User:Jasontvu/sandbox

Background:

NGUYỄN VĂN OAI (Surname NGUYỄN, Middle name VĂN, First name OAI), 36 (born 18 June 1981 ), is a Christian activist and citizen journalist from Quỳnh Lưu district, Nghệ An province. He is a Protestant, and studied citizen journalism under Vietnam Redemptorist News and helped report on the anti-China protests in Vietnam during summer 2011. He is also a co-founder of the Association of Catholic Former Prisoners of Conscience. He's well known for his activism, on and off line, on a variety of issues such as religious freedom, social justice and human rights.

Circumstances:

Between July 2011 and December 2011, a series of young Catholic Vietnamese activists, primarily located in northern province of Nghệ An, Việt Nam, were arrested by the Vietnamese government for protesting for land rights and circulating a petition to free prominent legal rights activist Cù Huy Hà Vũ, a prominent human rights defender who was imprisoned for seven years in April 2011, and for opposing a controversial bauxite mining project in the Central Highlands. The first wave of arrests began on July 30, 2011, when the police arrested Nguyễn Văn Oai and two other Catholic activists at Tân Sơn Nhất airport in Hồ Chí Minh City as they returned from Bangkok after having attended a training course held by the banned Việt Tân organization. The police detained Oai without a warrant with charges of conspiring to overthrow the government under clause 2 of Article 79 of the Penal Code of Việt Nam. Oai was held incommunicado for months and was denied access to legal representation.

On January 8 and 9, 2013, Nguyen Van Oai and 13 other democracy activists were tried by the People's Court of Nghệ An Province. He and other activists were accused of maintaining ties with Việt Tân,[7] a US-based pro-democracy organization to establish democracy and reform Vietnam through peaceful and political means.[20][21] The verdict was announced by Judge Tran Ngoc: Oai was sentenced to 4 years of imprisonment and 4 years of house arrest on charges of violating Clause 1 of Article 79 of the Vietnamese criminal code for organizing "to attempt to overthrow the government".[7]

On August 2, 2015, Oai was released after having served the full four years term of imprisonment. According to the sentence placed in 2013, he continued serving four years house arrest following his release.

On January 19, 2017, Oai was re-arrested by plainclothes officers in central Việt Nam's Nghệ An province, and charged with "resisting persons on duty," claiming he was not abiding by the terms of his house arrest order he received in 2015. His arrest was part of the Vietnamese government's latest crackdown on bloggers and citizen journalists including Formosa reporter Nguyễn Văn Hoá.

On September 18, 2017 the People's Court in Hoang Mai town, Nghe An Province found Oai guilty of "resisting persons in the performance of their official duties" and "failing to execute judgements" during his probation. He was jailed for a further five years - three years for the first charge and two years for the second charge. He was also given another four years of house arrest. Relatives of Oai were not permitted to enter the courtroom, despite authorities calling the trial to be a "public trial ."