Vietnamese blogger, Truong Duy Nhat, arrested for anti-state views and dissent
Vietnamese police have detained a former journalist who ran a blog containing anti-state views, authorities said on Monday, part of a widening crackdown on dissent in the Communist-run country, according to a Voices of America report.
Truong Duy Nhat, 49, was detained Sunday at his home in the coastal city of Danang and escorted to Vietnam’s capital Hanoi for questioning, the state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper said.
Nhat was arrested on a charge of “abusing democratic freedoms in order to infringe upon the interests of the state, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and/or citizens” under article 258 of the criminal code.
If convicted, he faces up to seven years in jail.
The ministry said Nhat violated a clause of the penal code on abusing democratic freedoms with acts against the state. It did not elaborate on his actions.
He quit his journalist job in 2010 in the official Vietnamese press and ran a blog titled “Truong Duy Nhat – a different viewpoint”, where he criticized the government including Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.
The blog has been inaccessible since his arrest.
The organization, Reporters without Borders, is calling upon the release of Nhat. “Nhat’s arrest is particularly disturbing as it shows that the government is bent on persecuting and jailing all dissidents, despite the many calls for the release of five bloggers when their appeals were heard last week,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We call for Nhat’s immediate and unconditional release and an end to this unjustified persecution.”
A total of 33 bloggers and netizens are currently detained in Vietnam. On 23 May, an appeal court upheld sentences ranging from four to 13 years in prison for five bloggers – Ho Duc Hoa, Paulus Le Van Son, Nguyen Van Duyet, Thai Van Dung and Tran Minh Nhat, the organization reports.
[…] Borders. After his arrest, Nhat's blog was temporarily disabled. An unknown party then …Vietnamese blogger, Truong Duy Nhat, arrested for anti-state views and dissentThe Global Dispatchall 3 news […]
[…] Read more: http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/vietnamese-blogger-truong-duy-nhat-arrested-for-anti-state-views-an… […]
[…] http://www.theglobaldispatch.com/vietnamese-blogger- truong-duy-nhat-arrested-for-anti-state-views-a… […]
[…] Vietnamese blogger, Truong Duy Nhat, arrested for…The Global DispatchVietnamese police have detained a former journalist who ran a blog containing anti-state views, authorities said on Monday, part of a widening crackdown on dissent in the Communist-run country, according to a Voices of America report. Public domain … […]
A BENEFIT OF BEING ATHEIST IS NOT BEING AFRAID OF DEATH. A BENEFIT OF BEING HOMOSEXUAL – IF I GO TO PRISON – IS HAVING AN ADVENTURE BECAUSE I WILL SHOWER WITH A BUNCH OF NUDE MALES AND HAVE NIGHTS FILLED WITH SEXUAL FANTASY AND MAYBE, EVEN A LITTLE “ACTION.”
VIETNAM CAN DO WHAT IT WANTS; AND, I WILL CONTINUE TO DO WHAT I WANT.
CHRISTOPHER ALLEN HORTON