This file photo taken on Aug. 10, 2011 shows French-Vietnamese blogger and lecturer Peter Pham Minh Hoang being led out from the courtroom at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court House after he was jailed for three years for attempted subversion. (Photo by Vietnam News Agency/AFP)
A Catholic blogger says an official order cancelling his Vietnamese citizenship has no legal basis and he will fight to remain in the country of his birth.
Peter Pham Minh Hoang — a dual citizen of France and Vietnam — said he received a copy of the decision to strip him of his Vietnamese citizenship on June 10 in an order signed by President Tran Dai Quang on May 17.
Such an order will effectively make his status illegal in Vietnam.
"The decision has zero value because, according to lawyers, it brutally violates articles of the Law on Vietnamese Nationality," Hoang said via Facebook.
According to the order, that Hoang posted on his Facebook page, the decision to revoke his citizenship was based on the Law on Vietnamese Nationality but did not mention any specific articles.
Hoang said via Facebook that he "will not sign any document that leads to my expulsion and will struggle hard to realize my wish to live in my homeland."
In a bid to stop his expulsion, Hoang notified the French Embassy in Hanoi on June 3 that he has renounced his French citizenship and that he will retain only his Vietnamese citizenship.
Based in Ho Chi Minh City, Hoang is the only known dissident to have his citizenship rescinded.
The mathematics lecturer said he has authorized lawyers to appeal the decision and called on people to support his cause.
Some social media users have expressed their outcry against the government while others have accused Quang of violating the country's laws.
A lawyer said the government through its action considers itself above the law. "The government has no right to revoke a patriots' citizenship and expel him to other countries," he said.
As a teacher, Hoang taught five different mathematics disciplines at the University of Technology in Ho Chi Minh City until his arrest in 2010 for "undermining national security" and "ruining the nation's image," through his blogging.
The communist government controls all media and bans private media in Vietnam. Bloggers and activists use social media to voice criticism publicly and many of them have been imprisoned for anti-government activities.
Born in South Vietnam in 1955, Hoang went to study in France in 1973. After north communist forces took control of the south in 1975, he was not able to return to Vietnam until 2000.
