The police went on to detain the 2 men anyway, and they also stopped the other 17 people traveling behind on 11 motorbikes, even when these people did not do anything wrong.
The police then accused 2 women in the group, namely Bui Thi Minh Hang and Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh of yelling and swearing at the officers, claiming that by doing so they had caused "severe traffic" blockade of 500 m long for up to 2 hours??!!
Mr Nguyen Van Minh, a gentle Hoa Hao Buddhist devout, got off his motorbike and his right hand hit the right hand of one police officer once, and he was accused by the police for "hitting an officer on duty"??!!
The 3 of them were then arrested along with all the others, and later all 3 were charged with "disturbing public order" and have been held in jail ever since. Just because of "Disturbing public order" that the above 3 people were arrested and KEPT IN JAIL for more than 6 months!!!! From 11th February until now, and will appear in Court on the 26th August 2014.
Can you believe it?SIX MONTHS in jail without a sentence just for "disturbing public order"???? Only in Viet Nam!!
Their lawyers have been submitting request for release or bail for the last 6 months to no avail. Mrs Bui Thi Minh Hang's young son has had to travel to the United States to ask for help from the Vietnamese Communities there as well as the US Senates, to advocate for her and the other two 's release from prison.
Bui Thi Minh Hang, Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh and Nguyen Van Minh were held in prison without a sentence for 5 months before the Police Investigation Department released a Conclusive Report detailing what they had found and what charges are the 3 facing in the up coming Hearing.
Below is the translation of the full Report, which is the most ridiculous Police Report I have ever read!!
According to the Report, the police from the opposite direction could see a group of 20 odds people traveling on 11 bikes and immediately knew they were together??
Upon stopping the 2 men supposedly traveling in 3 causing disturbances to the traffic, they should have also stopped the guy traveling on the inside because he is a witness. Without him they can't prove that there were 3 bikes traveling alongside one another, can they?
Also if the laws say only traveling in 3 is against the law, then that means only the one traveling on the outside has committed a crime, because the one traveling in the middle is only traveling in 2, what crime did he commit? Or can the Police not count? How stupid is that??
After stopping the 2 men, if other people stopped, they should be waved on because they had not broken any laws or rules, what gave the Police the right to stop them, to check and record their ids also?? Abuse of power, isn't it?
What a laugh, police does not even know the laws!!! It is sooo OBVIOUS they had orders to SPOT and to STOP this group of people, to get their ids and to find reasons to ARREST them all, which they did!!
On the TV of the same day there was a clip of news on this incidence, and there was NO CLIP of Nguyen Thi Thuy Quynh saying anything! The clip was SOUNDLESS so there was NO PROOF to what Bui Thi Minh Hang was saying, and that Nguyen Van Minh accidentally hitting the arm of the police officer with his right arm ONCE is certainly NOT A CRIME, much less one of "disrupting public order"!!!
Actually, according to the people arrested and then released afterwards, they were ALL stopped by the police and they were actually YELLED at and HIT by the police. All had made affidavit statements saying this and are ready to testify in Court but they ARE NOT ALLOWED to even be present in Court!
When more than 700 locals came out to watch, it should be the police officers's duties to dismiss them. If the presence of over 700 local people caused the disruption to the traffic (as the arrested people had already moved their motorbikes to the side of the road) then it is these local people WHO SHOULD BE CHARGED with disrupting public order!! And the police officers should be questioned for failing to perform their duties adequately.
The first 5 items in the "evidence list" do not prove anything at all. There is NO LAW AGAINST carrying banners asking the laws to rule against police thugs and to protest against those.
Every citizen has the rights to protest against any police officer who does not act properly and they certainly has the right to ask the laws to intervene in such cases.
To say that these banners constitute as evidences to a crime is the most RIDICULOUS thing I have ever heard!!
How can an Ipad and Iphone, locked, not knowing the quality (they may not be working at all?) be constituted as criminal evidences?
And what is wrong with carrying banner protesting against police disrespecting religious objects and religious leaders?? Every citizen has such right!! Which laws prevent citizen from protesting such obvious wrong doing by the police?
The fact whether the police had done that or not, ie whether or not they were wrongly accused, is a completely different matter and totally unrelated, and need not be mentioned here at all!
And it is so ridiculous when the police stated that the group had previously gathered at Quang Minh Tu pagoda and was planning to travel to Lap Vo to "disrupt the public order" there?? How did the police know this, without having closely following and spying on the group? And if they had been following and spying on the group and knowing before hand where the group was going, what banner they were carrying, and what they planned to do... then would the whole "stopping because of traveling in three" just a poor and ridiculous excuse to arrest them all?
Is that not as obvious as 1 + 1 = 2?? Why did the police had to lie and make up stories as well as excuses?
On page 2, the report stated that as Mr Nguyen Van Minh dismounted from his motorbike, his right arm hit the police officer's right arm ONCE, that sounded like an accident. Now suddenly in the summary, that got changed to him "jumped off the bike and rushed over to beat up the officer"??? Which is the truth? The first account or the 2nd one? Is the police lying again here and making up stories??
The Summary said because Hang and Quynh were yelling and swearing that they caused severe traffic disruption for a long period of time? How stupid is that?? How can 2 women yelling caused traffic disruption??
It were those 700 odd local people who gathered to watch which the police FAILED to dismiss who were causing traffic disruption!! Get it right, Police!! And it was the Police who were AT FAULT for not able to move the people along. Had the police officers managed to quickly dismiss the gathering crowd then Hang and Quynh could yell all day and no traffic would have been disrupted!!
The truth is at that time the Police were surrounding and harassing the Hoa Hao Buddhist worshipers at Lap Vo, and indeed had broken into their place of worship, breaking the altar of their Supreme Spiritual Leader Huynh. These people were on their way there to help those being under siege by the Police. The government did not want them to get there, so they set up this TRAP to catch and arrest them on the way, and MADE UP some lousy excuses to put the three Hang, Quynh and Minh into prison to break up the protest!
Please see link below for the translated Report by the Police regarding the case:
