On December 22, 2016 the Parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of the Vietnamese Blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh. [1] VETO! welcomes this initiative and believes that it will help protecting the alienable rights of the imprisoned blogger.

VETO! also greatly appreciates the adoption of Mrs. Nhu Quynh into the Program “Parliamentarians protect Parliamentarians” of the German Bundestag. [2] In the frame of this program parliamentarians of the German Bundestag stand up and support vulnerable parliamentarians in danger, politicians and human rights defenders in other countries.

VETO! would take the opportunity to thank MP Frank Schwabe, Spokesman for Human Rights Policy of the SPD Parliamentary group, for his parliamentary sponsorship for the blogger. VETO! believes that the sponsorship by MP Schwabe will draw attention to human rights violations against the blogger in prison, make this case visible and give her family a moral support in this very difficult time of their life.

NGUYEN Ngoc Nhu Quynh, a human rights defender known as Blogger Mother Mushroom, was arrested on October 10, 2016 in Nha Trang City, Vietnam, under the charge of “spreading propaganda against the Socialist State of Vietnam”. Subsequently the police searched her home and confiscated her computer, I-pad, mobile phone, hard disks, USB sticks, photo camera, film camera, sound recorder and several documents. Since her arrest she is held incommunicado, i.e. has no access to a lawyer and family visits.  A Catholic she is not allowed to receive a Bible. If convicted, she can face up to twelve years imprisonment.

Mrs. Nhu Quynh, born in 1979, is a founding member of the Vietnamese Blogger Network. She belongs to a politically mature post-war generation who, despite state censorship and reprisals, raises its voice against human rights violations, environmental pollution, government misconduct and social injustice via blogs and social media on the Internet. Seventeen times between 2009 and 2016, the mother of two children was arrested, interrogated or even beaten up.

In the past Mrs. Nhu Quynh has met some SPD politicians during their visits in Vietnam. Among others she met the German Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Economy, MP Sigmar Gabriel [3],  and the Commissioner of the German Government for Human rights , MP Christoph Sträßer  [4].

[1] Vietnamese Blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh should be released,  Parliamentary group of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), 22 December 2016, (German): http://www.spdfraktion.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/vietnamesische-bloggerin-nguyen-ngoc-nhu-quynh-frei-lassen

[2] Release Vietnamese Blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh – Concerns about detention conditions, MP Frank Schwabe, 22 December 2016, (English): https://www.frank-schwabe.de/de/article/1392.release-vietnamese-blogger-nguyen-ngoc-nhu-quynh.html

[3] German Vice-Chancellor met human rights activists in Vietnam, Vietnamese Bloggers Network, November 21, 2014 (Vietnamese): https://mangluoiblogger.blogspot.de/2014/11/pho-thu-tuong-uc-gap-go-cac-nha-hoat.html

[4] Commissioner of the German Government for Human rights met members of  the Vietnamese Bloggers Network, June 4,2015  (Vietnamese): http://mangluoiblogger.blogspot.de/2015/06/phai-vien-chinh-sach-nhan-quyen-va-vien.html