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A key activist in protests against a 2016 toxic spill that polluted hundreds of kilometers of Vietnam’s coastline has been released early from prison, relatives told Radio Free Asia.
Tran Thi Xuan was freed on Jan. 17, some 21 months before the end of her nine-year sentence. She still has to serve five years’ probation for “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government.”
RFA was unable to contact Xuan, 48, to ask why she was released early.
Xuan was arrested after joining thousands of protesters outside the People’s Committee headquarters in Ha Tinh province’s Loc Ha district in April 2017 after a spill from a Formosa Plastics Group steel plant the previous year.
The demonstrators occupied the building for several hours demanding compensation for people affected by the disaster and calling on the government to investigate police shootings and beatings the previous night.
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She is the latest member of a Vietnamese human rights group to secure early release after being jailed for their part in the protest against the pollution that killed 115 tons of fish and devastated the tourism and fishing industries in four central provinces.
“Ms. Xuan is an official member of the Brotherhood for Democracy, elected by the association as deputy representative in the Central region,” said the group’s co-founder and president Nguyen Van Dai. “She is an active participant in the movement of Catholics protesting against Formosa’s environmental pollution and demanding compensation for the victims.”
Group members Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Thu Ha were transferred from prison to Germany in June 2018 before the end of their sentences. Former member, Nguyen Bac Truyen, was also transferred to Germany in 2023 after serving more than half an 11-year sentence.
The association’s former chairman, Pham Van Troi, finished his seven-year prison term on July 30. Four other members are serving sentences of between 12 and 13 years.
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn.