BANGKOK: Three outstanding critics of Vietnam’s authorities have been arrested, a rights group mentioned Wednesday, days after the Southeast Asian nation mentioned it will run for one more time period on the United Nations Human Rights Council.
Influential rights campaigner and YouTuber Nguyen Chi Tuyen, and Nguyen Vu Binh — a political activist who served nearly 5 years in jail within the early 2000s — had been arrested final Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) mentioned in an announcement.
Hoang Viet Khanh was arrested the next day. All three had been accused of conducting propaganda towards the state, HRW mentioned.
A crackdown on dissent has been escalating lately in Vietnam, a one-party state.
Critics of the communist authorities face intimidation, harassment, restricted motion, arbitrary arrest and detention, in addition to imprisonment after unfair trials, and there are stories of police torture to extract confessions, HRW says.
Forty-nine-year-old Tuyen, who’s often known as Anh Chi, helped discovered the outstanding impartial civil society group No-U, which protests China’s territorial claims within the South China period.
One in every of his YouTube channels, Anh Chi Rau Den, has produced 1,600 movies and is adopted by 98,000 subscribers.
Binh, 55, labored as a journalist on the official Communist Social gathering of Vietnam’s journal for nearly 10 years earlier than he resigned and tried to kind an impartial political celebration. He was sentenced to seven years in jail for espionage in 2003.
The arrest of Khanh, a citizen journalist, was reported in Vietnamese state media. Authorities haven’t confirmed the arrests of any of the three.
The arrests got here simply days after Vietnam’s overseas minister Bui Thanh Son referred to as on international locations to assist its bid for re-election as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2026-2028 tenure.
There are presently 175 activists in jail in Vietnam, in line with The 88 Challenge, a Vietnam-focused human rights organisation.
Final week the group mentioned Vietnam’s leaders had issued a secret directive that will body nearly all worldwide commerce and cooperation as a menace to nationwide safety, including that it will additional entrench “systematic” human rights violations.
Directive 24, as it’s referred to as, was issued in July 2023 simply two months earlier than US President Joe Biden visited Hanoi as Washington seeks a dependable various buying and selling associate to China.
Influential rights campaigner and YouTuber Nguyen Chi Tuyen, and Nguyen Vu Binh — a political activist who served nearly 5 years in jail within the early 2000s — had been arrested final Thursday, Human Rights Watch (HRW) mentioned in an announcement.
Hoang Viet Khanh was arrested the next day. All three had been accused of conducting propaganda towards the state, HRW mentioned.
A crackdown on dissent has been escalating lately in Vietnam, a one-party state.
Critics of the communist authorities face intimidation, harassment, restricted motion, arbitrary arrest and detention, in addition to imprisonment after unfair trials, and there are stories of police torture to extract confessions, HRW says.
Forty-nine-year-old Tuyen, who’s often known as Anh Chi, helped discovered the outstanding impartial civil society group No-U, which protests China’s territorial claims within the South China period.
One in every of his YouTube channels, Anh Chi Rau Den, has produced 1,600 movies and is adopted by 98,000 subscribers.
Binh, 55, labored as a journalist on the official Communist Social gathering of Vietnam’s journal for nearly 10 years earlier than he resigned and tried to kind an impartial political celebration. He was sentenced to seven years in jail for espionage in 2003.
The arrest of Khanh, a citizen journalist, was reported in Vietnamese state media. Authorities haven’t confirmed the arrests of any of the three.
The arrests got here simply days after Vietnam’s overseas minister Bui Thanh Son referred to as on international locations to assist its bid for re-election as a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the 2026-2028 tenure.
There are presently 175 activists in jail in Vietnam, in line with The 88 Challenge, a Vietnam-focused human rights organisation.
Final week the group mentioned Vietnam’s leaders had issued a secret directive that will body nearly all worldwide commerce and cooperation as a menace to nationwide safety, including that it will additional entrench “systematic” human rights violations.
Directive 24, as it’s referred to as, was issued in July 2023 simply two months earlier than US President Joe Biden visited Hanoi as Washington seeks a dependable various buying and selling associate to China.
