Bolsavik’s friend imprisoned by Vietnamese government

A friend of the Bolsavik’s, blogger Dieu Cay (pictured), has been sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison by the Vietnamese government, on trumped-up charges of tax evasion. His real crime was to speak out and protest peacefully against Chinese aggression. Read here.

Dieu Cay, whose real name is Nguyen Van Hai, is a businessman. During the war, he was a soldier in the North Vietnamese army. He made his money selling cameras and camera parts; his store was called Hoang Hai so some people call him Nguyen Hoang Hai. He sold his camera store and went into real estate, owning some houses that he rents out.

The Bolsavik first knew Dieu Cay when Dieu Cay was in a dispute with his next-door neighbor, a mid-level local Communist Party official. The official didn’t like the way the window in Dieu Cay’s townhouse looks directly over his backyard, so one day just ordered workmen to come and slapped prison-style steel bars on Dieu Cay’s window.

When Dieu Cay objected, he was cited for public disturbance. The cop who cited him testified in court that he was ordered by the official to cite Dieu Cay. The presiding judge, apparently embarrassed by the disclosure, told the cop to change his testimony. The whole thing was recorded. The Bolsavik heard about the case and reported on it on Nguoi Viet. (Read here, in Vietnamese.)

It was actually only after that story was published that the Bolsavik got to know Dieu Cay and became friends. That’s the Bolsavik (sitting) with Dieu Cay (and another friend who is not politically involved at all so the Bolsavik blurred him out for his protection) in Saigon, last year.

When China began preparations to impose local governments on the Spratly and Paracel islands, two archipelagoes claimed by Vietnam but occupied by the Chinese, Dieu Cay joined thousands of others to protest across the street from the Chinese embassy and general consulate in Hanoi and Saigon.

That, somehow, made Dieu Cay a criminal in the eyes of the Vietnamese government.

When Dieu Cay continued his protests, he was detained several times.

A few days before the Beijing Olympics torch came to Saigon, Dieu Cay was arrested on trumped-up charges that he didn’t pay taxes on houses he rents out. Read the Bolsavik’s prior entry here.

Amnesty International (here), Reporters Without Border (here and here), prominent U.S. Congress members (here), and many others have called for Vietnam to release Dieu Cay. They didn’t, and instead put Dieu Cay on a sham trial and gave him a prison sentence.

In the photo below, that’s Dieu Cay holding the white sign in the center.

Here are some pictures of cops dragging Dieu Cay off in two of the times he’s detained:

Now, since when is peaceful protest a crime, you ask?

That question is easy: We’re talking about a communist dictatorship whose very survival depends on thought control and keeping people from speaking the truth. This sort of authoritarianism doesn’t fear armed uprising; it certainly doesn’t fear the loud-mouths screaming their heads off outside newspaper and magazine offices in far-flung Orange County. Nope, what it fears is Vietnamese people in Vietnam speaking their minds.

Here’s a harder question: If Dieu Cay was protesting Chinese aggression, why is the Vietnamese government making a fuss?

Ah, conspiracy theories abound. Some people are convinced the Vietnamese government jump at Beijing’s order. The Bolsavik suspects the answer lies somewhere else and is not so simplistic, but that’s just him.

Finally, why is law-and-order Bolsavik siding with an alleged tax evader?

A-hah! Here’s where tax laws differ fundamentally between Vietnam and the U.S.

You see, here, we look at tax laws as something that maybe we don’t like but we really don’t criminally evade taxes. Nobody wants to get into tax trouble.

In Vietnam, it’s a different matter. Culturally, people just don’t pay taxes. Tax laws are barely enforced. In fact, the tax laws are designed to be barely enforced.

For example, Vietnamese tax laws provide that in a taxable transaction, the two sides can stipulate who pays the tax. (Imagine you and your employer can stipulate that the boss will pay your taxes. Right, it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s Vietnamese tax laws.)

Rental contracts between Dieu Cay and his tenants provide that the tenants are supposed to pay taxes. The court said since they don’t pay, the responsbility becomes Dieu Cay’s — but that’s not what the law says, and the court just made the crap up on the fly. Because that’s what Vietnamese courts do; making things up to put people the government wants to put in prison.

The tax laws also provide that tax authorities must first give deficiency notice, and can only criminally prosecute non-payment of taxes incurred after the deficiency notices. (So, if you don’t pay your 2007 taxes, the tax authorities must first give deficiency notice, and if you don’t pay your 2008 taxes, then they can prosecute, but the 2007 taxes, while collectible, is never ever ever prosecutable. Doesn’t make sense but that’s Vietnam’s law.)

Yep, that’s Vietnamese tax laws for you. As said above, it’s designed to be barely enforced. No way whatsoever can Dieu Cay be criminally guilty of tax evasion.

But hey, the government needs Dieu Cay in jail. So the prosecutor’s office and the court just made things up and sent him to 2 1/2 years in prison after just a few hours of trial.