Angered by police’s brutal violence against Tam Toa parish, the legal counsel for Thai Ha Catholic defendants who himself has been continually harassed and closely monitored by police has expressed his desire to offer legal assistance to Tam Toa parishioners in their quest for justice.
In the statement on July 23 to express his communion with Catholics at Tam Toa after the violent police raid on Monday, Le Tran Luat, the pro-bono attorney of the record for the Thai Ha Catholics expressed his desire to offer free legal advice to those who have been detained and now risk being prosecuted.
In state-run media, police and local authorities of Quang Binh province have charged their victims of “counter-revolutionary” crimes, violating state policies on Americans’ War Crimes Memorial Sites, disturbing public order, and attacking officials-on-duty. Tam Toa Catholics, if convicted, would face severe punishment under Article 88 of the Penal Code.
Luat’s offer of help has been received with great appreciation from Tam Toa parishioners who now face enormous difficulties finding a legal representative after a series of crackdowns of Vietnam government against human rights lawyers.
Recently, the Vietnamese authorities have sentenced a number of lawyers. Some other lawyers have also been continually harassed.
On June 13, lawyer Le Cong Dinh was arrested at his office in Ho Chi Minh City by Public Security police. In November 2007, he represented human rights lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, two other prominent prisoners of conscience, at the appeal court hearing against their sentences. He also represented Nguyen Hoang Hai, a blogger known as Dieu Cay, who was tried in September 2008 on politically motivated criminal charges for writing critical articles and calling for human rights.
Dinh, himself, now has been charged with "conducting propaganda" against the state. Under Article 88 of the Penal Code, if convicted, he faces a three- to 20-year prison sentence.
Le Tran Luat is an experienced and devoted attorney who has committed to defending the 8 Thai Ha defendants against the governmental charges of “damaging state property and disturbing public order”. He has become well-known and admired among Vietnamese people at home and overseas. However, the more fame and admiration he received from the Vietnamese Catholics and Non Catholics alike for his devotion and expertise, the more scrutiny his personal and professional life had been put under because what his clients and he himself were aiming for was in conflict with the interest of the dictatorial government. Luat has been repeatedly harassed by police after his decision to represent the Catholics at the court of appeal on March 27 of this year in Hanoi.
The level of harassment became more severe just before the appellate court hearing on March 27. Luat was repeatedly told by police that he had not understood the state policies and guidelines on religious freedom promulgated by the government of Socialist Republic of Vietnam. They then asked him to deny his own viewpoints and admit that the arguments he gave in the previous trial and in press interviews were shallow and hotheaded. His refusal to comply with government's coercion has resulted in a series of harsh treatments and eventually his house arrest as reported on May 1 of this year.
His movement has since been severely restricted and constantly monitored by the police. On March 12 while trying to board a flight to Hanoi for trial preparation, Luat was apprehended and detained at the police station for questioning. On March 15, he was arrested again and had to keep coming to the so-called "working sessions" by police's order. The ordeal did not end there for him and those who were related to him both personally and professionally. His entire staff has been harassed to this date, his personal equipments seized, his reputation distorted and tarnished by state media, his family as well as Luat himself received threatening phone calls, and his clients have been contacted and coerced to either cancel their contracts with his law firm or given false, distorted information about his personal and professional conducts so that they felt pressured to change their mind about detaining him.
On April 29, he was arrested after a long smear campaign against him by state-run media. Luat was reportedly released the next day after a 17 hour police interrogation. Ms. Ta Phong Tan, his assistant, shared the same fate.
While the lawyer was being interrogated at the police headquarter, his house was raided from 6 PM - pass midnight April 30. Documents relating to Lake Ba Giang, the plot of land which is still in dispute between Hanoi Redemptorist Monastery and the local government of Dong Da district were confiscated.
Taken away by police, along with Ba Giang documents and his lap-top and desk-top computers, were legal documents he has been diligently compiling for the law suits related to well-known dissidents such as Pham Thanh Nghien, Truong Minh Duc, Pham Ba Hai, and Prof. Tran Khue, also his proposal for establishing a website and an online forum for lawyers.
