The US State Department has condemned the jailing of one of Vietnam\u2019s most prominent environmental activists for tax fraud in a ruling human rights activists claimed was a \u201ctotal sham.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hoang Thi Minh Hong, 51, who has led environmental campaigns in the communist country for at least a decade, was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in Ho Chi Minh City on Thursday for evading about $280,000 in taxes, according to her lawyer Nguyen Van Tu. <\/p>\n
In a statement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said the United States was \u201cdeeply concerned\u201d by her imprisonment and reiterated calls for Vietnam to \u201crelease all those unjustly detained\u201d and to \u201crespect the right to freedoms of expression and association.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cNGO leaders like Hoang Thi Minh Hong play a vital role in tackling global challenges, proposing sustainable solutions in the global fight against the climate crisis, and combating wildlife and timber trafficking,\u201d Miller said. <\/p>\n
Vietnam\u2019s opaque legal system has come under increased criticism from Western observers this year, even as the Southeast Asian country draws closer to the United States. <\/p>\n
In April during a visit to Hanoi, a delegation of the European Parliament\u2019s Subcommittee of Human Rights expressed \u201cgreat concern at the worsening human rights situation in the country\u201d calling for the release of \u201cpolitical prisoners\u201d including NGO leaders, journalists and environmental activists, according to Reuters. <\/p>\n
The court\u2019s ruling also comes just weeks after US President Joe Biden\u2019s first state visit to Vietnam, in which he elevated diplomatic relations between the two countries \u2013 a hugely significant move given Washington\u2019s complicated history with Hanoi. <\/p>\n
\u201cVietnam and the United States are critical partners at what I would argue is a very critical time,\u201d Biden said at the time, referencing climate change. \u201cI\u2019m not saying that to be polite. I\u2019m saying it because I mean it from the bottom of my heart.\u201d <\/p>\n
Hong was the director of CHANGE, an environmental advocacy group she started in 2013 that \u201caddressed problems of climate change, pollution, and endangered wildlife in Vietnam,\u201d according to Human Rights Watch (HRW). <\/p>\n
She was also one of 12 international activists who received a grant in 2018 from the first Obama Foundation Scholars Program at Columbia University, HRW said. <\/p>\n
Hong \u201cdedicated herself to educating and organizing young leaders in the effort for a greener world,\u201d according to a bio page on the foundation\u2019s website. <\/p>\n
The importance of her cause has been underlined by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which lists Vietnam as one of the world\u2019s most vulnerable countries to climate change. <\/p>\n
\u201cTyphoons, floods, droughts and landslides frequently threaten a high proportion of the country\u2019s 96 million people and economic assets concentrated along its long, densely populated, coast,\u201d USAID says on its website. <\/p>\n
Rights groups said Hong\u2019s trial, which lasted half a day, was the latest example of Vietnam\u2019s government \u201cweaponizing the law for the purpose of political persecution.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis verdict is a self inflicted wound on Vietnam\u2019s ability to tackle one of the most seismic issues of our time,\u201d Amnesty International said, adding Hong is the fifth prominent environmentalist to be accused of tax evasion in Vietnam in the past two years. <\/p>\n
Ben Swanton, co director of The 88 Project, which advocates for human rights in Vietnam, called her trial \u201ca total sham.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is yet another example of the law being weaponized for the purpose of political persecution,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n
The US State Department has condemned the jailing of one of Vietnam\u2019s most prominent environmental activists for tax fraud in a ruling human rights activists claimed was a \u201ctotal sham.\u201d Hoang Thi Minh Hong, 51, who has led environmental campaigns in the communist country for at least a decade, was sentenced to three years in <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":9380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9379","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}