Beating of environmental rights defender Le My Hanh
On 2 May 2017, environmental rights defender, Le My Hanh was violently attacked at a friend’s residence in Ho Chi Minh City by a group of five individuals believed to be government loyalists. Two of her friends were also assaulted. One of the attackers filmed and posted the video of the attack on his Facebook page with a threatening message. This is the second attack on Le My Hanh within a month, after she was brutally beaten on 5 April 2017 while covering an environmental protest.
Le My Hanh is a Hanoi-based environmental rights defender and citizen journalist. She has reported on peaceful demonstrations by central coast residents who are seeking compensation for the environmental consequences of a toxic waste spill by the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant in the central coastal waters. Through her advocacy work, Le My Hanh promotes multi-party democracy, human rights and environmental protection.
On 2 May 2017, environmental rights defender, Le My Hanh was violently attacked at a friend’s residence in Ho Chi Minh City by a group of five individuals believed to be government loyalists. Two of her friends were also assaulted. One of the attackers filmed and posted the video of the attack on his Facebook page with a threatening message. This is the second attack on Le My Hanh within a month, after she was brutally beaten on 5 April 2017 while covering an environmental protest.
Le My Hanh is a Hanoi-based environmental rights defender and citizen journalist. She has reported on peaceful demonstrations by central coast residents who are seeking compensation for the environmental consequences of a toxic waste spill by the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant in the central coastal waters. Through her advocacy work, Le My Hanh promotes multi-party democracy, human rights and environmental protection.
On 2 May 2017, a group of five people forcefully entered into Le My Hanh’s friend’s apartment in Ho Chi Minh City and assaulted her and two of her friends. The attackers sprayed their faces with pepper spray, hit them with shoes and helmets and beat them. Le My Hanh was knocked unconscious and left with injuries to her face, including several bruises. One of the attackers, named Phan Hung, later posted a video of the assault on his Facebook page along with a threatening message. The attack was reported to the 2nd District police in Ho Chi Minh City, who committed to investigating the incident. According to human rights lawyer, Le Cong Dinh – a friend of Le My Hanh – the local police tried to persuade Le My Hanh to drop the complaint against the attackers because “the injuries were not serious”.
Le My Hanh was previously attacked on 5 April 2017 in Hanoi along with fellow human rights defender, Trinh Dinh Hoa, as they were conducting a live stream on Facebook to talk about the environmental disaster caused by Formosa in the Central region of Vietnam.
Physical assaults against Vietnamese human rights defenders by plainclothes assailants have become a common occurrence in the past number of years as a means to dissuade them from doing their work. Front Line Defenders is concerned by these attacks and believes they are motivated solely by the victims' work in defence of human rights.
