Tran Khai Thanh Thuy
Profession: Novelist, essayist, poet and journalist
Date of arrest: 8 October 2009
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Details of arrest: Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was reportedly beaten and arrested after she publicly expressed her support for six dissidents facing trial. According to our information, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was detained on 8 October as she made her way to Hai Phong to support the activists as they faced trial. She was reportedly held incommunicado for several hours before being returned to her home and told that she could not leave. Later that evening, an incident took place at her home, the details of which are not clear. Tran Khai Thanh Thuy has subsequently been charged with assault, although it is widely believed that she was in fact the victim of an assault, and that the photograph used as evidence against her had been doctored. If convicted, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy could face up to three years in prison.
Professional details: Tran Khai Thanh Thuy is a renowned novelist, poet, essayist and editor of the underground dissident magazine To Quoc (Fatherland). Because of her writing, published on the Internet, she has been under heavy surveillance and harassment since September 2006. She is a member of the Union of Writers and the Club of Women Poets of Hanoi, and won the 2008 Hellman Hammet Award.
Health concerns: She suffers from diabetes and advanced tuberculosis, for which she has been receiving hospital treatment.
Other Details: Tran Khai Thanh Thuy has been repeatedly denounced and humiliated in public meetings organised by the Vietnamese authorities, including a 'People's Court' in October 2006, where police gathered 300 people in a public stadium to insult her. Her home was attacked by mobs who entered her home calling her a traitor and a prostitute, threatening to beat her. The police refuse to protect her, calling for her to abandon her activism to ensure her safety. In September and October 2006, she was repeatedly questioned and detained by the authorities and dismissed from her job. She was held under strict house arrest during APEC meetings in November of that year.
On 21 April 2007, Tran Khain Thanh Thuy was arrested at her home in Hanoi, where she is said to have been under strict house arrest since November 2006. She was believed to be charged with violating Article 88 of the Criminal Code for disseminating information considered harmful to the State by the authorities. She was also accused of being a member of Bloc 8406, a leading underground pro-democracy group, of supporting a dissident human rights organisation and of illegally organising a trade union, and could have faced up to twelve years in prison. She was held at Detention Camp B14, Thanh Liet, in district Thanh Tri, Hanoi until, with only a day's notice, her trial commenced on 31 January 2008.
On 31 January 2008, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was sentenced to 9 months in prison by a Hanoi Court for 'disturbing public order', but having already spent that time in pre-trial detention she was released the same day. English PEN warmly welcomed the news of her release, while regretting her detention and criminal conviction merely as a result of practising her profession and expressing her opinion.
Honorary Member: English PEN