Vietnam is under the jurisdiction of the Orthodox Metropolitanate of Hong Kong and Southeast Asia, which is subject to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Russian Orthodox Church also has three parishes in Vietnam. Otherwise, most Christians in Vietnam are Roman Catholic or Protestant.
For previous coverage of the persecution of Christians in Vietnam at ChristianPersecution.com, see here.
“Vietnam sentences ethnic minority man to 4½ years for religious activities,” Radio Free Asia, January 26, 2024:
Vietnam on Friday sentenced religious freedom activist Nay Y Blang to four years and six months in prison for crimes he is said to have committed while holding religious meetings in his home, state media reported.
Blang, 48, is a member of the Ede ethnic group from the country’s Central Highlands.
He was accused of using these meetings to “gather forces, divide the national unity bloc, incite secession, self-rule, and establish a separate state for ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands,” and was convicted of “abusing democratic freedoms,” the Tuoi Tre Online newspaper reported.
No defense lawyer was present at his trial, family members said. In protest, Blang’s relatives boycotted the trial.
Blang admitted and clearly declared his crime, asking the jury to consider reducing the penalty so he can return to his family soon and reintegrate into the community and become a good citizen who is useful to society, Tuoi Tre reported.
The report said that from the end of 2019 to 2022, Blang used his private home in the eastern coastal province of Phu Yen, to gather for meetings, pray and have online fellowship with some key figures of the Central Highlands Evangelical Church of Christ, an independent religious group founded that is considered a reactionary organization by the Vietnamese government.
He was additionally accused of “providing false information about freedom of religious belief, slander, distorting religious policies, and violating the interests of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.” He was arrested on May 18, 2023….
North Carolina-based Pastor Aga, who founded the organization, told RFA Vietnamese that even though the family had signed a contract with lawyer Ha Huy Son and had been granted a defense certificate by the investigation agency of Phu Yen province, no lawyer was there to defend Blang….
Aga said that the group he founded is purely religious, “not reactionary, not against the state, not intending to establish a separate state.”
“We just want to express our religious beliefs, our own religion, to worship God and follow the religion that suits us, while still following the laws of the Vietnamese government.”…
