Hoang Thi Minh Hong, one of Vietnam’s best-known climate activists, has become the fifth prominent critic of the country’s climate policies to be jailed for tax evasion.
She was sentenced on Thursday by the Ho Chi Minh City court to three years in prison, and fined $4,100, the BBC reports.
Campaigners, who claimed this was a preordained outcome to a politically driven case, say it is part of a state-authorised move to silence criticism of Vietnam’s approach to climate change.
NGOs in Vietnam have long existed in a legal ‘grey zone’ in which there are no specific requirements for them to pay tax on donations from overseas.
The BBC notes, however, that the state has interpreted ambiguous laws in the most punitive way for these activists, in what looks like a targeted campaign against environmentalists.
That impression was reinforced when a sixth person, Ngo Thi To Nhien, the executive director for Vietnam Initiative for Energy Transition, was arrested two weeks ago. No information has yet been published about what charges she faces.
According to the BBC, her think tank had been working with the World Bank, UN and US agencies on green energy, and she was generally regarded as more of a low-profile advocate than an outspoken campaigner.