The household of a Vietnamese political dissident say it took every week for them to seek out out the result of his trial, which happened with no protection lawyer.
Le Anh Hung was sentenced to 5 years in jail on August 30 after spending greater than 4 years in a psychological hospital and on remand.
The blogger was tried on the cost of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the pursuits of the State, organizations and people,” underneath Article 331 of the Prison Code.
“Lately, I known as the police officer investigating my son’s case to ask about it. He stated my son was tried on August 30. I requested what number of years [the sentence was]. He stated 5 years,” Hung’s mom Tran Thi Niem instructed RFA.
The Hanoi police investigator additionally instructed Niem that, after subtracting greater than 4 years in a detention heart and a psychiatric hospital, “he’ll most likely be launched subsequent 12 months.”
RFA known as the cellular variety of the Hanoi Metropolis Police investigator who dealt with the case, however nobody answered.
Our reporter additionally tried to name the Hanoi Individuals’s Court docket utilizing the cellphone quantity listed on the company’s web site however the line was at all times busy.
The state-controlled press has made no point out of the trial.
Lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng, from the Ho Chi Minh Metropolis Bar Affiliation, signed a contract to supply authorized help to Hung, however Hung later waived his proper to a lawyer after his household had a “monetary disagreement” with Mieng.
“Hung had a doc permitting him to refuse a lawyer after he obtained out of the psychological hospital,” Mieng stated. “I had solely met him as soon as so the safety investigators instructed me to not proceed.”
Mieng was not knowledgeable in regards to the trial since he was not the dissident’s protection lawyer.
Hung, born in 1973, was a blogger for Voice of America, specializing in writing about politics in Vietnam.
He’s a member of two civic organizations that aren’t acknowledged by the Vietnamese authorities: The Unbiased Journalists Affiliation of Vietnam and the Brotherhood for Democracy. The 2 organizations have been suppressed prior to now few years and dozens of members have been despatched to jail with prolonged sentences.
Hung was arrested on July 5, 2018 after sending a whole lot of petitions to quite a lot of central businesses accusing then-Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai of smuggling and spying for China.
In April 2019, the investigating company despatched Hung to the Central Institute of Forensic Psychiatry forcing him to be handled for an alleged psychological sickness. Throughout that point his household say he was drugged and abused.
In Could this 12 months, after greater than three years of pressured psychiatric therapy, the police company introduced Hung again to Detention Heart No. 1 underneath the authority of the Hanoi Police Division to await his trial
Instantly after information of his arrest, Amnesty Worldwide issued a press release condemning the transfer and saying the Vietnamese authorities was utilizing harsh legal guidelines to silence peaceable critics.
Because the starting of the 12 months, Vietnam has sentenced a minimum of 21 bloggers and activists. Ten of them had been convicted of “abusing democratic freedoms” with sentences starting from one to 5 years in jail.
