Schlagwort: Amnesty International

Viet Nam’s government must immediately investigate allegations that prison authorities beat and shackled an activist serving an eight-year prison sentence, Amnesty International said today.

“Being beaten, placed in solitary confinement and shackled for days on end amounts to torture or other ill-treatment. Authorities in Viet Nam must urgently investigate these allegations and any perpetrators must be held accountable,” said Ming Yu Hah, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns. 

Being beaten, placed in solitary confinement and shackled for days on end amounts to torture or other ill-treatment.

Ming Yu Hah, Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns

Activist Trinh Ba Tu was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2021 for spreading propaganda against the state, a part of the criminal code routinely used to suppress dissent. His mother and brother, also activists, received similar sentences under the same charge and are also in prison. The family had used social media to raise awareness about land rights among other issues.  

According to information gathered by Amnesty International, Tu said he had been punished for filing a report about conditions in the prison, called No. 6, in Nghe An province. 

On 6 September 2022, he was allegedly placed in a room for four to six hours, beaten by prison staff, and held in solitary confinement for 10 days with his feet shackled. He went on a hunger strike to protest his mistreatment. 

“No person should ever be subjected to torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. The reports about the state of Trinh Ba Tu’s health are also extremely concerning. Amnesty International calls on authorities in Viet Nam to immediately drop charges against Tu and release him and his family members. 

“Vietnamese authorities have a long history of targeting Tu and his family for their peaceful activism and work to expose injustice. They should drop charges against anyone imprisoned for exercising their right to freedom of expression.” 

Background: 

In May 2021, Trinh Ba Tu and his mother, Can Thi Theu, were both sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment followed by three years’ probation after being convicted by the People’s Court of Hoa Binh province under Article 117 for “making, storing, or spreading information, materials or items for the purpose of opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam.” 

In December 2021, his brother, Trinh Ba Phuong, was sentenced to ten years imprisonment followed by five years’ probation under the same charge. 

Tu’s mother Can Thi Theu is a well-known land rights activist and human rights defender in Viet Nam. She became an activist after her family’s land was confiscated by the authorities in 2010 and became a leading figure of the land rights movement. His father has also spent time in prison for his activism. 

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Responding to the detention of at least 1,386 peaceful protesters who took part in rallies across Russia following President Vladimir Putin’s call to mobilize additional troops to fight in Ukraine, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, said:

“As President Vladimir Putin seeks to boost the dwindling supply of troops for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, thousands of Russians across the country have peacefully marched on the streets protesting against mobilization and the war. They are raising their voices even amid the stifling of their rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, and as new repressive laws criminalize all forms of anti-war activity.

“Everyone has the right to freely express their opinions and protest peacefully, including in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. All those detained solely for peacefully protesting against mobilization and the war must be immediately and unconditionally released, and all reprisals against dissenting voices in Russia should end.

“The international community must step up its efforts to end Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, including by supporting those who are peacefully protesting against the invasion or conscientiously objecting to participate in the conflict.”

Everyone has the right to freely express their opinions and protest peacefully, including in response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine

Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Background

While arresting demonstrators, police officers extensively resorted to unnecessary and excessive force against peaceful protesters, including by beating them with batons and putting them into chokeholds. In Saint Petersburg, one person suffered a broken arm after being beaten by police.

According to the independent human rights organization OVD-Info, police handed summons to enrol at military enlistment centres to several yesterday’s male detainees in Moscow and Voronezh, Central Russia. The detainees are also at risk of administrative or criminal prosecution.

Amnesty International is currently undertaking a global campaign to counter the unprecedented attacks against peaceful protesters across the world. Among other things, the campaign is urging governments to stop misusing the criminal, civil and administrative legal systems to silence and deter protesters.

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Responding to the Appeals decision by the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) to uphold the guilty verdicts of genocide, crimes against humanity, and grave breaches of the Geneva Convention, against former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, Amnesty International’s Deputy Regional Director for Campaigns Ming Yu Hah said: 

“For all its well-documented flaws, the Khmer Rouge tribunal has shown that those responsible for crimes under international law can and will be held responsible. Today’s ruling should serve as another reminder that accountability for the most serious crimes has no expiration date. 

“The tribunal has served as an important platform for public discussion of the Khmer Rouge’s murderous reign, and as a place where victims’ voices can be heard, recorded and publicized. But as today’s ruling is set to be the court’s last, the work of supporting victims and survivors is not finished.   

“Impunity for human rights violations remains a serious problem in Cambodia today, and if authorities seek to uphold international law and human rights then they must ensure that their national court system is independent, impartial and able to make justice a feature of Cambodian society rather than an exception.” 

Background: 

The Khmer Rouge seized power in Cambodia in 1975 and governed until 1979. Experts estimate that some two million people died during their rule from starvation, sickness and murder. 

Khieu Samphan, aged 91, was the regime’s head of state. He was convicted in first instance in 2018 alongside Nuon Chea, the former second in command of the Khmer Rouge, of crimes against humanity, war crimes committed in security centers and worksites as well as the genocide of ethnic Vietnamese people. 

At the time, both were already serving life sentences after they were first convicted of crimes against humanity related to the forced population movements organized by the Khmer Rouge in a separate ECCC trial in 2014 and confirmed on appeal in 2016. Nuon Chea died in 2019. 

The ECCC, known informally as the Khmer Rouge tribunal, has completed only one other case. In 2010 Kaing Guek Eav, known as Comrade Duch, who operated the Khmer Rouge’s Tuol Sleng torture chambers in Phnom Penh, was convicted of crimes against humanity and war crimes. 

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