Viet environmentalist prosecuted for tax evasion, not activism: ministry

Ngụy Thị Khanh, director of Vietnam’s Green Innovation and Development Centre (GreenID), has been arrested for tax fraud. — courtesy of Hanoi Police

HANOI (Vietnam News/Asia News Network): Ngụy Thị Khanh, former head of NGO GreenID and known for advocating the reduction of coal-fired power in Vietnam, was handed a prison sentence for economic crimes, not her environmental activism, spokesperson for the foreign ministry Lê Thị Thu Hằng said on Thursday (June 23).

During the regular press briefing held in Hanoi, Hằng said that on June 17, the People's Court of Hanoi opened a first-instance trial and had subsequently sentenced the 46-year-old Ngụy Thị Khanh to 24 months in prison for tax evasion under Article 200 of the Penal Code.