Vietnamese Authorities, on Monday arrested a Facebook user for posting information related to a recent land rights clash between locals and police, state media reported.
On Jan. 9, three villagers, including a community leader, and at least three police officers died in Dong Tam village, following a dispute over land rights in the village on the outskirts of Hanoi.
Around one kilometre away from the village lies Mieu Mon Airport, around which Vietnam’s Defense Ministry is currently constructing a fence to protect the land.
Villagers have expressed anger about the demarcation of land, which they say has led to farmland being taken away from them by the government.
According to Thanh Nien newspaper, authorities detained Chung Chuong in Can Tho City, around 300 kilometres South of Ho Chi Minh City, for posting information.
This, the authorities described, as misleading the armed forces who were on duty in Dong Tam Village.
He’s been charged with abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state, lawful rights and the interests of organizations and/or citizens.
Police searched Chuong’s house and found numerous electronic devices and data storage systems which he used to operate a Facebook account.
The police, however, said the account was used between 2018 and 2019 to share over 100 pages containing negative information about the state.
Chuong would, however, faced a sentence of up to seven years if found guilty.
Vietnam is a single-party communist state with a poor human rights record that regularly arrests political dissidents and activists.(dpa/NAN)
