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Vietnamese environmental activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong has asked for political asylum in the United States after arriving there on Tuesday, she told Radio Free Asia on Thursday.
Hong was released from a Vietnamese prison in September, a year into a three-year prison sentence for tax evasion.
The 52-year-old founded the non-profit CHANGE VN, which campaigned to raise environmental awareness. She shut it down in October last year after the arrest of several environmental activists. Prosecutors accused her of dodging US$274,000 in taxes, which she was ordered to pay back, along with a fine of $4,000.
Hong told RFA she pleaded guilty and her family paid back all the money demanded by the court.
Hoang flew with her husband and son from Ho Chi Minh City to Washington’s Dulles International Airport, with a stopover in Istanbul, Turkey.
“I want to continue my environmental and climate work and I found it very difficult to carry out my plans in Vietnam,” she said. “I chose to move to the U.S. so I can do the work I love and make positive contributions to society, but in a safer place, and with more opportunities and support.”
RFA Vietnamese emailed the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Embassy in Vietnam with a request for comment on Hong’s case for political asylum, but did not receive a response by time of publication.
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Hong’s Sept. 20 release came in a presidential pardon one day before the country’s new Communist Party General Secretary To Lam, also the president at the time, flew to the U.S. to speak before the United Nations General Assembly.
Authorities also released Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, eight months before the end of his 16-year sentence. Thuc, 57, told RFA at the time he refused the presidential pardon since he was innocent of the crime of “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government.”
In 2021, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh committed to reducing net carbon emissions to zero by 2050 and transitioning from fossil fuels to clean energy at a U.N. climate conference in the United Kingdom.
A year later Vietnam announced it was entering into a Just Energy Transition Partnership with countries including the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy, Norway, Denmark, Japan and Canada, and the European Union.
The agreement came with a promise from international financial institutions to provide US$15.5 billion in loans, along with technical assistance to support the elimination of fossil fuels.
However, since then Vietnam has jailed six prominent environmentalists, including Hong, Dang Dinh Bach, Nguy Thi Khanh, Mai Phan Loi, Bach Hung Duong and Ngo Thi To Nhien who received prison sentences of as long as five years on charges of tax evasion and appropriating documents. Bach and Nhien are still in prison.
Edited by Mike Firn and Matt Reed.