Vietnam: Formosa steel factory toxic spill protester freed early from prison
"Vietnamese toxic spill protester freed early from prison", 21 January 2025
A key activist in protests against a 2016 toxic spill that polluted hundreds of kilometers of Vietnam’s coastline has been released early from prison, relatives told Radio Free Asia.
Tran Thi Xuan was freed on Jan. 17, some 21 months before the end of her nine-year sentence. She still has to serve five years’ probation for “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s government.”
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Xuan was arrested after joining thousands of protesters outside the People’s Committee headquarters in Ha Tinh province’s Loc Ha district in April 2017 after a spill from a Formosa Plastics Group steel plant the previous year.
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She is the latest member of a Vietnamese human rights group to secure early release after being jailed for their part in the protest against the pollution that killed 115 tons of fish and devastated the tourism and fishing industries in four central provinces.
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