A top court in Vietnam turned down an appeal by a prominent labor activist who was sentenced to five years in prison in June for distributing propaganda against the state. The People’s Supreme Court in southeastern Vietnam’s Ninh Thuan province on Wednesday upheld the prison sentence of 53-year-old Phan Ngoc Tuan, an advocate for workers’ rights and an activist who has raised concerns about actions committed by local government.
Tuan, who is also a Catholic missionary, was arrested on Aug. 10 last year for distributing leaflets that denounced “wrongdoings” by local authorities. On June 6, during a trial in which he did not have legal representation, he was sentenced to five years in prison for “conducting propaganda against the state” under Article 88 of the penal code, and an additional three years of probation.
Tuan’s wife, Nguyen Thi Nu, told RFA’s Vietnamese service that she had only recently learned of the appeal date. “I was not informed of the court date and only knew it to be Aug. 29 after visiting my husband,” she said.
“During the indictment, my husband said that he did not expect any leniency … as he was fighting corruption…,” she said, adding that her husband had told her previously that he would appeal to Vietnam’s Head of State, no matter what the outcome of the Supreme Court appeal.
Nu said that she had received no word from court authorities on legal action she and her husband had taken to protect the interest of the workers they distributed leaflets to. “So far, the court has only held the trial concerning the events since 2011, saying that [Tuan] distributed flyers to instigate action [against the State],” she said. “There were 500 workers in total, but only [my husband] stood up to fight.”
Phil Robertson, deputy director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch’s Asia division, said Tuan’s trial demonstrated the Vietnamese government’s intolerance for any kind of opposing viewpoints in society. “Locking away activists like Phan Ngoc Tuan will only mean that local government authorities will be able to enjoy a free hand to abuse their power to enrich themselves and violate human rights,” he said. “This case is yet another instance of Vietnam shooting the messenger rather than addressing the grievances that make local activists stand up and demand justice and accountability.” (Source: RFA Vietnamese Service)
