January 21, 2011
The trial of human rights defender Mr Vi Duc Hoi is scheduled to begin on 26 January 2011 in Lang Son Province, on charges of ’conducting propaganda against the Socialist State’. Vi Duc Hoi is a democracy activist and member of Bloc 8406, a pro-democracy network of human rights defenders and organisations which began working in 2006 by publishing a Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy in Vietnam. Vi Duc Hoi is a 2009 recipient of the Human Rights Watch Hellman/Hammett Award.
Vi Duc Hoi is currently in detention and awaiting trial on charges of violating Article 88 of the Vietnamese Penal Code. He was arrested on 27 October 2010 and placed under four-month temporary detention. Prior to his arrest public security officials had raided his home on 7 October 2010. At that time he was detained and interrogated for one week.
Vi Duc Hoi was a member of the Communist Party between 1980 and 2007, during which time he held a number of positions: Director of the Communist Party School in Huu Lung District, Lang Son Province; District Standing Committee Member; and Chairman of the District Propaganda and Education Committee. The day after he submitted his resignation on 1 May 2007, a party official reportedly issued an order, Decision no. 388-QD/TU, stating that the party would have to “undertake disciplinary action against comrade Vi Duc Hoi […] and expel him”. Vi Duc Hoi was previously arrested in April 2008 for his part in protesting the Beijing Torch Relay in Vietnam. On 12 June 2008, during a Communist Party rally, Vi Duc Hoi was publicly denounced, accused of treason, and threatened with expulsion from his hometown. His wife was dismissed from the Communist Party as a result of her “inability to educate her husband”. Since joining Bloc 8406 Vi Duc Hoi has been denied his health insurance and pension.
Front Line believes that the charges against Vi Duc Hoi, as well as the harassment of his family, are a direct result of his legitimate and peaceful work as a democracy activist and in the defence of human rights, and sees it as forming part of an ongoing pattern of harassment against human rights defenders in Vietnam. Front Line is seriously concerned for the physical and psychological integrity of Vi Duc Hoi while in detention and all human rights defenders in Vietnam.
Front Line urges the Vietnamese authorities to:
1. Immediately drop all charges against Vi Duc Hoi, as it is believed that they have been brought against him solely on account of his legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights;
2. Take all necessary measures to guarantee the physical and psychological integrity of Vi Duc Hoi and ensure that his treatment whilst in detention adheres to all those conditions set out in the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners, adopted by General Assembly Resolution 45/111 of 14 December 1990;
3. Ensure in all circumstances that human rights defenders in Vietnam are able to carry out their legitimate human rights activities without fear of reprisals, and free of all restrictions including judicial harassment.
Source: Front Line Defenders
