Document - Viet Nam: Time
to release ill Catholic priest and prisoner of
conscience
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PUBLIC STATEMENT
11 December 2009
AI Index: ASA 41/010/2009
Viet Nam:
Time to release ill Catholic priest and prisoner of
conscience
Amnesty International is
dismayed to learn that the authorities in Viet Nam have
today returned to prison Catholic priest Father Nguyen
Van Ly, a prisoner of conscience who suffered a stroke
on 14 November 2009.
The Vietnamese
authorities should immediately and unconditionally
release Father Ly into the care of his family so that
they can ensure he receives the proper medical care,
including hospitalization, that he needs.
The Vietnamese
authorities returned Father Ly to prison on the same day
that the President of Viet Nam, Nguyen Minh Triet, met
with Pope Benedict XVI at the Holy See. This is the
first such meeting to take place. The Vatican
authorities should take this important opportunity to
raise the case of Father Nguyen Van Ly, and call
strongly for his immediate release from prison.
Father Ly had been
receiving medical treatment in Prison Hospital 198,
administered by the Ministry of Public Security in Ha
Noi, since his stroke, which caused paralysis on one
side. His family report that while he has regained some
movement, he remains partially paralyzed.
Father Ly, a 63 year old
peaceful pro-democracy activist, has been serving an
eight year sentence in Ba Sao prison, Ha Nam province in
northern Viet Nam since March 2007. For most of this
time he has been held in solitary confinement, and has
suffered from high blood pressure and other health
problems. In the last seven months he experienced
several bouts of ill-health, including temporary loss of
movement on one side of his body. The prison authorities
have neither provided a proper diagnosis nor adequate
medical treatment.
Amnesty International has
repeatedly called for the immediate and unconditional
release of Father Ly. In March 2007 he was sentenced to
eight years’ imprisonment for “conducting propaganda”
against the state under Article 88 of the national
security section of the Penal Code. He was accused of
involvement in the internet-based pro-democracy movement
Bloc 8406, which he co-founded in April 2006, and of
helping to set up banned political groups. He also
secretly published a dissident journal, To Do Ngon Luan
(Freedom and Democracy).
Background
Father Ly was first
jailed for his criticism of government policies on
religion in the late 1970’s, and has already spent some
17 years as a prisoner of conscience, for calling for
respect for human rights.
Currently he is one of
more than 40 dissidents imprisoned in Viet Nam as the
authorities aim to suppress any criticism of government
policies and allegations about human rights violations.
The authorities use vaguely-worded articles of the Penal
Code to stifle and criminalize freedom of expression, in
breach of international treaties that Viet Nam has
ratified.
This year Viet Nam
rejected important recommendations made by states under
the Universal Periodic Review process, including to
amend or repeal national security provisions of the
Penal Code inconsistent with international law; to
remove other restrictions on dissent, debate, political
opposition, and freedoms of expression and assembly; and
to release prisoners of conscience.
Public Document
Tổ
chức Ân xá Quốc tế rất sửng sốt khi biết rằng giới cầm quyền
tại Việt Nam hôm nay đă đưa trở lại trại giam Linh mục
Nguyễn Văn Lư, một tù nhân lương tâm đă bị chứng tai biến
mạch máu năo vào ngày 14/11/09.