge Vietnamese authorities to release Ngo Thi To Nhien, as well as Dang Dinh Bach, Hoang Thi Minh Hong and other environmental rights and climate defenders.
“We believe there can be no sustainable development in Vietnam without the participation of civil society, and no just energy transition whilst climate leaders are behind bars,” the organizations said.
Project88 said Hanoi is reneging on commitments it made in order to qualify for US$15.5 billion in funding from the EU and G7 nations under a Just Energy Transition Partnership Agreement.
The group said the arrest of Nhien and other campaigners came as a result of the Communist Party’s so-called Directive 24, which “considers policy activism, foreign funding, and reformists as threats to national security.”
“Hanoi has recently adopted a policy of human rights abuses (Directive 24). The regime has also systematically violated the terms of the E.U.-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the E.U.- led Just Energy Transition Partnership Agreement by imprisoning many civil society leaders and progressive government officials involved in monitoring these agreements,” said Ben Swanton, co-director of Project 88.
“Borrell should prioritize securing the release of these political prisoners and demand the immediate repeal of Directive 24, and refrain from drawing Vietnam into an anti-China coalition during his visit to Vietnam.”
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Taejun Kang.
This has been updated to add comments from the Vietnam Committee on Human Rights and the International Federation for Human Rights.