Jailed Vietnamese Democracy Advocate Launches Third Hunger Strike in Two Years
RFA | 10-13-2020
Jailed Vietnamese democracy advocate Tran Huynh Duy Thuc has launched a hunger
strike, his third in the last two years, demanding that his 16-year sentence for
subversion be reduced in line with a law enacted after he was sentenced, sources
say.
Thuc, who was jailed in 2010 under Article 79 of the country’s penal code for
writing online articles criticizing the Vietnamese government, began his strike
three days ago at the No. 6 Detention Camp in Nghe An province, Tran’s brother
Tran Huynh Duy Tran told RFA’s Vietnamese Service on Oct. 13.
He is demanding that the charges against him of working to overthrow the
government be seen instead as having involved “preparation to commit a crime,”
an offense now calling only for a five-year term of imprisonment under Vietnam’s
2015 Penal Code.
“According to the 2015 Penal Code, the maximum penalty should be only five years
in prison, but my brother has been serving his sentence now for more than 11
years,” Thuc's brother Tran Huynh Duy Tan said. “Therefore, my brother must be
released from prison.”
Thuc's family and lawyers have tried several times to petition authorities for
his sentence to be reduced in line with the provisions of the new law, Thuc's
brother said.
Their requests have not been met, though, and the family has now begun to push
again for his release.
“Now we want to join with our brother in asking the court to re-consider his
petition, and this is why he has been on hunger strike for the last three days,”
Thuc's brother said, adding that Thuc’s family has launched a Facebook
campaign calling for support of their request.
Arrested in May 2009, Thuc is now serving a sentence on charges of plotting to
overthrow the government under Article 79 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. He was tried
along with lawyer Le Cong Dinh, engineer Nguyen Tien Trung, and entrepreneur Le
Thanh Long.
Thuc’s health in prison has been a continuing source of concern to his family
following a hunger strike launched in July 2019 over poor conditions in
detention, including the removal of electric fans from cells in the soaring
summer heat, sources told RFA in earlier reports.
An earlier hunger strike in August 2018 left him exhausted and thin after he
protested police pressure on him to admit his guilt to the offenses for which he
was jailed.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent has deteriorated sharply this year
with a spate of arrests of independent journalists and publishers, as well as
Facebook personalities, in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party conference
in January.
Estimates of the number of prisoners of conscience now held in Vietnam’s jails
vary widely. Human Rights Watch says that authorities held 138 political
prisoners as of October 2019, while rights group Defend the Defenders has
suggested that at least 240 are in detention, with 36 convicted last year alone.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |