CPJ
After spending more than three years in aVietnamese jail, blogger Ta Phong Tan was released over the weekend and flew into the U.S. Ta served three years of a 10-year prison term given to her in September 2012 on anti-state charges for speaking up against the government in a blog called Cong Ly v Su That (Justice and Truth).
Vietnamese blogger Ta Phong Tan is flanked by colleague Nguyen Van Hai (Dieu Cay)
and State Senator Janet Nguyen upon her arrival to the U.S. (Photo: Ngoc Lan/Nguoi Viet)
Ta and colleague Nguyen Van Hai (also known by his pen name of Dieu Cay) co-founded the Free Journalists Club. Nguyen was arrested in 2008 on similar charges and was released in October of 2014.
Ta was originally a police officer who turned to writing after she quit her job. She spoke out on the egregious human rights abuses in Vietnam which got her noticed by the government.
Ta arrived at LAX around 9:40 p.m. Saturday to a sea of supporters. Ta has no family or friends in the United States and it is still unclear where she will stay. Her location will be kept secret for security purposes.
Ta’s mother Dang Thi Kim Lieng set herself on fire during her 2012 trial and heard about her mother’s death while imprisoned.
“I was devastated,” she said. “But my mom had always been a fighter. She lit herself where she was supposed to…. I will never shed a tear in front of the communists.”
The U.S. State Department has not said why Ta was released now, but according to reports by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), she has undertaken several hunger strikes to protest prison abuses and has grown weak. According to the CPJ, Vietnam is the fifth worst jailer of journalists in the world. There are still over a dozen journalists still being held in Vietnamese prisons.
To find out more, click here: https://www.cpj.org/2015/09/cpj-welcomes-release-of-vietnamese-blogger-ta-phon.php
