Dang Dang Phuoc

Immediate Concerns

The Vietnam Human Rights Network has given three political prisoners -- Do Nam Trung, Bui Van Thuan and Dang Dang Phuoc -- the Human Rights Defender Awards for 2024. Each awardee will be given a $3000 prize; however, organizers emphasize that the real value of these awards, which have been issued annually for the past 22 years, is more spiritual than monetary.

August 2024:

Dang Dang Phuoc told his wife, Le Thi Ha, in a call that after she filed a petition about a punishment he received recently, officials from the Procuracy of Phu Yen Province finally visited Phuoc at Xuan Phuoc Prison. Phuoc told them he completely disagreed with the severity of the punishment they meted out to him for handing a fellow inmate’s family phone number to Ha at the end of a spring visit in order to help the prisoner get in touch with his family. Phuoc was put in isolation and had his legs shackled for 10 days. The office of the Procuracy said they would send Ha their response to her petition, but so far she has not received anything from them. Phuoc’s health has recovered since the isolation; he now weighs 55Kg (121 lbs), but he said that the scars on his ankles will be there for life.

July 2024:

Dang Dang Phuoc reported to his wife over the phone that his legs have started to heal after being shackled last month. However, Phuoc still had not been able to write letters home because he’s not allowed to have a pen and paper in his cell. By rule, a prisoner must go to the common area to borrow a pen and paper to write letters, but cannot do so on Saturday or Sunday. Phuoc reported he had been requesting the items for four weeks without success. 

Earlier in the month:

Dang Dang Phuoc’s wife, Le Thi Ha, visited him at Xuan Phuoc Prison in early July. Ha told Project88 she was totally shocked to see how thin and gaunt he was. According to Phuoc, after the visit on May 9, he was put in isolation and shackled on the right leg. However, after only two days his ankle was swollen so badly that he had to repeatedly request to have it looked at by the medical staff. They finally relented and moved the shackle to his left leg. During the 10-day ordeal, Phuoc could only wear his shorts. He was given one small bowl of plain rice per meal plus a 1.5 liter can of water. Phuoc said he did not eat the rice. He used the water for washing his face and body, tearing off the sleeves and pockets on his shirt, which the guards had left nearby, to use as towels. After ten days, Phuoc said he could not walk out of the isolation cell on his own but had to be helped. He said he has filed at least two complaints, on June 16 and 21, about the incident but has not received any official response. By the time he was allowed back to his cell, much of the food supplies Ha had sent him had spoiled and were not edible.

June 2024:

Dang Dang Phuoc was able to call home for the first time in two months. His wife, Le Thi Ha, said that in the June 12 call, her husband gave more details about why he was shackled for 10 days after her visit on May 9. Before she left the visiting room that day, he had given her a small piece of paper containing the phone number of an inmate who’d just been transferred to Xuan Phuoc Prison, to be passed to his family so they’d know where he was. In Vietnam, families rarely are notified when a prisoner is transferred to a new prison facility. Immediately afterwards, Phuoc was taken to the office and ordered to write a “confession letter”; in it, he said he knew his action was against prison rules but thought it was only a minor infraction. The warden allegedly took a vote from all of Phuoc’s cellmates (about 26 people), and everyone agreed that his action only warranted a minor disciplinary response. Nevertheless, Phuoc was still put in shackles and kept in isolation. During those 10 days, Phuoc refused to eat to protest the unfair treatment and lost 10 kg., according to his wife.

Earlier in the month:

Phuoc's wife, Le Thi Ha, reported that Phuoc still was not permitted to call home in the month of May and is now only allowed one visit every two months instead of every month. After their most recent visit on May 9, when Phuoc tried to hand Ha a piece of paper containing the phone number of a fellow prisoner’s family, he was “disciplined for breaking prison rules” by being put in isolation for 10 days then had his visits reduced, according to an official notice given to Ha signed on May 10, 2024. Ha sent a letter to the Ministry of Public Security, the Supreme Procuracy of Vietnam, the Procuracy of Phu Yen Province, and the head of Xuan Phuoc Prison in Phu Yen demanding to know the reason for this violation of a prisoner’s rights. In the letter, Ha said that if she didn't get an explanation from Xuan Phuoc within five days as to why Phuoc was being disciplined, she would send a second letter.

May 2024:

Le Thi Ha, the wife of music teacher Dang Dang Phuoc, told Project88 that before her visit to Xuan Phuoc Prison ended on May 9, Phuoc gave her a small piece of paper which he said contained the phone number of the family of a fellow prisoner. However, a guard saw the piece of paper, took it away from him, and then made a report against Hung for violating prison rules. When Ha asked the guard to open up the piece of paper so that everyone could see what was actually written there, they refused. Hung was taken away, and the letter was kept as “evidence.”

Le Thi Ha told Project88 that May 9 was the longest visit since he was transferred there from temporary detention. The other visits before lasted only 10-15 minutes, even though by law prisoners are allowed one hour of visitation a month. When she asked prison officials about it, they just gave her one excuse or another. 

April 2024:

In a call with Dang Dang Phuoc on April 27, his wife, Le Thi Ha, learned that he had sent two letters home, one for his parents and one for her. Strangely, only the one written to his parents had been received. Also, Phuoc was not allowed to receive the arrowroot starch she sent because, according to prison regulations, all forms of powder are prohibited. 

