HANOI (AFP) – Police in communist Vietnam on Tuesday arrested two pro-democracy lawyers accused of issuing propaganda against the state in what activists have called an increased crackdown on human rights.
Hanoi-based lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan were detained in the capital in the morning, according to state media, a relative and overseas-based members of the banned People’s Democratic Party.
A newsreader on state-run VTV said that “investigative police today searched the house and the office of Nguyen Van Dai and searched the house of Le Thi Cong Nhan. The two were arrested.
“Police confiscated many documents with the content of propaganda against the state of Vietnam and many religious documents that were about to be provided to foreign sources.”
Both were accused of breaching article 88 of the criminal code, which bans “propagating against” and “defaming” the government and carries 3-12 years’ jail, with 20-year sentences for “particularly serious crimes.”
Dai, who defends imprisoned cyber-dissidents and regularly posts pro-democracy essays online, was previously detained and questioned by police in early February, along with other activists.
Several new pro-democracy groups — and a larger coalition known as “Bloc 8406” — have emerged over the past year in Vietnam, which tolerates no rival political groups and controls the media and Internet.
Dissidents say Vietnam — having hosted an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation ( APEC) summit late last year and having achieved other diplomatic milestones — is now increasing its oppression of those who challenge the regime.
“We anticipated this crackdown on dissent after the APEC summit once Vietnam had obtained all it wanted from the international community,” including World Trade Organisation membership, said Vo Van Ai of the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights.
“We did not have to wait long. Today, Vietnam has resorted to its old repressive habits, crushing all peaceful voices of dissent.”
Late last month, police in the central city of Hue raided the house of dissident Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly, 59, accused him of breaching article 88 and moved him to a new location under house arrest.
Media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders protested the arrests.
“We are very worried for Nguyen Van Dai, his colleague Le Thi Cong Nhan but also Father Ly, who have all been accused of the same thing,” said Julien Pain, in charge of Internet and freedom issues at the Paris-based group.
Vu Minh Khanh, the wife of the 37-year-old Hanoi lawyer Dai, recounted on Tuesday how uniformed and plain-clothed police had started following the couple at 8am that morning before detaining her husband.
“Around 11:00 am another group of five to six policemen, half of them not in uniform, forced my husband to get into a car and took him to our home,” she told AFP.
“At 11:30 am, they read the order to arrest my husband with a temporary detainment period of four months. The reason they gave was propagating against the government according to article 88 of the criminal code.
“At 11:50 am, they took my husband to Hanoi police prison No.1 in Cau Dien town, Tu Liem district. Since then I have not been able to contact my husband.”
