One of the most well-known Vietnamese blogger, Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, who is better known under the pen name Me Nam (“mother mushroom”), has been convicted of Propaganda against the state to ten years of imprisonment.
The prosecution had charged the 37-year-old blogger in accordance with Paragraph 88 of the Vietnamese penal code. With a conviction to ten years in prison, the court has imposed nearly the maximum. The Paragraph allows for penalties up to twelve years. The Human rights organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) called the charges in advance as a “completely disproportionate”. Reporters without borders, the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union have been demanding the release of Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh.
The blogger in October 2016. The authorities arrested them as they wanted to visit one of the other activists in a prison near the famous tourist resort of Nha Trang. The security forces searched then your house, and seized the protest posters that the Vietnamese government was prompted to take legal action against a Taiwanese steel mill. The steel mill was disposed of in April 2016, large amounts of highly toxic wastewater illegally in the sea. A whole coast line in the Central of Vietnam was destroyed polluted, the livelihoods of the fishermen.
Only nine months after the arrest, on 20. June 2016, had Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, according to her lawyer Nguyen assistance Kha Thanh for the first time contact with the outside world and to a right. Her mother was allowed to see the daughter, according to the AFP yesterday, for the first Time since the detention, but only for five minutes.
Environmental protection as a matter of the heart
The activist, blogged since 2006. Her original Name is “mother mushroom” is derived from the nickname of their youngest daughter, the “mushroom” was created. It is in Vietnam is common, children with a nickname to call.
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh published your posts both on Facebook as well as on Internet platforms, which are operated abroad, and took on social injustices and environmental scandals to the attention of.
Since the environmental disaster of the Taiwanese steel plant, it always comes back to the protests in Vietnam
The focus is on a 2009, the bauxite Mine was for a very long time in the Central highlands of Vietnam, which will be exploited in cooperation with the Chinese company aluminum Cooperation of China Ltd. In the case of the conversion of bauxite into aluminum toxic waste, the compartment is not ensured appropriate disposal in Vietnam. The Mine was opened, in spite of all the protests.
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh is also the co-founder of the “network of Vietnamese bloggers,” in which independent authors can organize. For her commitment she was awarded several times. Among other things, with the “International Woman of Courage Award” from the U.S. Department of state.
Tough times for critics
In Vietnam, freedom of the press is massively restricted. Currently, the country ranks on the Index the press freedom index of “reporters without borders” place 175 to 180. Only in China, more and more bloggers and citizen journalists are currently imprisoned in Vietnam, wrote reporters without borders in its annual report for 2017. Observers and human rights groups, the trial against Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh is also used as a Signal to other bloggers and activists: those Who do not to the of the party given the rules of the game, threaten draconian penalties.
re/gh (afp,epd,rsf,hrw)