Blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh at an appeal hearing on November 30, 2017
By Defend the Defenders, November 30, 2017
Security forces in Vietnam’s central province of Khanh Hoa have violently suppressed a peaceful demonstration right after the appeal hearing of prominent human rights defenders Nguyen Ngoc Quynh who is famous with her penname Mother Mushroom.
Triggered by the unfair hearing on November 30 in which the High People’s Court in the central city of Danang upheld the ten-year sentence of the well-known blogger on conviction of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 88 of the country’s 1999 Penal Code, her relatives and supporters conducted the street protest to slam the court and demand for immediate and unconditional release.
In response, dozens of police, militia and thugs surrounded the protestors, robbing their phones and cameras, and brutally beat many of them.
Blogger Nguyen Hoang Vi from Ho Chi Minh City, one of activists came to observe the hearing, reported that among assaulted people are Ms. Tuyet Lan, the mother of Quynh, Mr. Nguyen Minh Hung, a cousin of the jailed blogger, activists Tran Thu Nguyet, Trinh Kim Tien and Nguyen Cong Thanh.
Tien, whose father was killed by a lieutenant police officer in Hanoi in a traffic case six years ago, suffered most as a group of around five plainclothes agents beat her when she conducted a live stream of the demonstration. Police knocked her down on the street and beat her with legs before taking her into a police car.
Police robbed a camera of lawyer Vo An Don, one of five lawyers hired by Quynh’s family to defend for her in the hearing but cannot attend the hearing after being disbarred few days ago, when he filmed the suppression.
Police detained Nguyet, Tien, Thanh, Hung and young activist Nguyen Dang Vu (Facebooker Nguyen Dang Vu) and took them away from the scene. They also tried to arrest Ms. Tuyet Lan but failed due to resistance of other activists. The mother was not allowed to enter the courtroom to observe the hearing of the daughter but stayed away from the court area.
Police released Mr. Hung at 1 PM after holding him two hours in the police station of the Vinh Luong ward. He said police also took bloggers Tien and Thanh to the police station but later transferred them to another place.
Ms. Nguyet is still held in the Xuong Huan ward police station.
Activists reported that police detained Vu, beating him and releasing him at a beach after robbing his wallet and a cellphone.
A number of citizen journalists have also been detained and their situations are unknown, people in the scene said.
Few hours after the appeal hearing ended, US Chargé d’Affaires to Vietnam Caryn McClelland released a statement on the appeal verdict of Mother Mushroom, calling on Vietnam to release Ms. Quynh and all prisoners of conscience immediately, and to allow all individuals in Vietnam to express their views freely and assemble peacefully without fear of retribution.
“I am deeply troubled that a Vietnamese court has upheld the conviction of peaceful activist and International Woman of Courage awardee, blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh (aka “Mother Mushroom”) to 10 years in prison under the vague charge of “propaganda against the State,” Ms. McClelland in the statement posted on the website of the US Embassy in Hanoi.
All people have the right to the fundamental freedoms of expression, association, and of peaceful assembly, she said.
Ms. Quynh is one of six individuals convicted this year for exercising such rights, including Tran Thi Nga., she noted, adding the trend of increased arrests, convictions, and harsh sentences of peaceful activists and students since early 2016 is deeply troubling.
The US also urges the Vietnamese government to ensure its actions and laws, including the Penal Code, are consistent with the human rights provisions of Vietnam’s constitution and its international obligations and commitments, the statement concluded.
Vietnam upheld the sentence of Quynh one day ahead of the annual Human Rights Dialogue with the EU. The EU Parliament has yet to approve the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement due to worsening human rights situation in the Southeast Asian nation.
On November 27, Vietnam convicted citizen journalist Nguyen Van Hoa who covered the news on the environmental disaster caused by the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant in the central province of Ha Tinh and the demonstrations of the local residents who demand the giant plastic group to pay adequate compensation and stop its businesses in the country. Hoa was sentenced to seven years in prison and additional three years under house arrest afterward.
After the trial against Hoa, Mr. Pier Antonio Panzeri, chairman of the EU Parliament’s Subcommittee on Human Rights, released a statement calling on Vietnam’s government to respect the right of freedom of expression of Vietnamese citizens and ask them to reconsider the sentence against the blogger.
He said Vietnam needs to ensure respect for human rights, as they are core elements for the ratification of the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement and the EU-Vietnam Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA).
