Nguyen Vu Binh
Current Status: Sentenced to prison
Other Names: Nguyễn Vũ Bình
Date of Birth: November 2, 1968
Gender: M
Ethnicity: Kinh
Occupation: Journalist
Last Known Prison: Hanoi Police Detention Center No. 1, Hanoi
Areas of Activism:
- Freedom of expression
- Sovereignty
Details
Immediate Concerns
Sept. 2024:
On September 10, Nguyen Vu Binh was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.
See Statement by RFA, PEN International, PEN America and VNAPC on Nguyen Vu Binh’s guilty verdict.
Update:
Nguyen Vu Binh has chosen not to appeal his seven-year sentence for allegedly engaging in “anti-state propaganda.” Former political prisoner Le Anh Dung, released recently, told Project88 that the most probable reasons are: 1. Binh doesn’t believe it would make any difference to appeal with the judicial system of Vietnam being what it is; 2. It would be better for Binh to get out of Hoa Lo Detention Center and be in a real prison where conditions are relatively better; an appeal would only lengthen Binh’s suffering in Hoa Lo Detention Center by several more months.
Dung says a typical cell at Hoa Lo, although designed to hold only about 20 people, usually has more than 40, and sometimes up to 50 detainees. Due to the crowded and unsanitary conditions, many detainees develop skin diseases and other physical ailments. Binh is known to have high blood pressure and lately has been diagnosed with diabetes.
April 2024:
Nguyen Thi Phong, Nguyen Vu Binh's sister, told Project88 that she visited him at the Detention Center No. 1 in Hanoi on April 3. Since Binh is still under investigation by the State, he is still not allowed to have visitors. Phong could only leave Binh with some food and money.
Background
Binh is a journalist who worked for The Communist Magazine (Tạp Chí Cộng Sản) for 10 years before joining RFA in the early 2000s.
History of Activism
In December 2000, Binh attempted to file an application to form an independent political party, named Freedom-Democracy Party. He was one of several dissidents who called to form an anti-corruption association in 2001. He is also a founding members of the Democracy Club for Vietnam.
Binh was convicted on September 25, 2002 and sentenced to seven years in prison for for espionage under Article 80 of the 1999 Criminal Code for allegedly slandering the Vietnamese state in a written testimony Binh provided to the US Congress in July 2002 regarding human rights abuses in Vietnam. Under international pressure, Binh was released two years and three months early from prison, in June 2007.
He was awarded the Hellman-Hammett Prize by Human Rights Watch in 2002 and again in 2007 for his courageous activism.
Sentenced to 7 years in prison under Art. 117 (2015 Code). Expected Release is March 1, 2031.
- Art. 117 (2015 Code)
Details of Imprisonment
Journalist and former political prisoner Nguyen Vu Binh was arrested for a second time. On the morning of Feb. 29, 2024, Binh was summoned to the police headquarters in Hanoi to discuss the YouTube channel TNT Media Live, which he and lawyer Nguyen Van Dai (currently in exile) worked on together from 2021 to 2022. After the meeting with the police, Binh was taken back to his rented house where the police formally arrested him and searched his residence.
Nguyen Thi Phong, his sister, who witnessed the arrest, told Project88 that when she went to the police station on March 4 to retrieve Binh’s motorbike, she was told verbally that he had been charged with conducting “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117. She said she was not shown anything in writing. The police said Binh will be held at Detention Center No.1 in Hanoi for four months while they investigate his case.
Phong said that her brother had been “invited” to visit the police many times in the past year. She added that it was thus reasonable to assume that the police had been following his activities for some time now, and that the need to “investigate” Binh was just a legal fig leaf in order to detain him for as long as the law allows.
On March 11, Phong visited the Detention Center No.1 and was able to send Binh clothes and some pocket money.
Resources
Personal communication and interview with Nguyen Thi Phong, Nguyen Vu Binh’s sister, March 4, 2024.
Vietnam: New Wave of Arrests of Critics, HRW, March 5, 2024
Bắt ông Nguyễn Chí Tuyến và Nguyễn Vũ Bình vì phát tán tài liệu, vật phẩm chống Nhà nước, Tuor Tre, March 7, 2024
Công an Hà Nội xác nhận bắt giữ hai nhà hoạt động Nguyễn Chí Tuyến và Nguyễn Vũ Bình, RFA, March 7, 2024
Nguyen Vu Binh Facebook account
Interviews with family, April, Sept. 2024
Profile last updated: 2024-09-24 22:47:00