Transparent and Public Information about Lê Thanh Tùng.
The Brotherhood for Democracy (BFD) was founded on 24 April 2013, with five founding members: Human rights lawyer Nguyễn Văn Đài, Pastor Nguyễn Trung Tôn, Engineer Phạm Văn Trội, Poet Trần Đức Thạch, and Legal Scholar Nguyễn Bắc Truyển.
The membership of the BFD grew rapidly. The private BFD group on Facebook had 200 official members, while the public group on Facebook had nearly 3,000 members and supporters.
Lê Thanh Tùng applied to join the BFD in early 2015 with the intention of leveraging the group to seek asylum abroad.
In early 2015, Lê Thanh Tùng was invited by the Việt Tân party to the United States to participate in a human rights advocacy trip at the U.S. Congress. Lê Thanh Tùng then returned to Vietnam.
On 16 December 2015, the BFD’s Vice President and human rights lawyer, Nguyễn Văn Đài, was arrested, accused of “propaganda against the Vietnamese state” under Article 88 of the Criminal Code.
In late January 2016, taking advantage of this event, Lê Thanh Tùng fled to the U.S. to seek asylum, while hundreds of BFD members remained in Vietnam.
From 30 July 2017, seven leadership members of the BFD were arrested.
Although residing in the U.S., Lê Thanh Tùng attempted to pressure the BFD members to elect him as Chairman, but the overwhelming majority did not accept him.
In June 2018, human rights lawyer and BFD founder Nguyễn Văn Đài was released and deported to Germany for political asylum.
Founder Nguyễn Văn Đài proposed holding an unscheduled meeting of the Brotherhood for Democracy to elect a new leadership board. However, Lê Thanh Tùng strongly opposed this.
Nguyễn Văn Đài publicly gathered members’ opinions on social media platform Facebook. The result was that 96 participants agreed to hold an unscheduled meeting.
The meeting elected human rights lawyer Nguyễn Văn Đài as Chairman, Mr Mai Văn Tám as First Vice Chairman, and Ms Phạm Thị Lan as Second Vice Chairwoman.
After the extraordinary congress, Lê Thanh Tùng insulted and defamed the members who participated in the meeting, refusing to recognize the results.
Newly elected Chairman Nguyễn Văn Đài conducted a public poll among the members regarding disciplinary action to expel Lê Thanh Tùng from the BFD. The poll was held on the BFD’s public Facebook group from 21 to 23 September 2018, and received 126 unanimous votes in favor of expelling Lê Thanh Tùng.
On 24 September 2018, Chairman Nguyễn Văn Đài, on behalf of the BFD leadership and members, signed Decision No. 02/2018/BCT/QĐ, officially expelling Lê Thanh Tùng (born 1977) from the BFD.
The violations by Lê Thanh Tùng were as follows:
Disrespecting the public and democratic results of the vote to hold an unscheduled meeting
Disrespecting the results of the unscheduled meeting, including the suspension of the Internal Regulations and Policies for amendments and the decision to re-elect the Board of Chairpersons.
Refusing to acknowledge the election results of the Board of Chairpersons and the decisions of the new board.
Engaging in factionalism and internal division.
Making offensive and insulting remarks toward other members of the BFD.
After 24 September 2018, Lê Thanh Tùng disappeared and ceased all activity related to the BFD.
On 9 October 2024, Lê Thanh Tùng posted on his personal Facebook page, claiming to be the Head of Training for the BFD. He asserted that he was the only legitimate member of the BFD and that the other leaders and members were impostors.
