Do Nam Trung was born in 1981 in Nam Dinh province. For financial reasons that didn’t afford a college program, Mr. Trung went to driving school and became a driver for a living. In 2003, he left for Hanoi to work for a passenger bus that serviced the main North-South route. [1]
In 2010, while Mr. Trung was driving to Binh Thuan province, a drunken motorbike driver, intending to commit suicide, rushed into Mr. Trung’s bus and died. After the accident, Mr. Trung and the man’s family consented to settle a compensation without filing any charges. Mr. Trung, however, was tried and sentenced to 9 months in jail, which turned out to be a point where he started his concerns about shortcomings in the domestic legal system. Released after serving the sentence, he gradually started his activism, besides the day job as a driver.
Activism
After the detention period, between 2012 to 2014, Mr. Trung participated in peaceful anti-China protests in Hanoi and Saigon. According to Ms. Tuyet, Trung’s fiancé, there were many harassment actions from the authorities, including stalking, arbitrarily arresting and beating, to prevent him from protesting during the period.
On May 15, 2014, Mr. Trung and two friends of his were arrested while he was videotaping an anti-China demonstration in Dong Nai. Later, on February 12, 2015, he was convicted of “abusing democratic freedoms” under article 258, Penal Code 1999, and sentenced to 14 months in jail.
After he was released in July 2015, the authorities continuously put pressure on employers, making it unable for Mr. Trung to find a job. Nevertheless, Mr. Trung continued his activism, participating in social work and protests, including Formosa, Special Zone Law and Cyber Security Law cases. Of all highlights in his activism work were times when he protested against wrongfully set toll booths on highways and uncovered corruption cases on social networks.
In October 2019, the Frontline Defenders invited Mr. Trung to attend a conference in Dublin, Ireland. Here he presented the human rights situation in Viet Nam to human rights defenders worldwide. [2]
By 2020, he worked for a truck company and reduced social activities so as to prioritize his job and family.
Arrest and pretrial detention
On December 16, 2021, Mr. Trung was tried and sentenced to 10 years in prison. He was convicted of the crime of “conducting propaganda against the Government” under article 117 of the Penal Code 2015, bringing the total number of article 117 victims to four in just three days, which made it a new record. Ms. Tuyet was not allowed to attend the trial. There were approximately 70 police officers and two signal scramblers to prevent live updates from the court.
The appellate trial took place on March 22, 2022, and his sentence of 10 years in prison was upheld. Following the trial process, Mr. Trung is currently detained at Camp No.5 in Thanh Hoa Province.
International communications
On November 1, 2021, the Special Rapporteur (SR) on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression; the SR on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association and the SR on the situation of human rights defenders sent a communication to Viet Nam concerning the situation of some individuals, one of whom was Mr. Do Nam Trung. The SRs were alarmed if the arrest and prosecution of Mr. Trung resulted from his criticism of Viet Nam’s human rights situation. [3]
The SRs raised their deep concern at a similar pattern of extended detention pending trial, prosecution, prosecution under vaguely worded criminal offenses, lack of fair trial guarantees, the denial of access to legal counsel, a brief closed trial at which due process is not observed, disproportionately harsh sentencing that are used to punish human rights defenders in Viet Nam. Those actions violated numerous human rights norms, in particular the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, acceded to by Viet Nam. [4][5]
Moreover, the SRs urges the Government to halt the application of articles 117 and 331 of the Penal Code, which are vague and loosely-defined and used to arrest those exercising their freedom of expression, and immediately and unconditionally release the individuals who have been sentenced for the simple exercise of their right to freedom of expression and of association, including Mr. Do Nam Trung.
On November 21, 2021, the Government requested a two-month extension to February 2022 to respond. [6]
Besides the communication from the SRs at UN, with the commitment to the protection of human rights defenders in Viet Nam and all over the world, the European Union (EU) also called the Vietnamese authorities to release all human rights defenders arbitrarily detained, including Mr. Do Nam Trung. The EU will continue to monitor the human rights situation in Viet Nam, and work with the authorities towards the improvement of the human rights situation in the country. [7]
References
[1] https://the88project.org/donamtrung/ [2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmdIMWy7Bd0 [3] https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadPublicCommunicationFile?gId=26688 [4] https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights [5] https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/ccpr.aspx [6] https://spcommreports.ohchr.org/TMResultsBase/DownLoadFile?gId=36703 [7] https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/vietnam-statement-spokesperson-verdicts-against-human-rights-defenders_en
