Trần Đức Thạch was born in 1952. He served as a soldier at the 266th Regiment, 341th Division of the People’s Army of Vietnam. Mr. Thạch is a member of the Brotherhood for Democracy and also a former prisoner of conscience.
Activism
As a former North Vietnamese soldier, Mr. Thạch’s history of activism came spontaneously as he denied military orders from above to “better kill by mistake than let them slip through”, after he was taken under friendly fire.
Haunted by the war memories, veteran Trần Đức Thạch became a writer in the hope of the country’s social justice and was considered a formidable author. Mr. Thạch was a witness to war crimes, including those committed by the People’s Army of Vietnam during the Vietnam War (especially the Tan Lap massacre in Dong Nai). Some of his well-known, translated to English, original works are The Haunting Mass Grave and the poem Repentance. [2] [3]
In 2009, Mr. Thạch was sentenced to 3 years’ imprisonment, followed by 3 years of house arrest for “propaganda against the state.” He aroused the intention to establish the “Brotherhood for Democracy” around that time and became one of the founders of this activism group later on. Brotherhood for Democracy has been aiming to advocate for human rights as defined by the 2014 Constitution and international agreements, such as the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
Arrest and detention
8 years after being released from prison, Mr. Thạch was arrested for the second time on April 24th, 2020 and sentenced to 12 years for “conspiracy to overthrow the government,” under broadly worded article 109 of the Penal Code 2015. The trial lasted less than three hours, and his wife and son were allowed in the courtroom. Mr. Thạch’s legal counsel argued that his client’s right to access to the lawyer was limited. He also pointed out that the prosecution violated trial procedures and failed to produce any incriminating evidence of witnesses.
On March 24, 2021, Mr. Thạch was denied the appeal of his 12-year prison term after a short “trial” in which his lawyer was not allowed to argue his case. Moreover, the authorities had not informed him about the trial until a few days before.
For the time being, Mr. Thạch is suffering from diseases relating to his eyes, colon, shoulders, hypertension, and neuropathy. Although he has been asking to be hospitalized, he has not received any response from the prison officials.
International communications
On November 4, 2022, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention from the United Nations adopted an opinion concerning the case of Trần Đức Thạch. [4] It was concluded that the deprivation of liberty of Trần Đức Thạch, being in contravention of articles 2, 3, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 2, 9, 14, 16, 19, 22 and 26 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, is arbitrary and falls within categories I, II, III and V.
The Working Group requests the Government of Viet Nam to take the steps necessary to remedy the situation of Mr. Thạch without delay and bring it into conformity with the relevant international norms, including those set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The Working Group considers that, taking into account all the circumstances of the case, the appropriate remedy would be to release Mr. Thạch immediately and accord him an enforceable right to compensation and other reparations, in accordance with international law.
References:
[1] https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2600629220254448&id=100009221858507 [2] https://vietopian.wordpress.com/2021/03/24/the-haunting-mass-grave/ [3] https://the88project.org/repentance-poem/ [4] https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/detention-wg/opinions/session94/2022-11-11/A-HRC-WGAD-2022-40-Vietnam-AEV.pdf
