Vietnam's jailing of Khmer monks violated religious freedom, rights group says

Human rights activists accused Communist-run Vietnam of infringing on freedom of religion after a court handed jail sentences this week to five ethnically Khmer Buddhist monks and four religious activists.

A court in the southern province of Long An sentenced the men to prison terms between two and six years after finding them guilty of "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon state interests" and of illegally detaining people, according to a police statement.

Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates said late on Wednesday the monks' sentences against the monks were "outrageous and unacceptable."

Khmer Krom Buddhist monk Thach Chanh Da Ra was given the longest term of six years after a trial on Tuesday, Vietnam's Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.

The police said Thach Chanh Da Ra instructed his followers to illegally detain and attack local authorities when they tried to search the temple, where he resided, in November 2023.

The monks were arrested in March this year.

The Khmers Kampuchea-Krom Federation, which represents Khmer Krom people in Vietnam's Mekong Delta region, said the monks were reacting to an attack by non-uniformed Vietnamese officials. The officials, accompanied by local gang members, had disrupted a Khmer language class at the temple, it said.

In 2022, authorities also tried to cut a sacred 700-year-old tree at the same temple, the federation added.

Vietnam's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"What was really on trial was the Khmer Krom people's right to practice their religion, language and culture without interference from Vietnam's ruling Communist party," said Phil Robertson, director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates.

He said the monks had no lawyers because they could not afford any and believed nobody would take the risk to represent them.

Robertson added that the sentences showed the government was intolerant of the freedom of religion and belief outside strictly controlled official structures.

The U.S. Department of State, in a 2023 report about Vietnam, included restrictions of religious freedom among a long list of "significant human rights issues".