Bui Van Thuan
Current Status: Sentenced to prison
Other Names: Bùi Văn Thuận, Người Mường, Cha Già Dân Tộc
Date of Birth: May 1, 1981
Gender: M
Ethnicity: Muong (Mường)
Occupation: Blogger, Entrepreneur, Teaching professional
Last Known Prison: Prison No. 6, Nghe An province
Details
Immediate Concerns
July 2024:
Bui Van Thuan’s wife, Trinh Thi Nhung, and his parents visited him at Prison No. 6 in Nghe An in early July. Thuan said he’s been a vegetarian for a month and asked the family to stop sending him any non-vegetarian food. Thuan told them he was feeling better physically and more relaxed mentally “since I don’t really have any choice but to adapt to the harsh climate here."
May 2024:
Trinh Thi Nhung, Bui Van Thuan’s wife, confirmed to Project88 that her husband began a hunger strike on May 18 to protest the mistreatment that fellow prisoner Tran Huynh Duy Thuc had mentioned, particularly the prisoners’ inability to share time together on weekends as previously permitted. Nhung asked Thuan to write a letter instead to the warden requesting him to lift this ban, but Thuan refused. He said there’s no point asking for something that is their legal right to begin with but was illegitimately taken away.
Earlier in the month, Thuan had reported that his cell lacks ventilation while temperatures routinely go over 100F, and that he had not been allowed to go outside to exercise.
Other prominent political prisoners at the same prison, including Tran Huynh Duy Thuc and Dang Dinh Bach, have also complained about recent mistreatment and have staged multiple hunger strikes.
Earlier in the month:
Trinh Thi Nhung, wife of Bui Van Thuan, and his parents, travelled 300km from Hoa Binh to visit him at Prison No. 6 in Nghe An Province. Thuan’s health was stable, but he was being kept in a windowless cell with a tin roof. Temperatures outside had been above 40C, turning the cell into “an oven,” he said. Thuan has not been allowed to go outside to exercise or to meet other prisoners on the weekend as before. To protest the harsh treatment, Thuan had been refusing to receive prison food.
March 2024:
Bui Van Thuan’s wife, Trinh Thi Nhung, and their young daughter, visited Thuan at Prison No. 6 in Nghe An Province on March 9. Thuan appeared to be in good spirits and appeared to have regained some weight, Nhung said. He immediately asked her about the arrests of Nguyen Vu Binh and Nguyen Chi Tuyen (Anh Chi), which had just been shown on TV. Nhung explained that the two were arrested more than 10 days earlier, but that state media delayed reporting the news.
February 2024:
Trinh Thi Nhung, the wife of Bui Van Thuan, told Project88 that during the Tet holidays she was suddenly summoned to the police station on Feb. 16 without a reason. Once there, they showed her a Facebook account using her name but which had been created only one day earlier; the account contained posts that could potentially be deemed “anti-state propaganda.” She denied it was hers and refused to sign an affidavit. Since that day, the police have allegedly been posting men around her house. She reported that unknown men wearing face masks have also been following her and her young child everywhere. At night, they even allegedly asked her neighbors to shine their lights on her house “all through the night.”
Background
Bui Van Thuan is from the Muong ethnic minority. He used to be a teacher, and now lives in Hoa Binh Province.
Profile photo source: Facebook Thuan Van Bui
History of Activism
Thuan has a Facebook page called “Cha Dà Dân Tộc,” which is a word play on “Cha Già Dân Tộc” (Father of the Nation, i.e. Ho Chi Minh), with over 25,000 followers. On his page, Thuan posts news, jokes, and parodies that criticize the Communist Party and the corruption in government, sometimes using colorful language. More recently, he’s been focusing his criticisms on how the government is handling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Thuan joined the Brotherhood for Democracy (BFD) in 2013 through fellow activist Pham Van Troi. Between 2014-2016, he participated in protests against China’s 9-dash line territorial claim. In June 2017, together with Nguyen Vu Binh and Le Anh Hung, Thuan founded a group called Legal Research whose purpose was to design a new “democratic model” for Vietnam. In October 2017, he became a member of the Communication group within BFD, in charge of Facebook and Fan Page administration.
Family Situation
He is married as has a daughter.
July 27, 2018: laptop and t-shirts with No-U logo confiscated
On the afternoon of July 26, 2018, Thuan and two others had dinner together and he gave them his two t-shirts with prints protesting against the Nine Dash Lines’s claim of China (No-U logo) and the draft law on Special Economic Zones. His friends put on the t-shirts right away and wore them into the next day.
On July 27, a man live-streamed them singing and wearing the t-shirts with the No-U logo. Public security suddenly came to Thuan’s friend’s house at 4:00 pm and searched it without any legal documents.
They confiscated Thuan’s laptop, as well as t-shirts with that logo. Thuan was detained at the public security post for questioning on the origin of those t-shirts and released at noon on July 28.
However, police did not return his laptop. After many failed attempts to log in, his laptop automatically locked and was unable to start.
Sentenced to 8 years in prison and 5 years probation under Art. 117 (2015 Code). Expected Release is August 30, 2029.
