Nguyễn Lân Thắng was born in 1975. He resides in Ha Noi. He graduated from Hanoi University of Civil Engineering (which was renamed to “National University of Civil Engineering”), yet he works as an independent journalist. His other widely used name is Nguyễn Lân Ké.
He is from the Nguyễn Lân & family which has long been known for a traditional fondness for learning and patriotism. He is the grandson of the prominent scholar Nguyễn Lân, whose Dictionary of Vietnamese is widely used. Many of the Nguyễn Lân’s have doctorate degrees, teach at universities; one of them was a delegate in the National Assembly.
As an independent journalist, Mr. Thắng has peacefully photographed and documented a large number of events relating to human rights. Beside doing charity and voluntary works for vulnerable groups in the country, he is also active in human rights promotion and civil society development. Mr. Thắng is a member of No-U Football Club Hanoi, which protests China’s sweeping sovereignty claims in the South China Sea. In 2013, he met with UN human rights officials from the OHCHR Regional Office in Bangkok and presented Declaration 258, since then he has been blacklisted by the authorities and often harassed and intimidated.
According to Mr. Thắng’s family, on July 5, 2022, he was arrested on his way to a coffee shop in Hanoi. The police later went to search his house and took away laptops, flycams, cameras, SIM cards, hard drives, objects having No-U logos, all of the books on politics, including some with Phạm Đoan Trang and other authors’ signatures, and some publicly sold by state-controlled publishing houses.
He was accused of “anti-state propaganda” in violation of article 117. Despite allegedly having a Facebook profile with over 150,000 followers and being active in activism for at least ten years, Mr. Thắng hasn’t been very active since the birth of his second kid two years ago. Why the authorities decided to detain him at this time is unclear.
Mr. Thắng is currently still in incommunicado detention, not allowed to see his family or lawyer, and his trial date is yet to be set.
References:
Profile of Mr. Nguyen Lan Thang: https://the88project.org/profile/291/nguyen-lan-thang/
