Can Thi Theu

First arrest:

Can Thi Theu was arrested in 2014 under Article 257 ("activities against public officials"). She was sentenced to 15 months in prison. The arrest was allegedly for leading a protest in Duong Noi when authorities came to conficate community land.

Latest arrest:

Can Thi Theu was arrested for a second time on June 10, 2016, for leading a nonviolent demonstration of people seeking government accountability for land grabs. She was sentenced to 20 months in prison in September 2016 by the People's Court of Dong Da district. Supporters were systematically blocked from attending her trial and some were assaulted. The sentence was upheld on appeal on November 30, 2016. Shortly thereafter, Theu was transferred from Hoa Lo prison in Hanoi to Gia Trung prison in Gia Lai, 1,000 km from her home. The transfer was interpreted by some as a way to distance Theu from her network of support. She wrote a letter to the community at the time of the transfer. Theu has reported back on severe mistreatment of other prisoners while herself imprisoned. 

November 2017:

Can Thi Theu upon release. Source: Nguyen Lan Thang

Can Thi Theu was released from prison on February 10, 2018 and returned to her home in Duong Noi, Ha Dong, Ha Noi, where she was warmly welcomed by family, friends, and fellow villagers. Her welcoming home quickly became a demonstration of the determination of the villagers to keep their land from being seized by the government, as Can Thi Theu condemned the illegal forced eviction and vowed to continue her fight, and as her supporters brought flowers and a banner saying "Duong Noi people would die to keep their land" (see picture above). 

Theu went on hunger strike for 13 days following her arrest in 2016; her health faltered as a result. She was reported to be in poor health condition while in prison.

June 2016:

Front Line Defenders released an Urgent Appeal on Theu's behalf.

September 2016:

Human Rights Watch called for Theu's release from prison ahead of her original trial.

October 2016:

Four UN Special Rapporteurs sent a letter to the Vietnamese authorities asking for clarifying information about Can Thi Theu's pre-arrest harassment, arrest, detention, and deprivation of a lawyer, and how those actions fit into established international human rights agreements. They had previously sent a similar letter in June 2016.

On June 24, authorities surrounded and stormed into Trinh Ba Phuong’s home and arrested him and later his mother, Can Thi Theu (at a different residence). Theu is a former political prisoner (watch our interview with her about her activism, here) who has twice been jailed for her land rights activism, and Phuong is also a well-known activist who is very active in issues of land rights in his own community as well as advocating for the Dong Tam residents in the aftermath of the deadly police raid there in January 2019. Phuong’s wife had given birth just a few days ago prior to his arrest. 

Police also searched a third member of the family’s home– Trinh Ba Tu (Theu’s son and Phuong’s brother)– and arrested him. Tu is also engaged in land rights issues and commentary on the Dong Tam incident. All three members of the family have allegedly been charged under Article 117 but the government has only confirmed that Trinh Ba Tu is charged under Article 117. It is unclear where the three are being held.

July 2020:

On July 16, security police summoned Pham Xuan Truong, son-in-law of Can Thi Theu, to inquire about the phone number that his mother-in-law had been using. Truong’s wife, Trinh Thi Thao, said “They asked my husband who was using one of the phone numbers under his name. He told them that he bought that SIM for my mother to use. Then they asked if he knew about the Facebook accounts belonging to my mother and to my brother Trinh Ba Tu. They also warned us not to participate in activism, and told us my mother asked us to send her some medication.”

May 2021:

A court in Hoa Binh Province sentenced land rights activists Can Thi Theu and her son Trinh Ba Tu to eight years in prison each, with three years of probation to follow, for conducting “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the 2015 Criminal Code. The trial lasted just a few hours. Two relatives were allowed into the courtroom, but Theu’s husband, Trinh Ba Khiem, was not. 

Their lawyer, Manh Dang, reported that in front of the judges, his clients stated their name as “Victim of Communism,” maintained their innocence, and reiterated that they only spoke the truth. He said their level of defiance is something he’d never witnessed in a courtroom before. 

After the trial, Theu's daughter reported that her mother is being held in a small cell with common criminals, some of whom allegedly are HIV-positive. She was denied a request to be tested after trying to break up a fight between other prisoners, which caused her to bleed.

July 2021:

Can Thi Theu’s daughter, Trinh Thi Thao, reported that her mother was put in solitary confinement under harsh summer conditions in a Hanoi prison. Her request to send her mom an electric fan was denied by prison officials. Theu asked to see a lawyer, but her request was ignored.

Later in the month, Thao sent another letter of complaint to the Hoa Binh Prison authorities requesting that the illegal isolation confinement of her mother and brother be stopped. In her letter, she accused prison guards of abusive treatment during the hot summer months and reminded them that by law those in temporary detention are allowed one family visit and one call home a month. 

September 2021:

The appeals hearing for Can Thi Theu and Trinh Ba Tu was scheduled for September 17, 2021. Tu’s sister, Trinh Thi Thao, said that investigators were told her brother if he admitted guilt that he could have his sentence reduced to six years. It is not clear if family members will be allowed into the alleged open trial. 

