From Vietnam Right Now
A writer who’s also one of Vietnam’s popular bloggers was arrested Dec. 6 afternoon following a lengthy police search of his home in Saigon, according to his friends and family. Nguyen Quang Lap (Nguyễn Quang Lập), who calls himself Bo Lap (Bọ Lập) and is the owner of the blog Que Choa (Quê Choa), was reportedly charged with “abusing democratic freedoms” under the ambiguous and overbroad Article 258 of the Vietnamese Penal Code.
Lap’s arrest is the second of a prominent blogger in as many weeks. It also came a little more than one month after the website nguyentandung.org, named after Vietnam’s prime minister, published a series of articles attacking the Que Choa blog and ominously warning that Lap “should know the price he has to pay” for his writings.
The site, which is pro-government but has never been proved to be directed by the Prime Minister, singled out articles on Que Choa criticizing recent statements by the Communist Party’s Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong (Nguyễn Phú Trọng). The Secretary General had warned that anti-corruption efforts were difficult because, quoting an old proverb, “don’t break the vase when striking the rats.”
The police came to Lap’s house at 9 am, executed a search and, according to his brother, declared that they had caught Lap “red-handed publishing articles with contents considered disparaging, opposing the government.”
Read the full story HERE.
