Ngoc Nhi Nguyen (Danlambao) - Mrs Le Thi Phuong Anh, a young mother of 3, is today put on trial in Dong Nai, along with 2 other friends. This brave lady is a key witness to several major crimes of very high ranking Vietnamese government officials, with names such as Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai, Ex President Nguyen Minh Triet... on the list.
For the last 8 years, Mrs Phuong Anh and her husband Le Anh Hung had tried so very hard to bring what they knew to the public. According to Mrs Phuong Anh, those above mentioned officials with many other accomplices had committed major crimes mafia style ranging from corruptions to murders and treason against the country.
As the result, their little family had been ripped apart. Mr Le Anh Hung was arrested several times, deemed to be mentally ill and was committed to a psychiatric clinic more than once. Mrs Phuong Anh was kidnapped, beaten, threatened, had her coffee shop ransacked and destroyed, had her laptops, mobile phones and other belongings stolen. Their 3 little children were terrorized, pushed to the ground by strangers while playing outside their home. They lost their house and had problems renting as everywhere they went the police would harass the homeowners, preventing them from leasing even a small room to Mrs Phuong Anh 's family.
Both Mrs Phuong Anh and Mr Le Anh Hung had written and submitted documents recounting everything they knew to various government offices all over the country. Over the last 8 years they have done so more than 70 times. The Vietnamese authorities had never addressed their allegations properly. They tried to ignore the issues, to say that Mr Le Anh Hung is mentally ill therefore what he says is invalid. They tried to shut both of them up by threatening them with violence, causing them unbelievable financial hardships, even tried to have their relatives turned against them. Vietnamese officials would not dare to face the allegations head on as they knew that would give more credentials to Mrs Phuong Anh 's stories.
Now as the last effort to shut Mrs Phuong Anh up for good, the police arrested her along with 2 other friends on the road, charging them with some unrelated " crimes " such as " disturbing public peace ", just as an excuse to keep her detained and shut up. That was more than 6 months ago.
Today the Vietnamese government brings her to trial, to a so called " open trial " but without a legal representative, without allowing family members including her husband and children in the Court, and even from the night before thousands of police were dispatched to Dong Nai to stop any of their friends from even coming near the vicinity of the Court.
We await to see what charges the Vietnamese government is going to use to shut this witness up.
