VIET TAN
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
27 OCTOBER 2021
VIET TAN ANNOUNCES MAGNITSKY CAMPAIGN TO IMPOSE SANCTIONS ON TWO MAJOR VIETNAMESE OFFICIALS
Over the past decade, Vietnamese government officials have continued to tighten their grip on freedom of expression and target citizen journalists and activists. To combat the abuse of human rights occurring globally, the United States passed the Magnitsky Act in 2012, which places sanctions against human rights offenders. Since then, a number of other countries, including Canada, the United Kingdom, and the European Union member states have passed similar legislation that would freeze assets and prevent the offender from entering the country.
Viet Tan, in collaboration with nine international non-governmental organizations (INGOs), released a report detailing violations committed by two Vietnamese Politburo members: To Lam, Minister of Public Security and Nguyen Hoa Binh, Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court. This report documents the gross violation of human rights from these two officials, including economic reprisals against activists by forcing business owners to dismiss them or by destroying their businesses through threats to customers, refusing to issue passports, travel-banning, rigged case trials, and abusing their roles in these positions to assault, torture, and imprison over 500 dissidents. These NGOs will meet with representatives from the European Union, United States Congress, the Canadian and British Parliaments to call on officials to impose sanctions on the two Vietnamese officials.
Organizations involved in this campaign are:
- Article 19
- ACAT France
- ACAT Germany
- Brotherhood for Democracy
- Cosunam
- Destination Justice
- Reporters Without Borders
- Safeguard Defenders
- Viet Tan
- Watchdogs Unleashed
For more information, please contact:
Michel Tran
michel@viettan.org
+33 6 62 14 26 76
View a PDF version of this press release here.
View the PDF version of the official Global Magnitsky Report here.