Every year, on the occasion of Vietnam’s National Independence Day, September 2, the communist regime in Hanoi pardons a certain number of common law prisoners. This year, the authorities agreed to the early release of nearly 3,800 prisoners, including around twenty foreigners from Laos, Thailand, China, Iceland and the United States… But no prisoner convicted of “propaganda » against the state or attempting to overthrow the communist regime, an accusation frequently leveled against activists. These amnesties come days after the slightly anticipated release of two leading environmental activists, Hoang Thi Minh Hong and Tran Huynh Duy Thuc. In September 2023, the first was sentenced to three years in prison for “tax evasion”. She created the NGO Change to inspire Vietnamese people, particularly young people, to act on pressing environmental issues, including climate change, illegal wildlife trade and pollution. Accused of trying to overthrow the regime and Convicted in 2010, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, for his part, was serving a sentence of sixteen years. These two releases coincided with the visit of the president and secretary general of the Vietnamese Communist Party, To Lam, to the United States, notably to attend the 79th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Extensive anti-corruption campaign In recent years, the regime has launched a vast anti-corruption campaign throughout the country on the Chinese model of Xi Jinping since 2013. The second trial of a manager of a real estate giant, Truong My Lan, boss of the Van Thinh Phat conglomerate, ended opened on September 19 in Ho Chi Minh City (South). Already sentenced to death for having orchestrated the biggest financial scandal in Vietnam, Truong My Lan was found guilty last April of having embezzled over a decade nearly 27 billion dollars (25 billion euros) via a set-up of obligations. All with the complicity of civil servants responsible for supervising the banking sector. The affair, which shocked public opinion, provoking gatherings exceptionally tolerated by the communist power, revealed the porosity of economic and political circles, sometimes linked by corruption pacts. Thousands of people, including former business stars and ministers, have already been caught in the net of this campaign. Furthermore, the one-party regime, which wants to silence all political dissent, has increased its arrests. and convictions in recent years against political activists, particularly for posts on social media. In 2024, more than 160 political prisoners were in detention, according to the NGO Human Rights Watch. A number largely underestimated according to other sources, but impossible to verify in the absence of any official statistics. All independent media are banned in the country, ranked 174th out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders’ 2023 press freedom rankings.
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