The Vietnam Interfaith Council has lashed out on the harsh sentences given to 6 members of the Peng Lei Buddhist Home.
They have been sentenced final week to a mixed 23 years and 6 months in jail on costs of “abusing democratic freedoms” below Article 331 of the Felony Code.
Police suspended investigations into additional allegations of incest and fraud however indicated that different costs could observe.
The council, devoted to preventing for non secular freedom, has members representing 5 main religions in Vietnam: Buddhism, Catholicism, Protestantism, Cao Daism, and Hoa Hao Buddhism.
In a press release, the group expressed “sturdy opposition to the unjust and unlawful case, which is opposite to the fundamental rules of worldwide justice.”
On the identical time, the group denounced the Vietnamese authorities for “defying the Common Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, depriving the Vietnamese folks of fundamental freedoms, together with freedom of faith and speech, freedom of affiliation and the appropriate to a good trial.”
Thich Khong Tanh, co-chair of the Interfaith Council, defined to RFA why the group launched its assertion.
“The Interfaith Council has been current in Vietnam for ten years, and its stance has all the time been to advocate for freedom of faith, perception, and human rights in Vietnam,”.
This [sentence] is a severe violation of the difficulty of freedom of faith and perception. Additionally it is insulting the dignity of human beings, simply because the human rights of the folks in Vietnam usually are not revered.”
Throughout the trial, one of many points raised by the choose was that the Peng Lei sect refused to register to hitch the Vietnamese Buddhist Church.
Retreat head Le Tung Van stated this was as a result of he feels the Vietnamese Buddhist Church is “unworthy” to take part.
Thich Khong Tanh stated the Peng Lei sect has the appropriate to apply Buddhism the way in which they need, not essentially by becoming a member of the Vietnamese Buddhist church:
“You naturally drive folks into your circle so that you can handle, then how can that be known as freedom of perception, freedom of thought, freedom of faith.”
“Vietnamese Buddhism may be very various, and the apply takes many varieties. Due to the Buddha’s teachings, there are forty-eight thousand cultivation strategies. So relying on the folks, if we will entry one thing taught by the Buddha and if we wish to apply, we will all get it.”
Since 2016 Thich Khong Tanh has held the function of Co-Deputy Director of the Government Council of the Sangha of the Unified Buddhist Sangha of Vietnam, a corporation separated from the church relationship again to the Republic of Vietnam.
One other member of the Vietnam Interfaith Council, Cao Dai clerk Hua Phi, additionally instructed RFA that the assertion the group made to affirm the non secular freedom of its members and to denounce the repressive coverage of the Vietnamese state was justified:
“We combat for Vietnam to have freedom of faith. Nobody has the appropriate to drive us to observe a faith that we do not like.”
“Secondly, we discover that for these unjust judgments, the web group in addition to the activists want to talk as much as let the world know that in Vietnam, rulers typically impose their very own variations of the legislation and use punishment to discourage those that don’t obey the desire of the authorities.”
He additionally stated that the federal government initially falsely accused Le Tung Van of committing incest, however later used Article 331 to attempt to present the character of this case is to abolish unregistered teams akin to Peng Lei sect
On July 26, the chief of Lengthy An Provincial Police stated there was not sufficient proof to cost Le Tung Van with incest and stated he would cease accepting allegations of this crime.
The Interfaith Council additionally “requested the United Nations Human Rights Company, worldwide human rights organizations, and liberal and democratic international locations world wide to strain the communist authorities of Vietnam to respect human rights and adjust to worldwide judicial procedures and rules for the Vietnamese folks.”
