September 24, 2010
VRNs – Hanoi, Vietnam – On September 10th, 2010, VNRs reporter had an interview with Le Thi Cong Nhan, a lawyer, on the case of Professor Pham Minh Hoang, who had been arrested for the crime of “plot to overthrow the government”, according to Article 79 of Criminal Law.
As a lawyer who had been arrested and imprisoned three years for the crime of “plot to overthrow the government”, Le Thi Cong Nhan was ready to answer us about the case of Professor Hoang.
Paulus Le Son: Good morning, Miss Cong Nhan. We are pleased to interview you about Professor Pham Minh Hoang, who have been arrested by Vietnam Police and imprisoned four months for “plot to overthrow the government”, accoding to Article 79 of Vietnam Criminal Law.
Have you noticed the information related to Professor Pham Minh Hoang, Professor of Polytechnical University, arrested and imprisoned by the police for “plot to overthrow the government”. You have experienced what is now happening to Professor Hoang, so would you like to tell us something about how the Vietnamese government often treats the strugglers for democracy, and what do you think about it?
Le Thi Cong Nhan: What I have experienced and what I have known about other democratic strugglers show me that the Vietnamese government treats people illegally and irrationally. This government does not base on any regulations when they judge political cases. So the government oppresses each democrat in a different way. If we do not know how the communists often behave, we will misunderstand the democrats.
About Professor Pham Minh Hoang, I think the government breaks the Vietnamese law when they arrest and imprison him without the decision sent to him and his family. However, in the political cases in Vietnam, the regulations are not mentioned because Vietnamese police do not obey any regulations.
It is known that 24 hours after professor Pham Minh Hoang was arrested, the prosecution decision was issued.
How about me? Before I was imprisoned, I used to be arrested many times. The Thang Tien (Progress) Party operated officially in September 8th 2009, and I was imprisoned in March 2007. When the police arrested and imprisoned me, they continuously accused me falsely, prosecuted me unfairly and threatened me badly. I was accused of “plot to overthrow the government”, spying, terrorism according to articles 79, 84 and 88 of the Vietnamese Criminal Law.
What does it mean? My activities are always the same, but the way the government judges changes all the time, depending on their hobbies or “inventions”. For example, when they said I was a spy, I laughed loudly and asked “For whom?”, then they said I abused “democracy and freedom”, but we, lawyers, think that how can we abuse democracy and freedom when they do not exist in Vietnam?
Thus I think it is not certain to accuse Professor Pham Minh Hoang of the breach of Article 79. In the future they will change to another case. We see that the democracy strugglers are often accused according to Articles 88, opposing to the government, and 79, plot to overthrow the government.
In fact, those cases are impossible. They do not exist, but are invented by communist “genius” brains. In democratic societies, the replacement of a government by a better one is common and simple, but it is not allowed in Vietnam. When somebody disagrees with the government or protests the communist party, the government will accuse him of rebel, destruction or plot to overthrow the government. For a dictator, anyone who is different from him must be considered to be a criminal.
I do not know much about Professor Pham Minh Hoang’s activities. To my knowledge, he not only writes about democracy but also joins a party who struggle non-violently for the Vietnamese democracy. Democracy is a concept that can be seen through the practice of pluralism and multiparty. It is rumored that Pham Minh Hoang is a member of Viet Tan party. Even if this is true, he cannot be accused.
If the communist party is so terrified of Viet Tan, then Viet Tan has been really powerful and capable of doing influential things in the Vietnamese society.
Ahthough the communist party are not concerned about what the people in the country think about those political cases, they know that the international community cannot ignore those, they may be prepared to show some evidence that seems to be professional.
The communist party know that when they arrest a public figure, they can make many people shocked, but they still do without any good excuse. And they have to pay for their actions.
Paulus Le Son: Thank you very much for this interview.
Paulus Le Son, VRN
