Vietnam detains dissident for deportation, wife says

Dozens of bloggers and activists are serving sentences for crimes against the state

Vietnamese police detained a French dissident of Vietnamese descent for deportation on Friday after the Communist state revoked his Vietnamese citizenship last month, his wife said.

Pham Minh Hoang, a 61-year-old activist and mathematics lecturer, had dual French and Vietnamese citizenship before Vietnam cancelled his citizenship without giving a reason, a move that drew criticism from human rights groups.

Despite sweeping reforms to the economy and growing openness to social change, the Communist Party retains tight media censorship and tolerates no criticism. Dozens of bloggers and activists are serving sentences for crimes against the state.

Hoang’s wife, Le Thi Kieu Oanh, said police came to their house in Ho Chi Minh City on Friday asking to carry out a regular check on their household registration but later forced Hoang to leave with them and said they would deport him the next day.

Signal jammer

“My husband refused to go but three to four police officers used violence to drag him out and locked me inside the house... They also parked a signal-jammer car right in front of our house,” Oanh said.

The French embassy in Vietnam said France regretted the Vietnamese authorities decision to revoke Hoang’s Vietnamese nationality and to deport him.