(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese authorities arrested a former political prisoner, Huynh Ngoc Tuan, on October 7, 2025, for his comments on social media, Human Rights Watch said today.
Police in Dak Lak province charged him with “conducting propaganda against the state” under article 117 of the penal code. They should immediately release him. Vietnamese law permits the authorities to deny Huynh Ngoc Tuan legal counsel and family visits while the investigation in ongoing, which may take months or even years. If convicted, he faces up to 12 years in prison.
“The Vietnamese authorities have persecuted Huynh Ngoc Tuan for decades because he exposes social injustice in Vietnam,” said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The government simply cannot tolerate any criticism, so they lock him up.”
Huynh Ngoc Tuan’s arrest is among a new wave of arrests that raises serious concern about the government’s intensifying crackdown on freedom of expression prior to the 14th Communist Party Congress expected in January 2026. The party congress, held every five years since 1986, brings together officials who select the politburo, the party’s leadership, the leader of the national assembly, and the country’s president and prime minister. A staged national election, that is neither free nor fair, is scheduled for March.
Huynh Ngoc Tuan, 62, was first arrested in 1992 and sentenced to 10 years in prison for his fiction writing, which the authorities deemed politically unacceptable. After being released in 2002, he resumed his dissident activities, writing a memoir detailing his 10 years in various prisons, and commenting on domestic and international socio-political issues. He campaigned for media freedom, freedom of speech, basic civil and political rights, and democracy, claiming as his motto: “I speak out, therefore I am.”
The authorities have also targeted Huynh Ngoc Tuan’s family. In 2021, his daughter, Huynh Thuc Vy, served 30 months in prison for “disrespecting the national flag.” In June and August 2025, police prohibited Huynh Ngoc Tuan’s son, Huynh Trong Hieu, from leaving Vietnam for “security reasons.” In 2012, Human Rights Watch gave Huynh Ngoc Tuan and Huynh Thuc Vy Hellman/Hammett freedom of expression awards for their “courage and conviction in the face of political persecution.”
In a social media post in July, Huynh Ngoc Tuan called on the Vietnamese government to act consistently with its “international legal commitments, especially in regard to human rights. Repealing repressive laws, ensuring freedom of press, and respecting civil society are not only necessary steps to improve the domestic situation but also a long-term strategy to build a resilient international alliance.”
On October 7, police in Dak Lak province also arrested Y Nuen Ayun, a Montagnard pastor at the Evangelical Church of Christ of the Central Highland and charged him with “undermining the unity policy” under article 116 of the penal code. The authorities accused him of “repeatedly providing fabricated information about religious activities in the Central Highlands, [and] slandering the government for arresting and oppressing people who participated in ‘Christian Protestantism.’”
On October 6 and 8, police in Gia Lai province arrested the land rights activist Vo Thi Phung and her alleged accomplice Nguyen Van Tong for allegedly opposing a groundbreaking ceremony at an industrial park, a development project for which local authorities had confiscated people’s land. The authorities charged both with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state” under article 331 of the penal code.
On October 9, police in Nghe An province arrested a blogger, Nguyen Duy Niem, and charged him with conducting propaganda against the state under penal code article 117. The authorities prosecuted him for allegedly being affiliated with the Collective for Democracy and Pluralism, a pro-democracy group founded in France in 1982 to campaign for civil and political rights in Vietnam. The police had previously arrested Quach Gia Khang in March and Tran Khac Duc in November 2024 for allegedly being affiliated with this group.
During the first 10 months of 2025, the authorities arrested at least 40 people for criticizing the government or for being allegedly affiliated with independent religious or political groups. They were charged with “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state” (article 331), conducting propaganda against the state (article 117), or “undermining the unity policy” (article 116).
In late August and early September, police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested the democracy activists Ho Sy Quyet, Tran Quang Trung, Tran Quang Nam, and Nguyen Van Tu. In the arrest notices sent to their families, police did not cite any concrete reason for their arrests.
“Vietnam was just re-elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva,” Gossman said. “The Vietnamese government should demonstrate it belongs on the council by immediately releasing everyone detained for exercising their basic rights.”