Phan Xich Long - Trial and Imprisonment

Trial and Imprisonment

Those involved were taken before a tribunal in November 1913, where the leaders freely stated their intentions of overthrowing the French colonial regime. Of the 111 people arrested, the tribunal convicted 104, of whom 63 received prison sentences. During the trial, some community leaders wrote to the Governor-General of Indochina, blaming French oppression of the populace through corvee labour and the confiscation of land, for the discontent that led to the uprising. The prosecutor also criticised the way in which colonial authorities operated.

Ernest Outrey, the French Governor of Cochinchina, the southern region of Vietnam, was known for his support of colonial enterprise and rigid rule of the colony. He was unmoved by claims that the uprising had been fuelled by a sense of injustice. He said

Individually, the leaders of the movement have no personal motive to invoke in order to justify their xenophobic sentiments. Some of them are men who have remained imbued with the ancient order of things predating French conquest and who have adamantly remained within the tradition and ideas of the past; others are fanatics, who are persuaded that they are devoted to a noble cause.

The governor went on to excoriate the French press for their criticism of colonial policy, claiming that they boosted the morale of anti-colonial activists. The prosecutor thought that because Long's movement was affiliated with the Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi (VNQPH), an exiled monarchist organisation led by the leading anti-colonial activist Phan Boi Chau, and Cuong De. The suspicion was based on the fact that the VNQPH had printed their own currency and circulated them into Vietnam at the same time that Long's monetary policy had led to a depreciation. Cuong De had also secretly re-entered southern Vietnam and had been travelling through the countryside when Long's uprising was launched in March. The prosecutor claimed that activists from northern and central Vietnam, the main source of the VNQPH's followers, were behind the plot. The defendants denied this, asserting that most of the participants were "illiterate peasants", while the VNQPH were dominated by members of the scholar-gentry.

The French intended to deport Long to French Guiana, but the outbreak of World War I in 1914 interrupted their plans. As a result, Long remained in Saigon Central Prison, serving his life sentence with hard labour. The French were unaware that Long was still in contact with his supporters.