Prominent Viet climate activist released from jail

Prominent climate activist Hoang Thi Minh Hong has been released early from jail, her husband said on Sept 21, hours ahead of a visit by Vietnam's top leader to the US.

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A second high-profile detainee, dissident Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, was also released, his friend and former human rights lawyer Le Cong Dinh said.

The release of Ms Hong and Mr Thuc comes as Communist Party general secretary To Lam, Vietnam's top leader, departed on Sept 21 for the US for a working visit and to attend the 79th Session of the UN General Assembly.

In September 2023, Ms Hong was sentenced to three years in prison for dodging US$275,000 (S$355,000) in taxes related to her environmental campaign group Change.

She was one of five environmentalists jailed for tax evasion in what activists have called a campaign to silence them.

“She has been fully pardoned,” her husband Hoang Vinh Nam told Agence France-Presse. “It was very sudden.”