Whereas
the People's Procuratorate of Tân An City on September 6, 2013
released the indictment against Đinh Nhật Uy and is going to put
Uy on trial on October 29, 2013, the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers
asserts and declares the following, on the prosecution as well as the
forthcoming trial of Uy:
1. Citizen
Đinh Nhật Uy is being charged under a law which, by providing for
punishment upon “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon
the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of
organizations and/or citizens”, has:
-
violated Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which stipulates that “Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression. This right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”;
-
allowed an arbitrary interpretation which is not based on any legal
framework or any specific regulation and can be applied to any civic
action;
-
created a legal context in which the alleged victim whose interest is
“trespassed on”, ie. the State, is acting as the investigator and
the prosecutor (the investigating body and the People's
Procuratorate), as well as the judge and jury (as the court), while
at the same time this same State and the ruling Party have always
rejected principles of separation of power and maintained the
monopoly of the Communist Party dictating every stage of the legal
proceeding process. This means no independent judiciary during the
trial process.
Such
a prosecution and trial based on a law that violates international
obligations and runs counter to basic principles of law cannot
legitimately convict any citizen. The Network of Vietnamese
Bloggers, before, during and after the trial, holds the opinion that
Đinh Nhật Uy is innocent.
2. If
the Tan An People's Court and the entire legal system of Vietnam keep
convicting Uy, then the Network of Vietnamese Bloggers, based on the
principle that all citizens, including both leaders and members of
the Party, are equal before the law, according to Article 52 of
the Vietnamese Constitution, requests:
-
The People's Procuratorate to charge citizen Trương Tấn Sang, who
has “abused democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests
of the State” by offensively calling Prime Minister Nguyễn
Tấn Dũng as “comrade X” and labelling the ruling Party as “a
bunch of insects.”
-
The People's Procuratorate to charge citizen Nguyễn Phú Trọng,
who has “abused democratic freedoms to infringe upon the
interests of the State” by defaming the Vietnamese Communist
Party, “There are cases of macro corruption; there are also cases
of petty corruption which are as annoying as scabies. No matter where
you go, you must have money on you,” although to date there has not
any organization to be charged and proved guilty of corruption.
-
The People's Procuratorate to charge citizen Nguyễn Sinh Hùng, who
has “abused democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests
of the State” by saying, “Corruption has penetrated into
even our anti-corruption forces,” despite the fact that there has
not been anyone in the anti-corruption forces convicted of
corruption.
-
The People's Procuratorate to charge all journalists who have “abused
democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the
legitimate rights and interests of organizations and/or
individuals” by committing libel against state owned
corporations, convicting Vietnamese citizens even when there has not
yet been any verdict by the court, criticizing and smearing the
State's leaders.
-
The People's Procuratorate to charge all of us, Vietnamese bloggers
who have raised opinions and published articles similar to what Đinh
Nhật Uy wrote, Vietnamese bloggers who publicly wear advocacy
T-shirts, “Paracels-Spratlys-Vietnam”; “No to U-Line! Yes
to UNCLOS”, “Abolish 'the ox-tongue line', defend Vietnam's
islands and seas”, all of which have been alleged as evidence of
Đinh Nhật Uy's wrong-doings.
3. We
urge the United Nations Human Rights Council to deem the prosecution
and trial of Đinh Nhật Uy as one of the issues that need
considering with regard to Vietnam's candidacy for membership in the
United Nations Human Rights Council.
October
24, 2013
The Network of Vietnamese Bloggers
Source: http://tuyenbo258.blogspot.com/2013/10/declaration-by-network-of-vietnamese.html
Bản tiếng Việt/ Vietnamese
Bản tiếng Việt/ Vietnamese
