The police in Vietnam on Friday arrested an environmental activist accused of demeaning the government, state media reported.
Nguyen Van Hoa, 22, was brought into custody in Ha Tinh province for “abusing democratic freedom to infringe upon the interests of the state,” Viet Nam News reported.
Hoa was allegedly involved in protests against the Formosa Plastics Group, whose factory in Ha Tinh was found responsible for a chemical leak that killed hundreds of tons of fish in April and May 2016 in Vietnam’s largest recorded environmental disaster, the report said.
Hoa will be held for three months pending an investigation.
Police accuse Hoa of producing videos for foreign radio and websites demeaning Vietnam, including the banned Viet Tan political party, which is based in California and run by overseas Vietnamese who are opposed to the country’s single party communist state, the police-run newspaper An Ninh Thu Do said.
While the Viet Tan would not confirm if Hoa was a member, a spokesman condemned the arrest to dpa on Friday.
“Nguyen Van Hoa is a citizen journalist who applied his skills to document the Formosa environmental disaster. How is that abusing democratic freedoms?” said Washington DC-based spokesman Duy Hoang.
“Rather than punishing the messenger, the Vietnamese authorities need to listen to the people and address the concerns of the victims,” he added.
If found guilty, Hoa faces up to 12 years in prison. (dpa/NAN)