Act Daily News
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A Hanoi court docket on Wednesday sentenced a distinguished Vietnamese political activist to 6 years in jail for conducting anti-state actions, his lawyer stated, in a case that has raised worldwide issues over the communist nation’s remedy of dissidents.
Nguyen Lan Thang, 48, participated in environmental and anti-China protests, voiced help for different jailed activists, and wrote blogs about Vietnam’s sociopolitical points, in response to his social media accounts.
The police stated final yr they arrested Thang on expenses of “making, storing or distributing information, materials, documents to oppose the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” with out offering additional particulars.
Thang may even be positioned beneath home arrest for 2 years after he serves his sentence, stated his lawyer Le Van Luan after the closed-door trial session on the People’s Court of Hanoi.
Calls to the court docket went unanswered on Wednesday.
Authorities have convicted at the very least 163 folks since 2018 for exercising their rights to freedom of expression or affiliation beneath “vague or overbroad laws that criminalize protesting or criticizing the government,” in response to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
“Vietnam’s authorities systematically trample on human rights by punishing brave bloggers like Nguyen Lan Thang for expressing their views about the government,” stated Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at HRW, which known as for Thang’s launch and for expenses towards him to be dropped.
A delegation of the European Parliament’s Subcommittee of Human Rights throughout a go to to Hanoi final week expressed its “great concern at the worsening human rights situation in the country.”
“The delegation called for immediate and unconditional release of all the political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, including NGO leaders, journalists and environmental activists,” it stated in a press release.
Source: www.cnn.com