Tran Thanh Tuan

On June 10, 2018, Tuan participated in a mass demonstration for the first time, to protest against the bills on Special Economic Zones and Cybersecurity. When demonstrating at Hoan Kiem Lake, Ha Noi, Tuan was beaten on his neck, stomach, and hips, then pulled into a bus to go to the police station in Long Bien District, Hanoi.

At the police station, the security forces questioned him about the reason for his appearance at Hoan Kiem Lake and requested that he sign a report, to which Tuan refused. Finally, they released Tuan at around 2:00 PM without providing transportation back to Hoan Kiem Lake, as Tuan required. 

Due to his Communist Party membership at that time, Tuan was again questioned and had to explain to the party unit and Directorate of University about his participation in the demonstration. He was about to be expelled from the Party. However, the party unit of his Faculty argued that he was not guilty. Finally, the decision on his expulsion was suspended thanks to the majority’s vote.

Tran Thanh Tuan applied for an associate professor position. However, among 19 candidates, he was the only one to be denied the position, after gaining only 9/15 approvals from a closed vote without any comment on his application. The denial was believed to be revenge for his participation in a demonstration on June 10, 2018.  At that time, the University’s party unit and Directorate, including some members of the committee for associate professorship, did not discipline him by expelling him from the Party. 

On August 7, 2019, Tuan sent a letter of complaint on the result of the professorship council, asking to reexamine the vote result and for them to explain the reason why they evaluated his application as being unqualified. However, the final result was upheld, stating that his application was denied because he did not garner enough votes from the council.