Paulus Le Son is a Vietnamese blogger, member of the

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church and dissident who was arrested in

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

in 2011 and sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2013.

2011 arrest

Son was previously arrested in April 2011 trying to attend the trial of well-known cyber-dissident

Cu Huy Ha Vu CU or cu, may refer to: * Close-up, in film making * Cuba (ISO 3166, FIPS Pub 10-4 and obsolete NATO digram) ** .cu, Cuba's top-level domain country code * Old Church Slavonic (ISO 639 alpha-2 language code) * "See you", in e-mail shorthand * Cu ...

. On 12 August 2011, Son was trying to attend a hearing on Cu Huy Ha Vu's appeal against Vu's seven-year jail sentence. The next morning, on 13 August 2011 at around 11:30am policed blocked the road around his home in Thanh Hóa Province, and deliberately caused him to fall from his motorcycle as he was coming home. Four police officers dragged him into a police car. The arrest happened during the

2011 crackdown on Vietnamese youth activists Between July 2011 and December 2011 a number of young Vietnamese Christian activists, primarily located in northern province of Nghệ An, Vietnam, and working with the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer, were arrested by the Vietnamese gover ...

which included 17 other Vietnamese youth activists.

2013 conviction

On 9 January 2013, a trial was held by the People's Court of Nghệ An Province for 14 democracy activists, including Son. All of them were sentenced to 3–13 years in prison on charges of subversion. During the court case, Son was accused of participating in a

Viet Tan The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi). The native lan ...

meeting. During the trial, Son was the only defendant of the 14 not to have acknowledged any wrongdoings. Police also detained a number of other bloggers who attempted to attend the trial.

International response

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

quickly condemned the arrest in 2011 and called for his immediate release. In a statement, the organization states that "We are appalled by the brutality of Son's arrest, which has all the hallmarks of a police kidnapping" Following the 2013 trial, Brad Adams, Asia director of

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

, condemned the arrest and calls for the "convictions to be squashed immediately". He states "The conviction of yet more peaceful activists is another example of a government that is increasingly afraid of the opinions of its own people. Instead of imprisoning critics, the Vietnamese government should be honoring them for their efforts to address the myriad problems facing the country that the government itself has also identified." Following the 2013 trial and conviction,

quickly emerged and stated that it is "appalled at the groundless verdict handed down" that day and that it is the position to prove his innocence. The statement also reads that the group "has proof that the Vietnamese authorities use false pretexts to convict bloggers that criticize them".

References

External links

Paulus Le Son Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Son, Paulus Le Political repression in Vietnam 2013 in Vietnam People from Thanh Hóa province Living people Vietnamese activists Vietnamese Roman Catholics Vietnamese prisoners and detainees Year of birth missing (living people)

2011 arrest

2013 conviction

International response

See also

References

External links