Đặng Xuân Diệu

On 13 January 2017, Dang Xuan Dieu was finally released from prison after six years of arbitrary detention and sent to Paris. This followed pressure from the EU, human rights groups, elected officials and the Vietnamese community around the globe.

On October 27, 2014, many organisations had expressed their concern for Dang Xuan Dieu and his mistreatment in prison. Together, they released a letter calling for his immediate and unconditional release. These organisations include English PEN, ACAT France, Electronic Frontier Foundation, PEN International, Media Legal Defence Initiative and Viet Tan.

On January 8–9, 2013, a trial was held by the People's Court of Nghệ An Province for 14 democracy activists, mostly Catholics, one of which was Dang Xuan Dieu. All of them were sentenced to 3–13 years in prison on charges of subversion. During the court case, Dang Xuan Dieu was accused of participating in a training of Viet Tan, a US-based pro-democracy organization to establish democracy and reform Vietnam through peaceful and political means. Dieu has said of the allegations against him, "I have done nothing contrary to my conscience, so although the authorities may punish me physically and impose a severe sentence upon me, the government is only thereby trampling on the eternal good morals of the Vietnamese nation, which as its affair is a matter for which it must bear responsibility."

Đặng Xuân Diệu is a Vietnamese community mobiliser, activist and prominent member of the Catholic church. He was arrested in Vietnam on 30 July 2011, convicted over a two-day trial in January 2013 and sentenced to 13 years in prison. Dieu was released and exiled to France on 12 January 2017.

An engineer known for being a citizen journalist and social activist, Dieu was arrested on July 30, 2011, at Tan Son Nhat Airport along with Hồ Đức Hoà and Nguyễn Văn Oai upon their return to Vietnam. This was the first in a series of arrests during the 2011 crackdown on Vietnamese youth activists.