Picture of Cu Huy Ha Vu
Education and Background
Cu Huy Ha Vu is a son of a famous poet and Communist revolutionary Cu Huy Can. His father was a close friend of the communism-led revolutionist Ho Chi Minh during Indochina War and Vietnam War (from 1945).
Cu Huy Ha Vu graduated a doctorate in law from University of Paris in France. His wife, Nguyen Thi Duong Ha is also a lawyer and both of them currently owned a law firm in Hanoi.
Since 1979, Mr. Vu worked at the Information Institute of International Relations. Within five years of this institution, Mr. Vu frequently went to France to study French and he learned the specialized State management, international relations, and economic law.
He helped promote environmental awareness. He is active in fighting against cutting trees and building hotels in the park. He contributed in preventing the hotel construction on Vong Canh hill.
Activism
In November 2009, Cu Huy Ha Vu became publicly known when he sued the Politforio Standing Committee member - Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung for approving the Chinese-run bauxite mining operation in the region of Central Highlands. But his charges against the Nguyen Tan Dung failed. As what he predicted, the People's Court of Hanoi and the Vietnam Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit.
In September 2010, Mr. Vu filed another charges against the prime minister for his Determination No. 136 that prohibits citizens from filing petitions and complaints against the communist government.
In October 2010, Mr. Vu represented the defense of the Catholics of Con Dau parish in Da Nang. Legal authorities of Vietnam arrested those Catholics when a funeral ceremony took place on a disputed claimed-to-be chuchyard. Again, the People's Court of the local district rejected the rights of Mr. Vu's law firm from being a representative to the Christian defendants.
Then in November 2010, Mr. Vu was arrested by the authorities when he filed a sequent charges against the prime minister regarding the Determination No. 136 in October 2010. Mr. Vu and his wife was in a Ho Chi Minh-based hotel when he was arrested. The police seized his laptop, and at the same time another police team raided his home and law office in Hanoi.
Picture of Cu Huy Ha Vu arrested (European Pressphoto Agency)
Sentence
In April 4, 2011, the Vietnam government sentenced Cu Huy Ha Vu a 7-year imprisonment and another 3-year house arrest.
US (United States of America) criticized the Vietnam government for jailing the social activist Cu Huy Ha Vu. Mark Toner, a US state department spokesman, was troubled with Vietnam's "apparent lack of due process" of Cu Huy Ha Vu's trial.
During the trial, Mr. Vu told the court, "I did not commit the crime of spreading propaganda against the state. This criminal case was invented against me. This case is completely illegal." - https://www.affordablecebu.com/