August 30, 2021
- Art. 117 (2015 Code)
Thanh Hoa province public security, Thanh Hoa province
His private residence in Nghi Son (map)
November 18, 2022 - Date of trial
The People’s Court of Thanh Hoa Province
- Pham Le Quyen
- Dang Dinh Manh
8 years in prison and 5 years probation
August 30, 2029
Details of Imprisonment
About one hundred uniformed and non-uniformed police officers surrounded Thuan’s house around 8 a.m. on August 30. Dozens of vehicles were present, according to neighbors. Three men in medical protective clothing told his wife they needed to enter to do COVID testing. Once inside, they pretended to ask to use the bathroom then entered Thuan’s bedroom and handcuffed him as he was getting up. It was only then that they read the arrest warrant. They confiscated six computers, three iPads, three mobile phones, and one jar of honey.
March 2022:
Trinh Nhung, Thuan’s wife, received a summons from the Thanh Hoa Police Department in order to discuss details related to the case of Bui Van Thuan, who allegedly stored documents and “items that oppose the state” on his computer.
July 2022:
Thanh Hoa provincial police reportedly soon would finish up their investigation of Bui Van Thuan. Thuan’s wife has been summoned twice by the police who warned her not to post information about her meetings with them on her Facebook page. Investigators said Thuan would be charged with spreading “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117.
September 2022:
Thirteen months after Bui Van Thuan was arrested, the Thanh Hoa provincial police finished their investigation on September 10 and charged Thuan for online postings deemed “detrimental to the security of the nation.” Trinh Thi Nhung, Thuan’s wife, told RFA she only found out about this when she went to the prison to bring him food on September 20. Nhung said Thuan also had told the Procuracy he wanted to have a lawyer to represent him in court.
November 2022:
Facebooker Bui Van Thuan was sentenced to eight years in prison plus five years of probation by a court in Thanh Hoa Province for spreading “anti-state propaganda.” A honey seller by trade, Thuan was accused of making online commentaries critical of the Communist Party and how it dealt with the pandemic.
Although the trial was supposed to be public, only Thuan’s wife, Tran Thi Nhung, was allowed into the courtroom as a witness while the rest of his family, who had traveled from their home in Hoa Binh Province to watch the proceedings, had to stand outside the courthouse in the rain and finally returned home on the first day. In his closing statement, Thuan maintained his innocence and said he would not appeal the verdict because he had no faith in the system.
***
Earlier in the month, Trinh Thi Nhung, Thuan's wife, confirmed to The 88 Project that her husband said the indictments against him were baseless and that throughout the investigation he never admitted to violating any Vietnamese laws. Nhung said that after Thanh Hoa police completed their investigation in late September 2022, her husband was finally allowed to meet with his lawyers Dang Dinh Manh and Le Quyen.
Nhung herself had been harassed by police and was even asked to limit how much she posts on social media about her husband. She has also faced harassment by unknown people at her home and filed two complaints, even submitting video evidence of one of the incidents. The police refused to investigate.
February 2023:
Thuan's wife, Trinh Thi Nhung, said she received a 10-minute call from her husband on February 15; it was the first time she talked to Thuan since his imprisonment in August 2021.
He was transferred to Prison No. 6 in Nghe An Province one day before the Lunar New Year, according to Nhung. Thuan told her his health was good and that he had been allowed to go outside to exercise regularly.
Physical Health History
October 2021:
After not hearing from Bui Van Thuan for a month and a half, his wife, Trinh Nhung, received a notice from prison authorities telling her that he’d been admitted to the hospital. Thuan was diagnosed with gout and a liver infection. Thuan is accused of “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 and is being held in a pretrial detention center in Thanh Hoa Province.
March 2022:
Bui Van Thuan’s wife received a letter from him for the first time since he was arrested on August 30 last year. Thuan said he’d had two shots of the Pfizer vaccine and was in generally good health due to regular exercise. But since last October he’d been having joint pains that doctors had looked at but couldn’t do anything about. Thus every 10 days or so he needs to take antibiotics and pain medication.
Actions Taken
November 2022:
Human Rights Watch called on the government of Vietnam to drop the charges against Facebooker Bui Van Thuan ahead of his trial.
Resources
Video report of Thuan’s wife recalling the arrest of her husband
RFA article announces arrest of Bui Van Thuan, August 30, 2021
Facebook post from his wife, October 2021
Công an Thanh Hoá kết thúc điều tra đối với Facebooker Bùi Văn Thuận, RFA Vietnamese, September 20, 2022
Facebook post from his wife, March 2022
Police soon to wrap up investigation into Vietnamese Facebooker, Radio Free Asia, July 6, 2022
Interview with Trinh Thi Nhung, November 1, 2022
Tường thuật phiên tòa xử người bất đồng chính kiến, anh Bùi Văn Thuận, Tieng Dan, November 18, 2022
Vietnam: Drop Charges Against Dissident on Facebook, HRW, November 16, 2022
Cuộc gọi đầu tiên của chồng từ trại 6 Nghệ An., Bao Tham Nhung, Feb. 15, 2023
Interviews with the family, Feb. 2023, Feb., May 2024
Profile last updated: 2024-07-15 16:12:41