Vietnam’s Ministry of Public Security has recently admitted that the police forces arrested YouTuber Duong Van Thai on charges of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code. Its Security Investigation Agency sent a notice to his family three months after this blogger suddenly disappeared while in asylum in Thailand and there were suspicions that he was kidnapped by Vietnamese secret agents and brought back home.
Duong Thi Lu, the mother of Duong Van Thai, told Radio Free Asia (RFA) that last week she received a letter from the Ministry of Public Security and this is the first document she has received from the authorities about her son in many months.
She told reporters by phone on July 20:
“Last Friday [July 14] the Ministry of Public Security sent me a letter. It said my son is held in B14 [a detention center managed by the Ministry of Public Security] located in Thanh Tri district, Hanoi.”
Mr. Duong Van Thai, born in 1982, is a blogger specializing in reporting on infighting within the Communist Party of Vietnam. He has been a political refugee in Thailand since early 2019 and was granted refugee status by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in Bangkok that year.
According to the document titled Notice of probing and detention of the Security Investigation Agency (Ministry of Public Security), Duong Van Thai acted: Collecting information and documents to edit, write articles, record video clips with illegal content, distribute on the Internet, violating Article 117 of the Criminal Code.”
According to the document signed on July 5 by Major General Tran Thanh – Deputy Head of the Security Investigation Agency, Mr. Duong Van Thai will be detained until August 12 at Detention Center B14 of the Ministry of Public Security, located at Kim Giang street, Thanh Tri district, Hanoi.
The notice also states that this YouTuber has a permanent residence in Thuy Lam commune, Dong Anh district, Hanoi, but his current residence is in Thanyaburi, Pathum Thani province, Thailand. This is where Duong Van Thai lived before going missing on April 13.
The notice did not specify when and where Mr. Duong Van Thai was detained.
Hundreds of videos and livestreams broadcast by Duong Van Thai on YouTube and Facebook were deleted shortly after he went missing.
On April 13 this year, he went missing near his accommodation. Some friends and human rights activists in Thailand, including one from Human Rights Watch (HRW), found evidence to prove that he was kidnapped and taken away by a group of people.
Three days later, the Ha Tinh Provincial Police announced that the police of Son Kim 1 commune, Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province arrested a person named Duong Van Thai when he was “illegally infiltrating” from Laos on April 14. The notice does not have a specific picture of the person being arrested, but the name and date of birth match the name and date of birth of the missing YouTuber.
Human rights organizations, including HRW and Amnesty International, and professional organizations such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) condemned the abduction of Duong Van Thai, demanding the Government of Vietnam to release him.
Responding to the Vietnamese Police’s announcement of probe and detention of Mr. Duong Van Thai, Mr. Phil Robertson, Deputy Director of HRW’s Asia Division said in an email to RFA:
“Hanoi engaged in a clear case of transnational repression by abducting Thai Van Duong from Bangkok on April 13 that visiting US Treasury Secretary Janice Yellen should raise with every Vietnamese government official she meets.
This outrageous and unacceptable action by Vietnam showed yet again the inherently rights abusing orientation of the government that makes Vietnam one of the worst rights abusing countries in Southeast Asia.”
Phil Robertson, who participated in a survey of the area where Duong Van Thai was suspected of being kidnapped along with a number of Vietnamese human rights activists in Thailand, called on Hanoi to release the freelance journalist.
“Hanoi should apologize publicly to Thailand for its act that clearly violated Thai sovereignty.
Duong Van Thai should be released immediately and unconditionally, and those officials responsible for his abduction should be punished.”
Amnesty International’s Interim Deputy Regional Director of Communications Joe Freeman wrote to RFA via email on July 20:
“The alleged abduction of Vietnamese Youtuber, Duong Van Thai, shows the real dangers that those who dare to have an opinion against the government in Viet Nam face, at home, or when seeking safety in other countries in the region, such as Thailand.
The authorities in Thailand must open a full investigation into Duong Van Thai’s disappearance and establish exactly how he ended up back in Viet Nam, the country he was seeking refuge from.
Thailand has the legal obligation under both international human rights law and domestic law to open a prompt, effective, impartial and transparent investigation into Duong Van Thai’s disappearance. Enforced disappearance is a crime under Thailand’s Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act.”
So far, the Vietnamese government has not confirmed or denied that the country’s police abducted YouTuber Duong Van Thai in Thailand.
Violation of due process
A lawyer in Hanoi who wished to remain anonymous for security reasons told RFA that the notification of custody and prosecution of the accused to the family in the case of Mr. Duong Van Thai was inconsistent with the Law on Enforcement of Detention and Detention and the Criminal Procedure Code 2015.
The police have an obligation to notify the family as soon as they take measures to detain and prosecute the accused and take him into custody, the lawyer said.
Article 116 of the 2015 Criminal Procedure Code stipulates: After detaining or arresting a person, the person who issues the arrest warrant, the order or the decision to arrest the person must immediately notify the family of the person being held or arrested, the commune-level government where such person resides, or the agency or organization where such person works or studies.
Within 24 hours after receiving the detained or arrested person, the investigating agency that receives the detained or arrested person must notify the family of the detained or arrested person, the administration of the commune, ward or township where such person resides.
Before Duong Van Thai, an RFA blogger who applied for political asylum in Thailand, Truong Duy Nhat, also suddenly disappeared in this country in January 2019. Many human rights organizations have voiced that he was kidnapped by Vietnamese security and brought back home. This blogger was later sentenced to 10 years in prison by a court in Vietnam for the charge of “.” abusing position and power while on duty
Thoibao.de (Translated)
