The President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20500
Copy to:
The Honourable John Kerry
Secretary
U.S. Department of State
23 July 2013
Dear Mr President,
The signatory organisations respectfully request that you raise with the
Vietnamese Government the arrest and arbitrary detention of Mr Le Quoc
Quan, prominent lawyer, blogger and human rights defender. We understand that
President Truong Tan Sang of Vietnam will meet with you on 25 July 2013 and we
sincerely hope that you will take this opportunity to discuss Mr Quan’s
case with him.
Mr Quan is a qualified lawyer and active blogger who is currently detained
for exercising his rights to freedom of expression, association, and peaceful
assembly, and for his activities as a human rights defender. Prior to his
arrest, Mr Quan exposed human rights abuses commonly ignored by Vietnamese
state media on his popular blog. He defended human rights cases in the Vietnamese
courts until he was disbarred in 2007, when he was arrested and detained for
100 days upon his return from the United States where he had been a
Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellow at the National Endowment for Democracy in
Washington, D.C. In April 2011, Mr Quan was arrested again and ultimately
released without charges. In August 2012, he was severely injured in a violent
attack committed by what he believes were State agents.
On 27 December 2012, Mr Quan was arrested and charged with alleged ‘tax
evasion.’ He was detained incommunicado for the first two months and went on
hunger strike for fifteen days. At this moment, Mr Quan is still
imprisoned and is not allowed visits from his family. His trial was scheduled
to take place on 9 July 2013, but was postponed at the last moment until
further notice.
Mr Quan’s arrest and detention are in violation of Vietnam’s obligations
under international law, in particular Articles 19, 21 and 22 of the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which impose duties on
the government to protect Mr Quan’s rights to freedom of expression,
association and peaceful assembly. His treatment also contravenes state duties
set out in the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, to ensure and protect
the rights of human rights defenders. More detailed information about
Mr Quan and Vietnam’s unlawful interference with his human rights is set
forth in the attached Letter of Allegation recently sent to the Special
Rapporteurs of the United Nations.
Given the great importance of international attention to the effort to secure
Mr Quan’s freedom, and to enable him to return to his indispensable human
rights work, we hope you will seize the opportunity of President Sang’s
upcoming visit to request the immediate release of Mr Quan.
Thank you for your kind consideration of our request. Please do not hesitate to
have your staff contact us should you have any questions or need any additional
information about this important case.
Most respectfully,
Media Legal Defence Initiative (MLDI)
Access
Action des chrétiens pour l’abolition de la torture (ACAT)
Article 19
Réseau Avocats Sans Frontières / ASF Network
Electronic Frontier Foundation
English PEN
Freedom House
Front Line Defenders
Human Rights Watch
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Lawyers for Lawyers (L4L)
Media Defence - Southeast Asia
National Endowment for Democracy
PEN American Center
Reporters Without Borders
Southeast Asian Press Alliance
Vietnam Committee on Human Rights
World Movement for Democracy
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