Vietnamese-Australian Democracy Activist Chau Van Kham Released and Returned to Australia
JUSTICE ABROAD
“Here When You Need Us”
Justice Abroad Director and barrister Michael Polak acted with Sydney lawyer Dan Nguyen on behalf of Mr Chau Van Kham, a 73-year-old Australian democracy activist who was arrested in January 2019 and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for terrorism because of his democracy activism, after a trial which failed to comply with international fair trial standards.
On 11 July 2023, Mr Chau Van Kham was returned to Australia where he is now a free man.
Michael Polak worked with Ms Dan Ngyuen, the family’s lawyer, to push for Mr Van Kham’s release from his unjust conviction and detention which were unlawful under international law. On 7 June 2022, after considering submissions by Mr Chau Van Kham’s legal team, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention concluded that Mr Van Kham’s detention was arbitrary and therefore unlawful under international law and they ordered his immediate unconditional release. The Australian Government engaged with Vietnam to push for Chau’s release and Mr Chau’s legal team are grateful for their intervention.
Michael Polak stated the following:
‘We are very pleased that Mr Van Kham has been returned to Australia to his loving wife who has missed him greatly over the last four years. It is a wonderful day for Chau and his family and one that they were beginning to feel might never come.
Although we celebrate Chau’s release today, it is clear that he should never have been convicted or faced such a serious sentence under the false description of terrorism. Chau’s belief in democracy for those in Vietnam is one that is based on universal rights and should not have resulted in his persecution.
We remain concerned about the democrats, labour rights activists, environmentalists, and lawyers who remain languishing in Vietnamese prisons and hope that Vietnam’s international partners can encourage the authorities to move towards a free society there.’
Notes of Editors
In April 2021, Michael Polak and Dan Ngyuen made submissions to the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention arguing that the conditions of pre-trial detention, lack of confidential access to a lawyer, and the trial procedure which lasted only 4.5 hours for 6 defendants, as well as the vague nature of the charge and the fact that no evidence of any criminal acts was put before the Court, rendered the trial unfair and in breach of international law and meant that Mr Van Kham’s continued detention is arbitrary. Annexed to these submissions was a note on the breaches of international law from Human Rights Watch and as well as evidence of Amnesty International’s designation of Mr Van Kham as a prisoner of conscience.
After considering Mr Van Kham’s case carefully the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention delivered a decision concluding that Mr Van Kham’s detention is arbitrary and therefore unlawful under international law and has ordered his immediate unconditional release. The Working Group, comprised of experts in international law, found that the detention of Mr Chau Van Kham was unlawful under all 4 relevant categories of Arbitrary Detention that it is mandated to consider. The full decision can be found here.
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