An ethnic Ede Montagnard minority activist was sentenced to 4 years in jail on Friday for submitting three studies about human rights violations in Vietnam to “reactionary forces” abroad, one other activist who adopted his trial mentioned.
A courtroom in Cu Kuin district, Dak Lak province, sentenced Y Wo Nie on the cost of “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy” below Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, mentioned activist Vo Ngoc Luc, who adopted the trial developments as they had been broadcast over an area loudspeaker.
The article prohibits residents from abusing “the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the State’s pursuits and the professional rights and pursuits of organizations and people.” Rights teams have criticized the statute as offering authorities widespread latitude to crack down on any criticism of the federal government.
Nie participated in a number of on-line coaching programs held by “reactionary forces.” The lessons included classes on non secular religion, Vietnam Civil Regulation, worldwide human rights legislation, the Montagnard expertise in Vietnam, and how you can doc human rights abuses, in accordance with the web information outlet Congly, the mouthpiece of the Supreme Individuals’s Court docket of Vietnam.
“Studying about human rights is superb — that’s what I advised safety officers whom I met this morning,” Luc mentioned. “You can’t convict [people] for taking on-line programs on human rights.”
Prosecutors failed to supply proof to help a second accusation in opposition to Nie for “offering false info,” Luc mentioned.
“They had been all normal and ambiguous accusations,” he mentioned.
“Saying the sentence was too heavy is mistaken,” Luc added. “I might say it was groundless. If we lived in a civilized world, then the courtroom would declare his innocence, set him free proper on the trial, and the investigation company would apologize him.”
In its indictment, the Cu Kuin Individuals’s Procuracy mentioned that in 2020 Nie collected distorting and false info and composed three studies on human rights violations and despatched them to “reactionary forces abroad” through the WhatsApp on the spot messaging service.
The indictment additionally mentioned Nie met with the delegates from the U.S. Embassy and Consulate Common in Vietnam once they visited the Gia Lai province in June 2020.
The judges concluded that Nie’s acts had affected social security and order, political safety and authorities administrative businesses’ actions, undermining confidence within the regime and at house and overseas.
When Nie was arrested in September 2020, Cu Kuin cops mentioned that they seized “many supplies with false content material and pictures slandering, insulting and defaming the status and dignity of the social gathering, state, native authorities, the general public safety forces in Cu Kuin district and in Dak Lak province.”
Previous to the September 2020 arrest, Nie obtained a nine-year jail time period for “sabotaging the nationwide unity coverage.”
In current many years, many ethnic minority teams in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, together with the Montagnards, have been persecuted for his or her non secular beliefs and seen their land confiscated with out ample compensation. The crackdowns are inclined to ramp up on the teams once they attempt to combat again and report these human rights abuses, activists mentioned.
Translated by Anna Vu for RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Written in English by Roseanne Gerin.
