U.S. Seeks Application of the Global Magnitsky Act against Public Security Officials in Long An, Vietnam

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U.S. Seeks Application of the Global Magnitsky Act against Public Security Officials in Long An, Vietnam
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U.S. Seeks Application of the Global Magnitsky Act against Public Security Officials in Long An, Vietnam

By Truong Quan

What is the Magnitsky Act?

The Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act is a law enacted and applied globally, authorizing the United States government to penalize those they consider human rights violators by freezing their assets and banning them from entering the United States.
The Global Magnitsky Act originated from the Magnitsky Act signed into law by President Barack Obama on December 14, 2012, with the purpose of punishing Russian officials for orchestrating, imprisoning, and killing Attorney Sergei Magnitsky in 2009 at a Moscow prison in retaliation for his courageous exposure of misconduct by Russian customs officials.

Turning Up The Pressure On Vietnam

The suppression, terrorism, and silencing of “whistleblowers who expose official misconduct” across various sectors (despite the government’s constant calls for citizens to boldly report wrongdoing) occurs frequently in dictatorial countries, with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam perhaps ranking third in the world, only behind China and North Korea. Several cases of suppression and cowardly retaliation against lawyers who have reported or exposed systematic misconduct by state officials can be cited, particularly in the Public Security sector, which is seen as the “official ruling force.” These include:
 
  1. The case of Lawyer Vo An Don, who exposed five Tuy Hoa, Phu Yen police officers for coercing confessions, torture, and killing victim Ngo Thanh Kieu
  2. Lawyer Dang Thi Han Ni, who discovered misconduct by police and other judicial bodies in Binh Chanh, Ho Chi Minh City to exonerate Mr. Nguyen Van Tan in the “Xin Chao Restaurant” case
  3. The “Group of Lawyers Defending Dong Tam People” in the case of the extermination of Le Dinh Kinh’s family, a veteran Party member who was killed along with his family in a case with “deliberately staged circumstances” to retaliate against people who opposed “government land grabbing”
  4. The “Thien Am Lawyers Group” in the case of persecution and harassment for daring to report serious violations by the Security Investigation Police of Long An province, including perverse acts by senior security officers such as Colonel Van Cong Minh and his accomplices in humiliating a nun by forcing her to strip naked to check if her genitals “had given birth” or not… Additionally in this case, just because the people in Thien Am dared to report “bribery” by local police leaders, they became a “black mark” in the government’s eyes, being fabricated against, staged, and slandered with multiple charges involving human rights violations, disregarding the law such as illegally forcing DNA samples multiple times from elderly to children, exploiting disease quarantine for torture and coerced confessions, staging fake witnesses, fake evidence, and fake documents to slander and spread false information. Notably, the Long An judicial bodies also showed contempt for discipline and law, disrespecting superiors when numerous documents from whistleblowers and complainants to the Central Government were transferred to Long An for investigation, verification, and response but all went unanswered, even when they were documents from the General Secretary, State President, Government Office, and even the Ministry of Public Security, Investigation Agency of the Supreme People’s Procuracy…

Vietnam Heading Down The Same Path As China

Thus, the acts of suppression and terrorism aimed at silencing and retaliating against those who dare to “report misconduct” by state officials, especially police officers, are becoming increasingly serious with many dirty, cowardly tactics, and even “legally practicing lawyers” share the same fate if they dare to expose misconduct by judicial bodies, specifically the police. If there are no warnings for Vietnam to address this situation, soon no one will dare to “report misconduct” by state officials, a problem that has persisted for decades, and the legal profession will become merely decorative because “to prevent wrongful convictions and arbitrariness of judicial bodies,” the legal profession was born to counterbalance judicial bodies to ensure fair law, now when lawyers “detect and report violations,” they are persecuted, suppressed, and cowardly retaliated against, so who will dare to “report wrongdoing”?

Truong Quan

Truong Quan

I am the chief editor here a From Inside Asia