Le Dinh Luong
Detained Since: July 24, 2017.
Charges: “Carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration.”
Sentence: 20 years in prison.
Biography: Le Dinh Luong is a Vietnamese journalist, environmental activist, human rights defender, and a member of Vietnam’s Catholic minority. He is both a veteran of the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War and a member of the pro-democracy Vietnam Reform party (also known as Viet Tan). He is also the uncle of human rights lawyer and political prisoner Le Quoc Quan, who was sponsored by the Defending Freedoms Project after his arrest and imprisonment in 2013.
Since 2016, Mr. Le has campaigned against environmental crimes in Vietnam, including bauxite mining in the Central Highlands and, most prominently, toxic waste dumping by Taiwanese company Formosa Ha Tinh Steel. Mr. Le has also written about human rights and civil rights issues in Vietnam, campaigning in particular for the rights of political prisoners. Mr. Le has been the target of state violence for his work: in August 2015, when Mr. Le and other activists were visiting recently released activist Tran Minh Nhat, the group was attacked and beaten by undercover policemen, causing serious injuries to Mr. Le’s face and body. Mr. Le’s computer containing his journalistic work was stolen and destroyed in this attack.
On July 24, 2017, while visiting former Defending Freedoms Project-sponsored prisoner Nguyen Van Dai, Mr. Le was arrested by undercover policemen. During the arrest, Mr. Le was beaten and forced into an unmarked vehicle, and no arrest warrant was produced or read to him. Due to the circumstances of the arrest, Mr. Le was initially reported kidnapped. Police later announced that they had arrested Mr. Le and charged him with revolutionary activities under Article 79 of the Penal Code. Upon questioning police as to Mr. Le’s whereabouts, members of his family were detained and beaten on two separate occasions in July and August 2017, causing serious injuries.
Mr. Le was held in pretrial detention in Nghi Kim Detention Centre for over a year, during which he was not informed of the charges against him and the basis for his detention was not reviewed. During most of this period, Mr. Le was held incommunicado and without access to legal representation. He was allowed a single visit by an attorney on July 30, 2018, after over a year in pretrial detention.
After a trial in the People’s Court of Nghe An on August 16, 2018, that lasted only five hours and was closed to the public, Mr. Le was sentenced to 20 years in prison. The prosecution’s evidence primarily relied upon the forced testimony of two fellow activists – yet at trial, these activists retracted their witness statements and were promptly ushered out of the courtroom due to “throat problems and stomach pain” following their retractions. Despite the retractions and the defense’s inability to cross-examine the witnesses, their written statements were admitted as evidence and used to convict Mr. Le. His sentence exceeded the 17-year sentence sought by the prosecution, and it was the most severe sentence imposed upon a political prisoner in Vietnam in years.
Mr. Le’s defense team appealed his conviction and sentence, but during the period between his trial and appeal hearing, Mr. Le was once again held incommunicado, with no access to medication sent by his family. On October 18, 2018, Mr. Le’s scheduled one-hour lawyer consultation before his hearing was cut short by police at the 45 minute-mark. Later that day, after a similarly brief appeal hearing, Mr. Le’s conviction and sentence were upheld by the Higher People’s Court of Nghe An Province.
Due to the Vietnamese government’s failure to establish a legal basis for Mr. Le’s arrest and continued imprisonment, his detention was declared arbitrary by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2019. The Working Group also determined that the government violated Mr. Le’s right to freedom of opinion, expression, and association; right to peaceful assembly; right to take part in the conduct of public affairs; and right to a fair trial.
It is widely recognized that his detention is unjust and unlawful.
Advocate: Rep. Lou Correa (D-CA)
Advocacy Partner: Freedom House