Lê Mạnh Hà

Lê Mạnh Hà (born 21 February 1970) is a Vietnamese citizen journalist and human rights activist who gained prominence as a land rights petitioner in the early 2000s. He is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for criticising the Vietnamese government.

Personal life Hà lived in Na Hang district, Tuyên Quang province, before being relocated by local authorities due to the construction of the Tuyên Quang Hydropower Project. Following this, he was relocated to Tuyên Quang, the provincial capital. He is married to Ma Thị Thơ.

Activism Hà campaigned against the relocation of farmers who were displaced by a major hydroelectric project in Tuyên Quang province. Hà himself had been relocated as a result of the project, and criticised the Vietnamese government for not upholding its promise to provide a certain amount of land to relocated people in Tuyên Quang. Hà studied law by himself to try to better support land petitioners.

Hà's trial began in October 2022 in Tuyên Quang and lasted two days.

Recognition The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement following Hà's conviction, stating he had been "wrongly convicted and harshly sentenced... for merely doing his job as a journalist" and called on the Vietnamese government to stop equating independent journalism with criminal behaviour and to immediately release Hà and other jailed journalists.