CORRESPONDENCE - 85A COMBINED REPORTS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN VIETNAM 2012

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2. Violations of Basic Principles of Criminal Law Although Vietnam's 2003 Criminal Prosecution Law guarantees all the rights mentioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, violations of the very principles set up by the authorities are apparent throughout the prosecution proceedings, including arbitrary arrests, fabrications of evidence, tortures during interrogation, obstruction of lawyers, and superficial judgment based on ready -made verdicts, etc. The police, not the judges, are the decisive element in criminal cases, as these security agents can freely enter the people's homes, or arrest anyone on the streets at any time. The suspects, especially political dissidents, are often tortured during their interrogation or isolated from their families and personal lawyers. Most of the court trials are summarily done within less than one day, sometimes during only a couple of hours. The presence of lawyers at the court, if any, is just as an embellishment only, since usually, the time for deliberation is shorter than the time for verdict reading, meaning the verdict has already been prepared ahead of time. Especially in 2011, maximum arrests were made at will against participants at demonstrations against Chinese aggression. Besides pursuing demonstrators on the streets the way rascals of the black society do, the communist police employed the technique of "summoning to work," actually a type of arrest without warrant from the judges. The neglect of criminal prosecution principles was not only aimed at subduing the people but also used as a protective measure by the authorities, typically was the Vietnamese government's excuse of lacking evidence in prosecuting the former bank governor Le Due Thuy for his acceptance of Aus$20 million bribe in the polymer printing Vietnam Human Rights Network * Annual Report 2011 contract with Securrency company, despite the obvious disclosure of the case by the Australian media and the prosecution of many Australian officials involved. It is worth noticing that in 2011, Vietnam was ranked by Transparency International at 122 over 182 surveyed nations, with a score of 2.9 on a total of 10. 3. Oppression of Lawyers A few years ago, Vietnam's Minister of Justice Ha Hung Cuong disclosed in a report to the National Assembly that lawyers were present at the courts in only 20% of the cases. Vietnam's legal system has been crippled not only by the tiny number of lawyers and their low professionalism but also by the government's unfriendly attitude toward them. The police and legal courts always try to obstruct or derail the lawyers in their participation in legal cases. To defend an accused, a lawyer must have the court's permission, but the permit is almost never legally accorded in time. In addition, even with the permit, he must have the approval of the investigative agency and depend on it to meet with his client in a hurry. At the court, his defense rarely draws the attention of the jury, and often, he has no gut to oppose the prosecutors, as his duty in most cases is just to ask for clemency. Due to the government's unfriendliness, the lawyers usually try avoid sensitive cases, though some of them have the courage to voice up their defense of the victims of injustice, for the freedom of religion, and for other basic rights. As a result, they are never tolerated by the state, their license is often rescinded, their names removed from the bar association, or more severely, they find themselves beaten up by hooligans, or prosecuted and imprisoned for vague reasons. 13