Vietnamese Vietnamese Vietnamese Rights activist Trinh Ba Phuong faces a second accusation of anti-state propaganda after the prison guards found a document in his cell that said: “Down with communism,” said his wife at Radio Free Asia.
Phuong is already serving a 10 -year prison sentence linked to its dissemination of information on a land dispute in 2020 where the police clashed with villagers outside Hanoi.
Did Thu Thu, Phuong’s wife, told Vietnamese RFA that he had been accused again under article 117 of the Criminal Code which punishes “manufacture, store and disseminate” anti-state information-a commonly used accusation against government critics.
“According to the investigator, in November 2024, my husband was found with papers and banners whose content was tried against the state,” said Thu, adding that the authorities of a Diem prison in the central province of Quang Nam where he is detained transferred these documents to the provincial security agency which decided to make him prosper.
She said that the documents and banners were all written by Phuong to protest against difficult conditions in a Diem prison and he kept them in his cell. One included the words “Down With Community”.
A Diem prison is known to incarcerate political prisoners.
In April 2024, RFA reported four prisoners of conscience, including Phuong, who was allegedly mistreated by the penitentiary authorities.
“I am very upset by what the prison in the province of Quang Nam did to my husband! The writing of my husband has no impact on society because he is in prison. They are simply trying to punish him. Now in the face of another accusation, the number of years my husband will have to spend will be very high if the convictions accumulate,” said Rfa Thu.
Phuong’s lawyer Dang Dinh Manh, who has decades of experience in political affairs, said it was unprecedented that a political prisoner was being prosecuted for expressed his opinions in prison.
“The abolition of political prisoners in communist prisons is quite common, but that of Trinh Ba Phuong is the first case where a prisoner is prosecuted criminally for expressed his political opinions,” said Manh.
He said the last accusation against Phuong under article 117 was “baseless”.
“Article 117 only applies to acts against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Communist Party is a political organization, not a state. There is also no provision that allows the Communist Party to be assimilated to the State, “he said.
Phuong’s mother can Theu and the younger brother Trinh Ba are also imprisoned, serving 8-year-old sentences imposed in 2021, also accused of propagation of anti-state propaganda.
The family is known to oppose seizures of land and to support farmers who have lost their land because of development projects.
Edited by Mat Pennington.