There is more worrying news coming from Vietnam according to this post at Human Rights Watch:
An environmental activist faces a show trial for his Facebook posts, as part of Vietnam’s continuing attack on freedom of expression, Human Rights Watch said today. The Vietnamese government should immediately release the activist, Nguyen Ngoc Anh, and drop all charges against him.
Nguyen Ngoc Anh is charged with “making, storing, disseminating, or propagandizing information, materials, and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under article 117 of the 2015 penal code. The People’s Court of Ben Tre province is scheduled to hear his case on June 6, 2019.
“The Vietnam government’s ongoing crackdown on critical voices now has Nguyen Ngoc Anh in its sight, subjecting him to a show trial and years of imprisonment to frighten others who might dare to question the government,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Holding this trial just as the European Council is in the process of ratifying the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement shows how ruthless the government can be and demonstrates why human rights improvements need to be part of trade deals and not sidelined in the name of diplomacy.”
See full story here.
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