UPDATED at 1:31 p.m. EST on 11-16-2022
The United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD), has called on Vietnamese authorities to release poet, author and human rights campaigner Tran Duc Thach.
WGAD's report, posted on Nov. 4, called Thach's arrest arbitrary and said he should be compensated for his time in prison.
Thach, 71, a co-founder of Vietnam’s online Brotherhood for Democracy, was arrested on April 23, 2020. He was charged with “activities aimed at overthrowing the People’s Government” under Article 109 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Thach had previously served a three-year jail term after being convicted in October 2009 of “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The independent group of human rights experts said Thach was harassed continuously by the Nghe An Provincial Police in the run-up to his arrest.
On the morning of April 23, 2020, about 20 plainclothes officers, believed to be from the provincial police security team, arrived at Mr. Thach's house with a search warrant. Although the search warrant was read aloud, his family members were not allowed to see the details. The police searched the house, confiscated some belongings and arrested Thach. The security agency only issued an arrest warrant to one of Thach’s family a day after his arrest.
The WGAD said that criticizing the regime and co-founding an organization does not violate national and international law. It said Thach was punished for exercising his right to freedom of association by helping to set up the Brotherhood for Democracy, a civil society organization that had repeatedly been suppressed by the Vietnamese government, and for campaigning for human rights on social media.
“His postings on Facebook are acts which are both unforeseeable as criminal, and protected under the Covenant, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and other international norms and standards. Because the law is so vague as to be meaningless, it cannot support the basis for Mr. Thach’s detention and conviction,” the UN document said.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees all forms freedom of opinion and expression including internet posts, the WGAD said.
The group also criticized his trial, which lasted less than three hours after he had spent eight months in solitary confinement.
During his eight-month detention, the former North Vietnamese army officer was not allowed to see his relatives, and was only allowed to see his lawyer a day before the trial to prepare his defense.
In an interview with Radio Free Asia, lawyer Nguyen Van Dai, co-founder and chairman of the Brotherhood for Democracy, agreed with the WGAD report and called for the release of all political prisoners.
“Tran Duc Thach, as well as other members of the Brotherhood for Democracy and nearly 300 prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, have not committed any violations of Vietnamese law.
“The arrest and detention of Mr. Tran Duc Thach and other prisoners of conscience by the Vietnamese government violates Vietnamese and international law."
A Vietnamese human rights activist currently living in exile in Germany told RFA that Thach and other prisoners of conscience who were sentenced on charges such as "conducting anti-state propaganda," "abusing civil liberties" and "subversion" are only exercising universal human rights such as freedom of speech, press, association, and assembly to fight for a free and democratic Vietnam.
In the final part of the report, along with calling for Thach’s release and compensation, the WGAD also asked the Vietnamese authorities to investigate the arrest, bring the violators to justice and report back to them about the implementation of the above requirements.
What does the Vietnamese government say about Thach's case?
The Hanoi government has said it believes Thach was arrested for violating Vietnamese law, not for his democratic views, and that the arrest and sentencing were carried out in accordance with Vietnamese law, consistent with international conventions and international standards that Vietnam has ratified.
It said that Thach co-founded the Brotherhood for Democracy, which attracted members from across the country and linked-up with terrorists with the goal of overthrowing the Communist Party of Vietnam and the government.
Hanoi also said Thach took advantage of his freedom and democracy to publish many articles with distorted content intended to smear the regime and incite anti-government sentiment.
In the last five years, the WGAD has released dozens of documents stating that the arrest and conviction of scores of prisoners of conscience are arbitrary and called on the Vietnamese government to release them.
"The WGAD is right to sweep aside the Vietnam government's weak excuses for imprisoning Tran Duc Thach, who is clearly a political prisoner held for expression of his beliefs," Phil Robertson, the deputy director of Human Rights Watch's Asia division, told RFA.
“The WGAD's opinion lays out in great detail how Vietnam is systematically violating international human rights law in continuing to hold him, and Hanoi should heed this opinion, and immediately and unconditionally release Tran Duc Thach.
“When viewed from the perspective of international law, it's not even a close call that what Vietnam is doing to him is both illegal and unjustified.
“Both the US and EU should strongly advocate for Vietnam to let him go, in line with the WGAD recommendations, and demand that Hanoi free the more than 160 other political prisoners also imprisoned by Vietnam on similarly bogus, politically motivated charges."
Government ‘feels threatened’
Meanwhile, New York-based Human Rights watch on Wednesday called for the release of another political prisoner, Bui Van Thuan, accused of insulting authorities on Facebook.
Thuan, 41, was arrested on Aug. 29, 2021. He is said to be the author of a series of Facebook posts about the struggle for power of officials in many localities, which he nicknamed "the dog fighting ring." His trial is set to commence on Thursday.
"The Vietnamese government's baseless prosecution of Bui Van Thuan for Facebook posts demonstrates the extent of its disregard for free expression," said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement.
“The Vietnamese government, despite controlling all radio, television, and print media in the country and regularly pumping out official propaganda, still feels threatened by independent minds like Bui Van Thuan,” Robertson said.
Thuan is charged with "making, storing and spreading information with items aimed at opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam," in violation of Article 117 of the Vietnamese penal code, a vague set of rules that according to analysts is frequently used by authorities to stifle peaceful critics of the country’s one-party communist government.
His wife, Trinh Thi Nhung, told RFA that she would participate in his trial on Thursday as a witness.
“As a wife, I always expect the best for my husband. I believe in my husband’s innocence but what I have learned from other political prisoners’ trials gives me no hope for my husband’s freedom,” she said.
Hanoi has always denied holding prisoners of conscience, saying it only imprisons those who break the law.
Translated by Ngu Vu and Anna Vu for RFA Vietnamese. Written in English by Mike Firn and Eugene Whong.
UPDATE: Adds information and quotes about Bui Van Thuan’s case.