Vietnam: Catholic activist Dau Van Duong free after three years in prison and beatings
AsiaNews 10/03/2014
Hanoi - The Vietnamese government has released the 26 year old Catholic activist Antonie Dau Van Duong, after more than three years in prison where he risked death from repeated beatings, humiliation and abuse at the hands of prison guards. The guards even confiscated his Bible in an attempt to undermine his faith. He was part of a group of four Christians, charged and convicted in May 2012 for "propaganda against the state" following the distribution of pro-democracy leaflets. The four were punished according to the infamous Article 88 of the Vietnamese Penal Code, a provision which - according to human rights organizations - is often used to arrest bloggers, advocates and critics of the communist leadership and the state. The judges sentenced him
to three years and six months in prison; However, the authorities ordered his
release and 18 additional months of probation. Interviewed by
Radio Free Asia (RFA) shortly after
returning home to Nam Dan, Nghe An province, Duong said he is "lucky because I'm
still alive," after having suffered terrible violence in the Nghi Kim detention
center. Later, Duong was
transferred to Prison No. 5 in neighboring Thanh Hoa province, where he served
the remainder of his jail term. Duong said he was placed in a cell along with
"drug dealers, robbers and murderers", although for short periods he spent time
with other political prisoners. The prison guards seized his Bible, which was
returned to him only after a prolonged hunger strike. Duong says that prison
authorities said they had decided to release him, claiming he had been
effectively "re-educated" while serving his sentence."In fact, I was not
re-educated at all," he states promising to fight against injustice, along with
other Catholic activists. The government's crackdown has also touched people whose only guilt is that of claiming the right to religious freedom and respect for citizens' civil rights. In 2013 alone, Vietnamese authorities arrested dozens of activists for crimes "against the state," based on a rule that human rights groups have branded as too "generic" and "vague". With more than six million followers, Catholicism is the second largest religion in the country, after Buddhism. The community has been at loggerheads with Hanoi, in most cases over issues related to land ownership or ecclesiastical goods that the government wants to seize.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |