Lê Anh Hùng, a former contributor to the Voice of America’s Vietnamese Service, was detained by Vietnamese authorities on March 9, 2026. He was placed in pretrial detention at Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi on charges of producing, possessing, distributing, or propagating information, documents, or materials aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under Article 117 of Vietnam’s penal code.
Hùng was a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam, an organization deemed unlawful by Vietnamese authorities. A prominent contributor to VOA Vietnamese, he published articles denouncing corruption and the ruling Communist Party’s dominance.
Hùng was first detained in 2018 on charges of publishing anti-state articles online, including accusations of corruption against officials. He was held in psychiatric detention for over three years, during which he reported being subjected to forced drug administration and abuse.
In 2018 and 2019, Hùng undertook a hunger strike to protest his forced psychiatric confinement. Authorities reportedly force-fed him through his mouth and nose until he bled. His mother reported that unidentified medication made him physically ill and caused hallucinations, resulting in severe weight loss, depression and deterioration in both his physical and psychological condition. In July 2020, Hùng reportedly told his family that a nurse had beaten him with a metal chair, tied him to a bed and forcibly injected him. By March 2021, he was reportedly required to take as many as 12 psychiatric pills daily and was threatened with injections if he refused.
On August 30, 2022, Hùng was sentenced to five years in prison after a trial conducted without a defense lawyer. Authorities convicted him under article 331 of the penal code for criticizing the Vietnamese government. He was released on July 5, 2023.
After his release, Hung told VOA, “After I was arrested, they forced me to take psychiatric assessments twice. They surreptitiously sent me for assessment without notifying my lawyers or my family.”
Hùng was detained in a mental health facility in 2013 after he filed multiple complaints against senior Vietnamese officials, accusing them of corruption, drug dealing and arms trafficking among other allegations.
In March 2026, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned that his previous torture, forced psychiatric confinement, physical weakness, depression and lasting hearing loss place him at exceptional risk during the new detention. The organization said it feared for his life and urged immediate international pressure. In June 2026, Human Rights Watch included Hùng among individuals being held in pretrial detention on politically motivated charges in its submission for the EU-Vietnam Human Rights Dialogue.
Hùng is one of two former VOA Vietnamese contributors imprisoned in Vietnam. Pham Chi Dung, arrested in November 2019, is serving a 15-year sentence for “dangerous actions” against the state. Four additional Radio Free Asia Vietnamese journalists are also currently imprisoned or under house arrest.
In recent years, Vietnam has passed legislation that allows a more aggressive and expansive persecution of voices critical of officials and the state, including a 2016 press law that bans independent outlets. Since 2016, Vietnam has imprisoned more than 70 journalists, making it one of the worst offenders for official censorship.