A leading Vietnamese climate activist, identified as Hoang Thi Minh Hong has reportedly been jailed for tax evasion,.
50-year-old Hong is said to be the latest environmentalist put behind bars by the country’s communist government. She is at least the fifth environmental campaigner to be jailed on tax evasion charges in the last two years as Vietnam’s authoritarian government steps up a crackdown on activists.
Available reports show that a court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced the activist to three years in prison for dodging $275,000 in taxes related to her environmental campaign group Change, her lawyer, Nguyen Van Tu, said.
Her husband, Hoang Vinh Nam, said he was “disappointed” at the verdict.’
“The sentence given to Hong today was too heavy,” he was quoted as saying. “I think it was unfair to Hong. The defence lawyer did his best but his arguments were not considered properly.”
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Media reports show that the charges related to revenue generated by Change from 2012 to 2022. Hong admitted the charges and along with her family paid the state 3.5bn dong ($145,000) in return for leniency, state media said.
Hong founded Change to mobilise Vietnamese, particularly young people, to take action on environmental issues including climate change, the illegal wildlife trade and pollution. But she abruptly shut down the group last year after four environmental and human rights activists were jailed for tax evasion.
“This conviction is a total fraud, nobody should be fooled by it,” said Ben Swanton, the co-director of The 88 Project, which advocates for human rights in Vietnam. “This is yet another example of the law being weaponised to persecute climate activists who are fighting to save the planet.”
Recall that earlier this month, Hanoi police detained the director of the Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition, an independent energy policy thinktank.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