Earlier in the month:

Dang Dang Phuoc was allowed to write a short letter to his father. Phuoc’s wife, Le Thi Ha, said he had to go to the common area to write the letter, with a prison guard looking over his shoulder. Phuoc wrote in the letter that he should be proud of Phuoc because “I never did anything wrong, I only chose to help speed up the process of democratization, knowing full well what the sacrifices might be.” 

Earlier in the month:

Le Thi Ha, Dang Dang Phuoc's wife, told Project88 that she received a decision by the head of Daklak’s School of Pedagogy to “discipline” the music teacher because he’s convicted of “anti-state propaganda” and is serving an 8-year prison sentence. On the same day that decision was signed (12/21/2023), another decision by the Bureau of Education and Training of Dak Lak was also issued to fire him; however, Le Thi Ha said she only received the latter a few days ago. She added that Phuoc had been receiving only half of his salary between the time he was arrested (Sep. 2022) to Dec. 2023; after Jan. 2024, everything was terminated. On March 25, Ha also received a notification that Phuoc’s electronic devices and data related to the case will be destroyed, and the rest will be returned to her.

March 2024:

Dang Dang Phuoc’s wife, Le Thi Ha, and two of his siblings visited him on March 17. It was the first time in 18 months the two siblings had seen him, since they were not allowed inside the courtroom when he was tried. Phuoc said that political prisoners are not permitted to have pen and paper in their cell but have to go to the common room and borrow pen and paper there, which they have to request ahead of time. Phuoc said that despite this “unfair treatment,” he still managed to write two letters, which he gave to prison officials for “review;” he said he had not heard back from the officials.  

February 2024:

Dang Dang Phuoc’s wife visited him on Feb. 4 and reported that Phuoc “looked healthy and was moving about swiftly.” It took a 14 hour round trip for Ha to see her husband for just 24 minutes. During their brief conversation, Ha learned that the following items could not be sent from home: soap bars; cashews, almonds, peanuts, sunflower seeds, and watermelon seeds (traditional Tet snacks).

December 2023:

Music teacher Dang Dang Phuoc’s wife told RFA that the police have been spying on her. “Neighbors secretly told me that local police installed cameras on Dec. 15. The camera was installed on the neighbor’s porch across from my house and pointed directly at my house.” 

***

Dang Dang Phuoc has been stripped of his job by the Dak Lak College of Pedagogy. Phuoc, 60, was convicted last June of spreading “anti-state propaganda” and sentenced to eight years in prison. His wife said that since Phuoc’s arrest, the school had been slashing his monthly pay in half; the latest decision will make their already dire economic situation even worse.

September 2023:

As expected, Dang Dang Phuoc’s appeal trial on September 26 resulted in no change to his sentence of eight years in prison.

June 2023:

On June 6, Dang Dang Phuoc, a music teacher from Dak Lak Province, was convicted of spreading “anti-state propaganda” and sentenced to eight years in prison and four years of probation.

Background

Dang Dang Phuoc is a music lecturer at the Dak Lak College of Pedagogy, who lives and works in Buon Me Thuot City, Dak Lak Province. Phuoc is a critic who frequently shared his views on human rights abuses, corruption, education and other social political issues in Vietnam via his Facebook accounts and blog. His two Facebook accounts have more than 8,000 followers in total. Also, Phuoc runs a blog called Musical Library with more than 2.1 million visits and more than 3.5 million views, sharing his knowledge about music, education, and his political views.

Profile photo source: Dang Phuoc's Facebook

History of Activism

Due to his online activism, Phuoc has been placed in the sights of the government for years. On July 22, 2022, he was summoned by the Dak Lak Department of Information and Communication to discuss posts on his Facebook accounts. Phuoc complied with the summons, went to the department and got home safely after the meeting.

Family Situation

July 2023:

Ha Le, Phuoc's wife, said she had received numerous summons from the Dak Lak police, which she called a form of harassment.

March 2024:

Ha Le reported to Project88 that on March 13, she received an invitation from the Dak Lak Provincial Police to answer questions related to her Facebook use. On March 14, she was questioned by them and returned home the same day.

June 2024:

Phuoc's wife, Ha Le, received a summons from Phu Yen provincial police (200Km away from her home) to appear “in person” on June 7 to resolve the issues she cited in the letter she wrote to them on June 2, asking why her husband had been disciplined. Ha said it seemed absurd that they could not simply respond to her by a letter like they’d done many times before instead of requiring her to travel such a long distance.

July 2024:

Dang Dang Phuoc’s wife, Le Thi Ha, told Project88 that Buon Me Thuot provincial police summoned her on July 11 to question her about her Facebook activities and the people she met at a wedding and during a visit to Phuoc Buu Temple where she met, purely by chance, a representative from the U.S. Consulate. They also asked her about her interview with RFA and suggested that she stop sharing information about her husband’s condition with others. Hue told them she doesn’t use Facebook and only tells people about Phuoc if someone asks. At the end of the interrogation, the police mentioned to Hue that “we have not reported these activities to the school” where she works, strongly hinting that her employment could be in danger if she doesn’t stop advocating for her husband.