By Mac Lam, RFA
Five Vietnamese activists have refused to sign testimonies they gave to police on Tuesday over charges faced by a prominent Vietnamese blogger on hunger strike in jail, claiming their statements were fabricated to implicate the blogger.
An undated photo of Bui Thi Minh Hang protesting against the arrest of compatriots who had staged peaceful demonstrations. Photo courtesy of Danlambao.
The five had been brought in for questioning by Lap Vo district police in southern Vietnam’s Dong Thap province and told to make statements about events related to the detention of blogger Bui Thi Minh Hang.
Hang and another blogger Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh and follower of the Hoa Hao Buddhist sect Nguyen Van Minh are in detention facing charges of “disturbing the public order” and “obstructing traffic,” and have been on a hunger strike for nearly a month to protest their arrest, with family members expressing concern over their health.
Hang’s lawyer said the authorities had forced the five activists—Phan Duc Phuoc, Nguyen Vu Tam, To Van Manh, Bui Thi Diem Thuy and Do Thi Thuy Trang—to incriminate Hang by providing testimony to support the charges against her and by fabricating parts of their statements.
“I know this is against the law,” lawyer Tran Nhu Nam told RFA’s Vietnamese Service, pointing out that Vietnam’s penal code forbids any kind of coerced testimony.
“This not only violates the law but also show us that there is some sort of conspiracy against the defendants. We anticipated this though, and fortunately none of the witnesses signed any papers … [so] there is no evidence on record.”
Nam said that he was considering lodging a complaint against the investigating officers.
Hang and the five activists were among a group of 21 taken into custody on Feb. 11 while on their way to visit the home of rights lawyer Nguyen Bac Truyen’s wife in Dong Thap two days after Truyen was taken into custody in a massive police operation.
The other 18 were released a day after the February detention, which rights groups say was part of a widening crackdown on dissent in the one-party communist state.
Nam said he was awaiting official approval from authorities to represent Hang and was unsure of her current situation in detention.
Read the full story by Mac Lam, RFA.
