Dang Dang Phuoc, 60, is accused of being an active collaborator in an anti-state campaign by the communist government
Dang Dang Phuoc with a banner asking Vietnam to sue China for marine invasion before his arrest in September 2022. (Photo: Facebook)
A music teacher in Vietnam who highlighted corruption and rights violations through patriotic songs and social media posts has been sentenced to jail for an anti-state campaign.
On June 6, the People’s Court of Dak Lak Province in Vietnam's Central Highlands handed down eight years in prison to Dang Dang Phuoc for making, storing, and spreading documents opposing the ruling communist government, his wife Le Thi Ha said.
Phuoc, who was also given another four years of probation following his sentence “did not accept the verdict and claimed he was innocent,” Ha, who was allowed to attend the trial, said.
She said her husband, a music teacher at the College of Pedagogy in Dak Lak, home to quite a few indigenous ethnic minorities, before his arrest in September 2022, will lodge an appeal against the conviction.
The state-owned Daklak newspaper reported that Phuoc, 60, posted and shared over 200 articles, attacking government officials, distorting the country's political and socio-economic situations, openly expressing discontented views, defaming police, and joining online groups to fight against the government.
The newspaper accused the father of two of inviting others to sing songs aiming to misrepresent the ruling communist party's guidelines and policies.
“…but to me, my husband is innocent and he must be released unconditionally," Ha said.
Ha said her family has been placed in an awkward situation since Phuoc was its sole breadwinner.
"I try to speak out to reduce social injustice," Phuoc said before his arrest.
Phuoc is among four activists who have been jailed for spreading "anti-state propaganda" in the past two months in Vietnam.
The others, Nguyen Lan Thang, Tran Van Bang, and Peter Bui Tuan Lam are already put behind bars for six, eight, and five and a half years, respectively.
Activists described Phuoc’s punishment as “so severe” since he sang songs against corruption among government officials. Most of the songs were written by composers inside and outside the country.
They said he commented on social and political problems and environmental pollution, and stood for the poor and the disadvantaged, especially with those whose lands were confiscated illegally by authorities.
The one-party-ruled Vietnam’s crackdown on human rights has already come under attack from international rights groups.
“Despite the Vietnamese government’s pledges to uphold high human rights standards following its election to the UN Human Rights Council, human rights defenders continued to be persecuted in the country,” in an annual report, released on March 27, Amnesty International said.
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