Vietnamese noodle vendor jailed 5½ years for mocking minister's lavish dining

HANOI – A noodle vendor in Vietnam who allegedly mocked a top government official was sentenced to 5½ years in jail on Thursday, the police said, after a court found him guilty of anti-state propaganda.

The conviction is the latest in what rights groups say is the government’s wide-ranging attempt to silence voices critical of the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party.

In November 2021, a top Vietnamese official was caught on camera eating gold-encrusted steak at the London restaurant of Turkish celebrity chef Nusret Gokce, known as “Salt Bae”.

Days later, beef noodle vendor Bui Tuan Lam, 39, went viral in a video where he imitated the chef to flamboyantly prepare his noodles.

Lam, who described himself in a Facebook post uploaded alongside the video as “Green Onion Bae”, was arrested in late 2022.

On Thursday, he was convicted of “making, storing, distributing, or disseminating information, documents, and items against the state”, the Danang police department said after a one-day trial.

Alongside running a beef noodle stall in the city, Lam had publicly advocated for democracy in Vietnam and participated in many anti-China and pro-environment protests.

The Danang police department also cited Lam’s indictment as saying he had posted 19 articles and 25 videos on social media to “distort and smear the state”.

Lam’s lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.

Mr Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, called on the Vietnamese government to stop prosecuting Lam and others for criticising the Vietnamese Communist Party.

“The list of posts and videos listed as ‘evidence’ of Bui Tuan Lam’s ‘crimes’ shows the extreme lengths to which the Vietnamese go to block any sort of online criticism of the government,” Mr Robertson said.

“For the Vietnamese leadership, even songs are a threat to their monopoly of power,” he added. REUTERS