Human rights defender and blogger Mr. Dinh Dang Dinh, who is currently serving a six-year sentence, is gravely ill. He is currently in the Oncology Hospital in Ho Chi Minh City suffering from terminal stomach cancer, which has now metastasised to his lymph nodes. His wife reports that his life may be “counted in days and hours,” and calls on the Vietnamese government to release him immediately so he may die among his family and friends. The Vietnamese Government has not responded to her pleas.
Despite his life-threatening condition, Mr. Dinh has been kept under surveillance since he was admitted to hospital last month, with policemen posted outside his room and a camera installed beside his bed to monitor him and his visitors. Ms. Dinh says that the family has to pay for all her husband’s medical expenses, including 250,000 VND (US$ 12) per day for his bed in a room with three other patients.
Mr. Dinh Danh Dinh, born in 1963, is a former army officer and high school chemistry teacher. He has published many online articles protesting corruption, lack of democracy, and the negative environmental impact of Bauxite mining in the Central Highlands, which is destroying the livelihood of hundreds of thousands of ethnic minority people in this region.
Mr. Dinh was arrested in October 2011 and convicted in an unfair trial at the People’s Court in Dak Nong for “circulating propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” (Article 88 of the Criminal Code) and sentenced to six years in prison in August 2012. His conviction was upheld on appeal on November 21, 2012 in a trial that lasted only 45 minutes. He began to suffer from stomach haemorrhage shortly after his detention, but was denied access to medical treatment. According to his wife, when he asked for medical treatment in 2012, not only was it denied, but also a dozen camp officials beat and strangled him. He was admitted to hospital in December 2013.
In December 2013, Ambassadors of the EU, USA and 24 other countries wrote to the Vietnamese Government calling for Mr. Dinh Dang Dinh’s release.
Mr. Dinh Dang Dinh has repeatedly claimed his innocence. Article 88 of the Criminal Code is one of several vaguely-worded and repressive provisions in Vietnamese law that the government has routinely used to criminalise free speech and imprison peaceful dissidents.
Our organisations strongly condemn the crackdown that has been targeting human rights defenders, including bloggers, in Vietnam over the past few years, and urge the Vietnamese authorities to abide by the resolutions that were adopted by consensus in June 2012 and March 2013 by the United Nations Human Rights Council on the right to freedom of expression online and the protection of human rights defenders respectively.
Our organisations urge the Vietnamese authorities to: release immediately and unconditionally Mr. Dinh Dang Dinh; ensure in all circumstances that human rights defenders are able to work without any fear of reprisals; and conform to the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.