Nguyen Quang A

On September 18, Nguyen Quang A was barred from leaving the country to travel to Australia. In a separate trip, planned for early October, he hoped to travel to Brussels, to attend an EU hearing about human rights. He was stopped, searched, and questioned by security officers, and held for six hours total — even though his destination for this trip was not related to the EU hearing. He said this was the 20th time his travel was restricted since 2014.

Later, in October, Nguyen Quang A was scheduled to appear as a representative of Vietnamese civil society at the EU Parliament's hearing on the issue of EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement in Brussels. However, in order prevent him from attending that important meeting, police had confiscated his passport on September 18, 2018 and gave him back an edited passport - they used a pen to manually change his year of birth from 1946 into 1949. A only realized the isue on the morning of October 8, after the repeated reminders from a state official to check his documents. Later that same day, Nguyen Quang A still went to the airport with the old, edited passport. Suddenly, an official of Ministry of Public Security appeared and gave him another brand-new passport. A few hours later, Nguyen Quang A finally boarded the airplane headed to Brussels. His statement at the hearing can be found here.

Dr Nguyen Quang A was detained on his way to the residence of US Ambassador Daniel Kritenbrink for an afternoon coffee at the invitation of the ambassador. Hanoi police held him against his will and did not allow him to make any phone calls. He was released after a few hours of questioning about his Facebook posts, especially those in relation to Dong Tam. He reported that this was his 18th detention in the past few years.

On December 9, 15, and 31, 2020, the Investigating Agency of Public security of Ha Noi City repeatedly sent three invitations to Nguyen Quang A requesting his presence at their office. 

Quang A replied with a written letter. He asked for the lawful reason for his summon-- whether he was involved in any ongoing investigation or he is summoned as a related party, a defendant, or a plaintiff of any case. He contended that unless the authorities answer his questions properly, he is not required to present himself for questioning. 

Nguyen Quang A was summoned by the police to discuss a criminal case under Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code (propaganda against the state). While Dr. A has frequently been invited and/or summoned to work with the public security, this is the first time the public security has mentioned his involvement in a criminal case under Article 117.

The Conscience Fund, started four years ago by Dr Nguyen Quang A to help families of political prisoners, announced that it had to close down its account. A explained that because he opened the account under his name, he needed to avoid “the possibility that bad actors might send in donations and try to mess me up.” Back in April 2021, Nguyen Thuy Hanh, founder of another political prisoner charity called The 50K Fund, was arrested for “anti-state propaganda.”