Before going to prison, Nguyen Van Tuc served as the deputy head of Brotherhood for Democracy, a Vietnamese association that promotes greater protection of human rights in Viet Nam. He has advocated for greater protection for human rights in Vietnam for several years. In September 2017, Nguyen Van Tuc was taken into custody by plainclothes police while supporting Vietnamese villagers involved in a land dispute with Vietnamese authorities.
Vietnamese authorities treat human rights defenders as “enemies of the State”. HRDs are subjected to intimidation, threats, interrogation, harassment, arrest and routine beatings. Many defenders are victims of arbitrary detention and criminalisation. Most often, they are not informed of the reasons for their arrest or why their request for bail is denied. When put on trial, they are very often sentenced to heavy jail terms and mistreated in prison. Detained HRDs also do not have access to lawyers and families and can be denied medical care. They can be intentionally transferred to remote locations, thus making it more difficult for their families to visit them. Human rights lawyers are often abused and disbarred from their respective bar association.
