Hoang Duc Binh is a blogger and the Vice President of the Viet Labor Movement (Phong Trao Lao Dong Viet), an independent organization promoting labour rights. He reported on the Formosa environmental disaster, which resulted in tonnes of dead fish washing up off Vietnam’s central coast, and sought environmental justice for the affected fishermen. Hoang Duc Binh was forcibly removed from his car by local authorities on May 15, 2017 while traveling with prominent Catholic priest and social activist Nguyen Dinh Thuc. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison in February 2018.

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Note on Penal Code provisions:

A revised and expanded penal code took effect January 1, 2018 (known as the “Amended 2015 Penal Code”). While the previous provisions criminalizing political expression remained unchanged, they were renumbered. For instance, Article 79 (attempting to overthrow the government), Article 88 (anti-state propaganda), and Article 258 (abusing democratic rights) were renumbered as Article 109, Article 117, and Article 331, respectively.

For consistency with past media coverage, our database records the Article(s) that the prisoner was charged with (i.e., based on the version of the penal code applicable at the time of the sentencing).

Activists