Despite all these harassments and intimidations, Luat, now a catechumen, continues to bravely raise his voice to defend presecuted Catholics in Vietnam.
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In state-run media, police and local authorities of Quang Binh province have charged their victims of “counter-revolutionary” crimes, violating state policies on Americans’ War Crimes Memorial Sites, disturbing public order, and attacking officials-on-duty. Tam Toa Catholics, if convicted, would face severe punishment under Article 88 of the Penal Code.
Luat’s offer of help has been received with great appreciation from Tam Toa parishioners who now face enormous difficulties finding a legal representative after a series of crackdowns of Vietnam government against human rights lawyers.
Recently, the Vietnamese authorities have sentenced a number of lawyers. Some other lawyers have also been continually harassed.
On June 13, lawyer Le Cong Dinh was arrested at his office in Ho Chi Minh City by Public Security police. In November 2007, he represented human rights lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, two other prominent prisoners of conscience, at the appeal court hearing against their sentences. He also represented Nguyen Hoang Hai, a blogger known as Dieu Cay, who was tried in September 2008 on politically motivated criminal charges for writing critical articles and calling for human rights.
Dinh, himself, now has been charged with "conducting propaganda" against the state. Under Article 88 of the Penal Code, if convicted, he faces a three- to 20-year prison sentence.
Le Tran Luat is an experienced and devoted attorney who has committed to defending the 8 Thai Ha defendants against the governmental charges of “damaging state property and disturbing public order”. He has become well-known and admired among Vietnamese people at home and overseas. However, the more fame and admiration he received from the Vietnamese Catholics and Non Catholics alike for his devotion and expertise, the more scrutiny his personal and professional life had been put under because what his clients and he himself were aiming for was in conflict with the interest of the dictatorial government. Luat has been repeatedly harassed by police after his decision to represent the Catholics at the court of appeal on March 27 of this year in Hanoi.
The level of harassment became more severe just before the appellate court hearing on March 27. Luat was repeatedly told by police that he had not understood the state policies and guidelines on religious freedom promulgated by the government of Socialist Republic of Vietnam. They then asked him to deny his own viewpoints and admit that the arguments he gave in the previous trial and in press interviews were shallow and hotheaded. His refusal to comply with government's coercion has resulted in a series of harsh treatments and eventually his house arrest as reported on May 1 of this year.
His movement has since been severely restricted and constantly monitored by the police. On March 12 while trying to board a flight to Hanoi for trial preparation, Luat was apprehended and detained at the police station for questioning. On March 15, he was arrested again and had to keep coming to the so-called "working sessions" by police's order. The ordeal did not end there for him and those who were related to him both personally and professionally. His entire staff has been harassed to this date, his personal equipments seized, his reputation distorted and tarnished by state media, his family as well as Luat himself received threatening phone calls, and his clients have been contacted and coerced to either cancel their contracts with his law firm or given false, distorted information about his personal and professional conducts so that they felt pressured to change their mind about detaining him.
On April 29, he was arrested after a long smear campaign against him by state-run media. Luat was reportedly released the next day after a 17 hour police interrogation. Ms. Ta Phong Tan, his assistant, shared the same fate.
While the lawyer was being interrogated at the police headquarter, his house was raided from 6 PM - pass midnight April 30. Documents relating to Lake Ba Giang, the plot of land which is still in dispute between Hanoi Redemptorist Monastery and the local government of Dong Da district were confiscated.
Taken away by police, along with Ba Giang documents and his lap-top and desk-top computers, were legal documents he has been diligently compiling for the law suits related to well-known dissidents such as Pham Thanh Nghien, Truong Minh Duc, Pham Ba Hai, and Prof. Tran Khue, also his proposal for establishing a website and an online forum for lawyers.
Despite all these harassments and intimidations, Luat, now a catechumen, continues to bravely raise his voice to defend presecuted Catholics in Vietnam.