Rights group urges Vietnam to immediately release human rights activist, drop all charges
The Vietnamese authorities should immediately release prominent human rights activist Trịnh Bá Phương and drop all charges against him, Human Rights Watch (HRW) urged on Thursday.
Phương was arrested in June 2020 and convicted in December 2021 under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, receiving a 10-year sentence followed by five years of probation. Article 117 prohibits “making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
While incarcerated, he repeatedly protested his conditions, including through a hunger strike in November 2024 after prison guards confiscated reading and writing materials. In April 2025, Quang Nam provincial authorities accused Phương of spreading “anti-state propaganda” under the same Article 117 for allegedly writing protest signs in his cell, including slogans such as “[d]own with the Communist [Party of] Vietnam for violating human rights, down with the Communist court for sentencing me unjustly.”
Associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch Patricia Gossman stated, “[t]he new charges against [Trịnh Bá Phương] show that criticizing the Communist Party is just as unlawful inside as well as outside Vietnam’s prisons … The Vietnamese government should immediately end its retaliation against [Trịnh Bá Phương] for his quiet expression of protest.”
The move comes amidst Hanoi’s broader suppression of governmental dissent. Phương’s mother, Cấn Thị Thêu, and brother, Trịnh Bá Tư, are also serving eight-year sentences on similar propaganda charges. Amnesty International has likewise called on the Vietnamese government to drop all charges and release political detainees, including Phương’s family.
HRW previously urged Vietnamese authorities to “immediately release” Phương back in May.
The Da Nang People’s Court is set to hear Trịnh Bá Phương’s case on Saturday. If found guilty, the imprisoned activist could receive up to 12 additional years behind bars.
By Christine Savino – Jurist.org – September 27, 2025