"Vietnam: Land rights defender Trinh Ba Tu continues to be tortured in prison", 8 December 2022

The Observatory has been informed about renewed acts of torture and ill-treatment perpetrated against Mr Trinh Ba Tu while in detention. Mr Tu is a land rights defender who has been vocal about land grabbing and its impact on small-scale farmers across the country, along with his mother Can Thi Theu and brother Trinh Ba Phuong, who are also being arbitrarily detained.

On November 21, 2022, for the first time in two months, Trinh Ba Tu was allowed to receive a visit from a family member... Trinh Ba Tu told his father he continued to be subjected to disciplinary procedures amounting to torture and ill-treatment. These include incommunicado detention and 10 days of solitary confinement with foot shackling. He also informed his father he had lost at least 10kg due to the hunger strike he carried out from September 6 to September 28, 2022. Trinh Ba Tu and his father were kept physically separated by a glass partition and remained under strict surveillance during the visit...

Trinh Ba Tu, Can Thi Theu, and Trinh Ba Phuong were arbitrarily arrested on June 24, 2020, [in connection to] their work denouncing on social media the excessive use of force against farmers of the Dong Tam Village...