Click to expand Image Protesters, including Can Thi Theu and Trinh Ba Tu, display placards as they march towards a courthouse during the trial of the prominent lawyer Nguyen Van Dai and five other activists in Hanoi, Vietnam, on April 5, 2018. © 2018 Jenny Vaughan/AFP via Getty Images (Berlin) – A new governmental decree undermines the independence of lawyers in Vietnam and will impede efforts to hold officials accountable, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should repeal the decree. Decree 109/2026, which takes effect May 18, 2026, empowers the police and government officials at the local (commune) level to revoke lawyers’ licenses and impose severe fines for vaguely worded offenses such as “insulting” officials or “obstructing” the functioning of state agencies. The regulation poses new threats in an already hostile environment for the legal profession in Vietnam.…