26-5-2023 (Hanoi) A Vietnamese noodle vendor who apparently mocked a top government official has been sentenced to 5½ years in jail for anti-state propaganda, according to police on Thursday.
This conviction is the latest in what human rights groups say is the government’s attempt to silence voices critical of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party.
Last November, a top Vietnamese official was caught on camera eating gold-encrusted steak at the London restaurant of Turkish celebrity chef Nusret Gokce, known as “Salt Bae”. Days later, beef noodle vendor Bui Tuan Lam, 39, went viral in a video where he imitated the chef to flamboyantly prepare his noodles.
Lam, who described himself in a Facebook post uploaded alongside the video as “Green Onion Bae”, was arrested in late 2022. On Thursday, he was convicted of “making, storing, distributing, or disseminating information, documents, and items against the state,” according to the Danang police department, after a one-day trial.
In addition to running a beef noodle stall in the city, Lam had publicly advocated for democracy in Vietnam and participated in many anti-China and pro-environment protests. The Danang police department also cited Lam’s indictment, stating that he had posted 19 articles and 25 videos on social media to “distort and smear the state”.
Human Rights Watch’s Deputy Asia Director, Phil Robertson, has called on the Vietnamese government to stop prosecuting Lam and others for criticizing the Vietnamese Communist Party. Robertson stated that “the list of posts and videos listed as ‘evidence’ of Bui Tuan Lam’s ‘crimes’ shows the extreme lengths to which the Vietnamese go to block any sort of online criticism of the government.”
“The Vietnamese leadership considers even songs to be a threat to their monopoly of power,” he added.
