Nguyen Chi Tuyen
Current Status: Pre-trial detention
Other Names: Nguyễn Chí Tuyến, Anh Chí (Anh Chi)
Date of Birth: May 23, 1974
Gender: M
Ethnicity: Kinh
Occupation: Blogger
Areas of Activism:
- Digital rights
- Democracy
- Freedom of expression
- Human rights
- Land rights
- Sovereignty
Known Affiliations:
April 2024:
Nguyen Chi Tuyen is being held incommunicado and has not been able to contact his family for more than a month. They can only send him supplies twice a month per regulations and are concerned about his wellbeing. For more about his lengthy activism career, check out his database profile and this feature in the Mekong Review.
February 2024:
On February 29, 2024, at around 10 am, the Hanoi Security Investigation Agency searched Nguyen Chi Tuyen’s house in Long Bien, Hanoi and arrested him on charge under Article 117 of “disseminating information, materials, items and publications against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."
Details - Background, History of Activism, Contact Information.
Profile photo source: Mekong Review
Nguyen Chi Tuyen, or Anh Chi, is a well-known blogger and a human rights defender in Hanoi, Vietnam. However, he had largely been inactive prior to his arrest.
Watch a brief video of him, here.
Tuyen’s YouTube channel “Anh Chí Râu Đen” amassed nearly 100,000 followers ,while his Facebook account Nguyen Chi Tuyen (Anh Chí) has more than 53,000 followers for his commentary on Vietnamese social and political topics. His other YouTube “AC Media”, which focuses on coverage and commentary on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, has attracted almost 60,000 subcribers.
He is vocal in defending land rights of communities including Van Giang, Duong Noi, and Dong Tam, and speaking on behalf of victims of the Formosa environmental disaster. Also, he is a co-founder of the “No-U" soccer club, a group that protests China's maritime claims in the South China Sea. Since 2011, Tuyen has also been an active member of an anti-China group that has organized numerous demonstrations in the country.
In May 2017, he was attacked by alleged plainclothes police when driving his son home from school and was beaten and left unconscious.
Nguyen Chi Tuyen Facebook account
Nguyen Chi Tuyen YouTube account (1):
Nguyen Chi Tuyen YouTube account (2):
The blogger, Mekong Review, Nov. 2017
Family interview, March 2024
Vietnam’s Message Rings Clear with the Arrest of Nguyen Chi Tuyen – We Will Arrest Whoever We Want, Whenever We Want, Project88, March 1, 2024
Arrested February 29, 2024. Charged under Art. 117 (2015 Code).
unknown
- freedom from arbitrary arrest or detention
- liberty and security of the person
- freedom of expression
On Feb. 29, 2024, at around 10 am, the Hanoi Security Investigation Agency searched Nguyen Chi Tuyen’s house in Long Bien, Hanoi and arrested him under Article 117 of “disseminating information, materials, items and publications against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam."
Ms. Nguyen Thi Anh Tuyet, the wife of Nguyen Chi Tuyen, told Project88 that the police did not show any search warrant nor the arrest warrant. Instead, a police read out loud a long arrest warrant, saying that Tuyen will be detained for four months at the Temporary Detention Center No. 2 in Hanoi while further investigation is conducted into the charge. Tuyen’s laptop, mobile phone, and some of his handwritten documents were confiscated.
As a vocal human rights defender, Nguyen Chi Tuyen was put under the government surveilance for years, starting roughly around the time of the Formosa environmental disaster and subsequent protests in 2016. Tuyet shared: “In May 2017, he was attacked by at least five alleged plainclothes police when driving home from his son school. He was hospitalized and severely injured at that time. In 2023, police summoned him for several days of questioning about live streams that were broadcast several years ago on his “Anh Chí Râu Đen” YouTube channel. Then the local authorities sent him a travel ban. On January 11, 2024, they sent another notice banning him from leaving Vietnam. On the same day, they issued a letter stating that they had received a crime report from Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Division, accusing Tuyen of committing the crimes of ‘anti-State propaganda’ under Article 117 and ‘abusing the rights to democratic freedom’ under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Criminal Code.”
Ms. Tuyet told Project88 that Tuyen received a summons to attend a meeting with Hanoi Security Investigation Agency for the morning of Feb. 29. However, he became ill and asked to postpone the meeting. “There were at first just two, three people in front of my home. They asked me to meet with my husband for a while. When I opened the gate, then dozens of other people entered into my home. One of them was uniformed, one was the local police, while the rest were in plain clothes,” Tuyet shared.
She visited the temporary detention center on March 1 and could send her husband neccessities and some pocket money, but not medications.
Family interviews, March and April 2024
Nhà hoạt động Nguyễn Chí Tuyến bị bắt, BBC News Vietnamese, Feb. 29, 2024
Vietnam’s Message Rings Clear with the Arrest of Nguyen Chi Tuyen – We Will Arrest Whoever We Want, Whenever We Want, Project88, March 1, 2024
Profile last updated: 2024-04-09 13:57:07