Human Rights Watch, in a letter to Japan’s new Prime Minister Suga during his recent trip to Vietnam, urges him to publicly and privately raise concerns about Vietnam’s widespread violations of civil and political rights, including freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and movement. The communist government is notoriously known for setting up firewalls to shut down access to politically independent websites and social media pages, while pressuring social media and telecommunication companies to block content or remove posts that are critical of the government.

A Vietnamese pro-democracy activist, Tran Duc Thach, who was arrested since April 24, 2020, and detained since then, was only allowed to meet with his lawyer for the first time today, November 5. He was charged in violation of Article 109 of the Criminal Code for “engaging in activities aimed at overthrowing the People’s government”, and his alleged involvement with the online advocacy group called “Brotherhood for Democracy”. Tran was charged in 2020 with two offences in connection with his postings on Facebook and his online activities from 2013 to 2016. His lawyer confirmed Tran is suffering from several illnesses and subjected to coercive confessions, unclean food and potable water, poor sanitation, poor lighting, and lack of medical treatment in prison.