Ngụy Thị Khanh - Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID)
Fuentes
Ngụy Thị Khanh is an environmentalist and the executive director and founder of the Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID) in Vietnam. She is also the advocacy coordinator for the Vietnam Rivers Network (VRN). Khanh was also the winner of the Goldman prize in 2018 and has campaigned for Vietnam to adopt greener energy strategies and reduce coal production. In February 2022, she was arrested for allegedly failing to pay a 10% tax on her U.S. $200,000 prize money, despite NGOs being exempt from paying corporate taxes in Vietnam. After the trial in Hanoi People's Court on 17 June, 2022, Khanh was sentenced to two years in prison. The Vietnam Committee on Human Rights believe that the recent arrests of environmental activists in Vietnam were triggered by their promotion of civil society’s role in monitoring the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement that came into force in 2021.
Nguy Thi Khanh was released from prison in May 2023, 5 months earlier than her 16-month sentence. Her release also came after sources told Radio Free Asia that her family paid a 10% tax on Khanh’s US$200,000 award for receiving the 2018 Goldman Environmental Prize – tax that she was convicted of withholding from the government.