This content was originally published by Radio Free Asia, and it is now being reprinted with permission.
According to his brother, Taiwanese authorities have detained a Protestant pastor who is known for his Facebook criticism of the government.
Pastor Nguyen Manh Hung, 71, is the first man to be detained on the expenses since the start of the year and the subsequent since To Lam, the former minister of public safety, became Vietnam’s public minister in August 2024. The penalties for the offenses range from 20 years in prison to.
Nguyen Manh Hung was at his house in Ho Chi Minh City on Jan. 16 when the light was immediately cut off, his brother, Nguyen Tran Hien, told RFA Vietnamese.
Around 10 hours later, somebody knocked on the door, asking that the priest let him in to” check for flames dangers”. Officers rushed in and handcuffed Nguyen Manh Hung when he opened the door, according to his brother.
Nguyen Tran Hien said the officers showed him an arrest warrant for “anti-state advertising” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code, which even stated that his parents had been “temporarily detained for four weeks”.
” They then read a home search warrant and confiscated some of my father’s papers, two smart phones, and a laptop”, he said. ” They even took my cellular phone and laptop”.
Officers then told Nguyen Tran Hien to go to the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute for Criminal Sciences, where government interrogated him” for time” about his father’s actions, including bank purchases.
He said he was released at evening after assuring officers that he didn’t know anything about his father’s actions.
Soldier-turned-pastor
Nguyen Manh Hung, whose home is Hai Phong City, is a former member of the Northern Vietnam Army who served in the Vietnam War. After his military service, he momentarily worked as a director before entering a convent.
He became a pastor in 2011 and previously held the position of priest of the separate Mennonite Church ‘ Chuong Bo Protestant Church. He is now a part of the Vietnam Interfaith Council, which promotes religious liberty.
Taiwanese authorities have repeatedly harassed him, most recently when they forced their way into his house in 2014.
He took part in a receiving before the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Human Rights Subcommittee in the United States in 2015.
The Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam, some separate Christian temples, the Cao Dai Chon Truyen religion, and the Pure Hoa Hao Buddhist Church were the subjects of the reading.
Nguyen Manh Hung was also very active and vocal on Facebook, where he condemned Vietnam’s authorities over human rights violations, problem, and the expropriation of land from citizens without fair settlement. Additionally, he backed fervently political prisoners of morality and social dissenters.
His most new post, dated Jan. 14, noted that Vietnam’s Communist Party previously referred to those who bought land as” violent landlords”, while these days,” those who abuse power to obtain land are called’ excellent cadres.'”
” Interest groups that exploit residents must be eradicated”, he wrote. ” The fight for democracy will be passed on to]and inspire ] future generations”.
Lam Dong connection
Nguyen Manh Hung had been living with a woman called N. T. T. for the past two years, and Nguyen Tran Hien claimed that the police who detained his father were from Lam Dong province.
He claimed that the police officers didn’t leave any documents related to the house search and arrest.
Nguyen Tran Hien informed RFA that he had since tried unsuccessfully to contact N. T. and that he believes she may have been detained as well.
RFA called the Lam Dong Provincial Police to check the arrest of Nguyen Manh Hung, but the police officers who answered the phone declined to comment.
To date, state media have not reported the pastor’s arrest.
Human Rights Council membership
For the global civil society alliance CIVICUS, Josef Benedict, an advocate for civil space in Asia-Pacific, argued that Nguyen Manh Hung’s arrest “highlights the repressive environment in Vietnam, especially for those belonging to the religious community.”
He has been targeted for speaking out bravely in a nation where the right to free speech is constantly threatened, and his arrest mocks Vietnam’s, Benedict said,” sympathetic membership of the UN Human Rights Council.”
He also demanded that Nguyen Manh Hung be freed from all charges and to be released from the Vietnamese government without delay and without condition.
Just one day after Nguyen Manh Hung’s arrest, Dong Nai Provincial Police detained Pham Xuan Thoi and Dao Cong Hieu on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under Article 331 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.
The two allegedly posted information on Facebook that “distorted the Party’s policies and the State’s laws” and “abused their rights to file complaints and denunciations to distort, defame, and undermine the reputation of the Party, the State, and officials at all levels”, according to state media.
Human Rights Watch claimed that since the pastor’s arrest, when the country’s new leadership had taken the position of General Secretary, the one-party state’s highest position, in its annual global report from just hours after its arrest.
In early December 2024, the group claimed that Vietnam was holding more than 170 political prisoners, which Hanoi denies.