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Update: On September 13, the family of Can Thi Theu and Trinh Ba Tu requested that their appeal trial, scheduled for September 17, be postponed due to COVID-19. The current lockdown requirements, they said, made it too difficult for the family and the lawyers to travel to attend the trial. They did not receive any response from the court. As a result, the family had to leave its house at 4am on the morning of September 17, according to daughter Trinh Thi Thao, and had to travel 100km to the courthouse. When they arrived, they were told verbally that the trial had been postponed. There was no official notice of any kind.

October 2021:

Trinh Thu Thao, Can Thi Theu’s daughter and the sister of Trinh Ba Tu, sent prison authorities yet another letter asking to be allowed to visit her mother and brother, whom the family has not seen since their arrests 16 months ago.

December 2021:

On Christmas Eve, the appeal trials for land rights activists Can Thi Theu and her son Trinh Ba Tu took place in Hanoi. There was no change to their sentences — eight years of prison and three years probation each. Family members who tried to attend the trial were taken by police to a medical clinic and kept there until after the “open trial” concluded. Notes from the lawyers provide a glimpse of how the proceedings went.

May 2021:

Radio Free Asia reported that Theu stated that prior to trial, she was confined to a small cell with several prisoners with HIV/AIDS, and when she tried to break up a fight between them, she was injured. However, the prison authorities denied her the ability to get tested for infection after the incident. 

October 2021:

Trinh Thu Thao reported that lawyers were allowed to visit Theu and Trinh Ba Tu. Tu told his lawyer that when he was arrested the police beat him so severely that he had a kidney contusion and had to be taken to the hospital. His health is OK now, but his mother still has some issues with her eyes. 

November 2020:

The UN Special Rapporteurs on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression and on the situation of human rights defenders, as well as the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and the Working Group on discrimination against women and girls, sent a petition to the Vietnamese government concerning the cases of five people arrested for their reporting on and activistm in the aftermath of the violent police raid in Dong Tam Commune in January 2020: Can Thi Theu, Trinh Ba Phuong, Trinh Ba Tu, Pham Doan Trang, and Nguyen Thi Tam. All five were known activists before the Dong Tam raid, particularly in the area of land rights; they are still awaiting trial at the time of this writing. This is Theu’s third arrest. 

The parties wrote of these cases: “We are troubled by the fact that these arrests and the charges brought against them appear to be an attempt to criminalise their efforts to investigate, document and bring public attention to the alleged human rights violations that occurred during the raid.” They expressed concern about the arbitrary arrests and lack of information available to family members and lawyers.They also called on the government to provide more information on the legal basis for the arrests and detentions and the safeguards in place to protect the human rights of activists.

On February 4, 2021, the government of Vietnam finally responded to the UN regarding their concerns over the Dong Tam trial and for political prisoners Trinh Ba Phuong, Trinh Ba Tu, Can Thi Theu, Nguyen Thi Tam, and Pham Thi Doan Trang. Not unexpectedly, Vietnam said that “the allegations made in the Joint Communication were not accurate, mostly drawn from unverified sources and did not reflect the nature of these cases.”

May 2021:

Many organizations spoke out in support of land rights activists Can Thi Theu and Trinh Ba Tu after their trial. Human Rights Watch accused Vietnam of violating international human rights standards in the detention of Theu and her son Tu for nine months by denying them access to a lawyer and visits by their family. It also says, “The Vietnamese government should be listening to people like this brave family, not throwing them in jail.” ARTICLE19 called Vietnam “one of the top enemies of freedom of expression in the world,” following the conviction and severe punishment of Can Thi Theu and Trinh Ba Tu. It also noted that during the trial the area around the courthouse was blocked off and internet access was throttled. 

Amnesty International described the charges against Can Thi Theu and her son Trinh Ba Tu as “bogus” and called on Vietnamese authorities to release them unconditionally: “They are clearly being punished in retaliation for their peaceful activism to expose injustices and human rights violations.” And Vietnam Human Rights Network and Defend The Defenders also issued a joint statement regarding the trial of Theu and Tu, saying that the proceedings did not follow Vietnamese laws and calling on the National Assembly to remove Article 117 (anti-state propaganda) from the 2015 Criminal Code.

April 2022:

Family members of Can Thi Theu, Trinh Ba Phuong and Trinh Ba Tu issued a petition calling on international human rights organizations to increase pressure on the Vietnamese government to release the trio of land rights activists who were jailed after reporting on the bloody Dong Tam raid.

Update: Four Activists Detained for Advocating for Dong Tam Land Petitioners, Defend the Defenders, June 24, 2020

Vietnamese Mother, Son Draw Eight-Year Prison Terms for Land-Rights Activism, Radio Free Asia, May 5, 2021

Dieu Cay Facebook post about the trial 

Facebook update, September 2021

Front Line Defenders Urgent Action, May 2021

Vietnam Briefing: Appeal Hearing Of Two Land Rights Activists, Court Upholds Previous Convictions, The Vietnamese, December 27, 2021

Lawyer Notes from Can Thi Theu & Trinh Ba Tu’s Appeal Trial, The 88 Project, December 30, 2021