Vietnamese land activist imprisoned

By Bennett Murray

HANOI, Vietnam (AA) – Vietnamese land rights activist Can Thi Theu was sentenced to 20 months in prison in a Hanoi court Tuesday for “disrupting public order” in a case decried by rights advocates.

Theu, who was sentenced to 15 months imprisonment on similar charges in 2014, was arrested in June for leading protests in the Vietnamese capital against land seizures.

The courthouse street was cordoned off by security forces Tuesday morning as several protesters were detained before being driven away in a bus.

Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, told Anadolu Agency that Theu was convicted by a “kangaroo court”.

“This 20 month sentence is an affront to Vietnam’s international obligations to respect human rights, including the freedom of expression and peaceful public assembly,” he said.

Land confiscation has become a contentious issue in Vietnam in recent years as small landowners get evicted for large-scale construction projects.

Land rights demonstrations against the evictions are common in Hanoi, although they are usually quickly suppressed by security forces.

Public protests are illegal in Vietnam, and the country’s penal code provides the government great leeway in imprisoning people for spreading “propaganda against the state”.