United Nations Submission Made for Chau Van Kham, 71 y.o Australian Democracy Activist Arbitrarily Imprisoned in Vietnam
United Nations Submission Made for Chau Van Kham,
71 y.o Australian Democracy Activist Arbitrarily Imprisoned in Vietnam
JUSTICE ABROAD
“Here When You Need Us”
Press Statement
A submission to the United Nation’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (“UNWGAD”) has been made by Justice Abroad’s London based barrister Michael Polak and Sydney lawyer Dan Nguyen on behalf of Mr Chau Van Kham, a 71-year-old Australian democracy activist who was arrested in Vietnam in January 2019 and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment after a hearing which failed to comply with international provisions on due process.
Mr Chau Van Kham, is a retired baker from Sydney, Australia. He was arrested in Vietnam and subject to a trial, along with 5 other defendants, which lasted only 4.5 hours, where no witnesses were called. No allegations of any violent conduct by Mr Van Kham were made at the trial and he was convicted of terrorism offences solely because of his connection to a group the United Nations describes as “a peaceful organisation advocating for democratic reform." His legal team is calling for him to be released on Vietnam’s national day on 30 April 2021.
In October 2020, Amnesty International Australia nominated Mr Van Kham as a prisoner of conscience and Human Rights Watch have also called for his release.
The UN WGAD’s mandate is:
To investigate cases of deprivation of liberty imposed arbitrarily or otherwise inconsistently with the relevant international standards set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or in the relevant international legal instruments accepted by the States concerned.
The submission states that Mr Chau Van Kham’s detention is arbitrary because:
· The Trial lasted only 4.5 hours, suggesting that the verdict was pre-determined.
· It included 6 defendants and the court would barely have had enough time to carry out routine procedures including reading the names and charges, let alone to listen to the presentation of evidence and defence arguments in a fair and unbiased manner.
· All Vietnamese judges are required to be members of the Communist Party of Vietnam which means that they cannot be described as an objective and fair tribunal.
· The Vietnamese authorities label Viet Tan as a terrorist group. But the indictment did not indicate any violent acts, much less any evidence of acts that would generally be considered “terrorist”.
· Despite the serious nature of the charges, the indictment did not allege any violence or attempted violence by Mr Van Kham or his Vietnamese co-defendants. Instead, the court pointed to evidence of his affiliation and activities with Viet Tan in Australia where it operates openly and lawfully although Vietnam arbitrarily labels the group a “terrorist” organization.
· Viet Tan is described by the United Nations as “a peaceful organization advocating for democratic reform".
· It is clear that Mr Van Kham has been arrested and tried, not because of anything that he has done but rather because of his beliefs in democracy for the people of Vietnam. Therefore, he is a prisoner of conscience as stated by Amnesty International in October 2020 https://www.amnesty.org.au/action-launched-for-australian-prisoner-of-conscience-chau-van-kham/
· No independent witnesses were produced at trial which draws the inescapable inference that Mr Van Kham’s conviction rests solely on Vietnamese Government reports which he or his legal team did not have the opportunity to challenge. Therefore, Mr Van Kham’s conviction cannot be described as safe given the material it was based on and the lack of fair trial provisions which applied to his trial.
· Mr Van Kham gave evidence that he was not involved in any violence or force however it seems that this evidence, the only live evidence in his trial, was ignored or not given its due weight.
· Police arrested Chau Van Kham in January 2019, but it was not until October 2019 when authorities allowed him to meet with a defence lawyer for the first time. He met the lawyer a second and final time in November 2019, three days before the trial. Both meetings were in the presence of police officers. This did not allow Mr Van Kham to have private privileged conversations with his lawyer and it did not allow him to have adequate time of resources to properly prepare his defence.
· Mr Van Kham and his lawyer did not know the true nature of the allegation he was facing so he was unable to present evidence to properly counter such allegations.
· Mr Van Kham was sentenced to a lengthy sentence of 12 years imprisonment even though there was no evidence that he was involved in any actual violence and despite his previous good character which seems to suggest that any potential mitigation of his sentence was not properly taken into account for him by the trial court or count of appeal.
Mr. Polak of Justice Abroad and Church Court Chambers in London states the following:
“Mr Van Kham is 71-year-old with numerous health problems. The status quo cannot be maintained with him spending the next 10 years in terrible conditions in a Vietnamese prison simply for his beliefs in democracy which are shared by us all. It is clear that Mr Van Kham’s detention is arbitrary and he is a prisoner of conscience.
It is in no one’s interest for anything to happen to Mr Van Kham whilst he is in custody. The Australian and Vietnamese Governments must do everything possible to ensure that Mr Van Kham is released on Vietnam’s national day, 30 April 2021, so he can return to his wife and family in Sydney. “
Ms Dan Phuong Nguyen of DPN COMPANY SOLICITORS stated the following:
“As we celebrate Easter, let us think of a fellow citizen who is alone in a foreign prison with no contact with his family. Let it not be another 10 years.”
Mr Van Kham’s wife Mrs Trang Chau stated the following:
“The Australian Government needs to do more for an old, sick, Australian citizen, dying in a foreign prison. He is not getting medical attention and has been unable to contact me or our children since his arrest in January 2019. With the added worry of COVID, I fear that I will never see him again.
I plead with the Australian Government to help bring my husband home. “
On social media we will be using the hashtag #FreeChauVanKham. Justice Abroad can be found on Twitter here, Facebook here, and LinkedIn here.
Media requests for interviews with the lawyers involved or members of the family can be accommodated in any language requested and should be made by contacting Justice Abroad by email at contact@JusticeAbroad.co.uk or phone on +44 741 519 1591 at any time.