Latest Retaliation Against Critic of the Government
On January 9, 2025, the People’s Court of Hanoi is scheduled to hear the case of high-profile lawyer Tran Dinh Trien, who was arrested on June 1, 2024, and charged with “infringing upon the interests of the state” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code. If convicted, Tran faces up to seven years in prison.
According to the indictment, between April 23 and May 9, 2024, Tran published three posts on Facebook criticizing actions by then Chief Justice Nguyen Hoa Binh of the Supreme People’s Court of Vietnam. The court issued a statement that these posts “had untruthful and fabricated contents that aimed to seriously offend the dignity, honor and prestige of Chief Justice Nguyen Hoa Binh … and seriously affect the prestige of the People’s Court system.”
In one of the posts, Tran noted that on Chief Justice Nguyen’s watch, courts had prevented family members of defendants from attending trials, and he criticized a decision to prohibit journalists and lawyers from video recording at open trials. Tran’s post also criticized the chief justice for ruling against a death row inmate, Ho Duy Hai, despite considerable evidence of irregularities during the investigation of the case.
Tran heads the Vi Dan (“For the People”) Law Firm, which he founded in 2006. He was also the deputy chair of the Hanoi Bar Association from 2013-2018. In 2011, he participated in the defense team for activist Cu Huy Ha Vu, and joined fellow lawyers to walk out of the court during the trial in protest against unfair treatment of the defense team. In 2013, he represented one of the defendants in a famous case of armed resistance against land confiscation.
Tran is the latest in a series of prominent lawyers whom the authorities have targeted for public internet posts. In 2023 and 2024, at least four Vietnamese lawyers sought asylum in the United States for fear of arrest.
