Jailed Vietnamese Democracy Advocate Hospitalized as Hunger Strike Hits Day 50
RFA | 2021-01-14
A jailed Vietnamese democracy advocate has been hospitalized in failing health
in Nghe An province after reaching the 50-day mark in a hunger strike launched
to appeal for a reduction in his prison term, family members say.
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, now serving a 16-year sentence for subversion for writing
online articles criticizing Vietnam’s one-party communist state, was admitted on
an emergency basis to the Vietnam-Poland Hospital in Nghe An’s Vinh City, Tran’s
younger brother Tran Huynh Duy Tan told RFA on Thursday.
The date of Tran’s admission to hospital is still unclear, but reports of the
hospitalization, previously denied by hospital staff, were confirmed to his
family by the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi, Tran’s brother said.
“The U.S. Embassy told my family that the reports circulating that my brother
had been urgently hospitalized in Nghe An were correct,” Tran Huynh Duy Tan
said, adding that reports that his brother was in hospital were also confirmed
by family friends in Nghe An.
Launched on Nov. 24, 2020, Tran’s hunger strike had already left him in a
severely weakened state, Tran’s brother told RFA on Monday following a Jan. 9
visit to Tran at Camp No. 6 of Nghe An’s Thanh Chuong detention center.
”My brother’s health was very poor, and he said he had by then reached the 47th day
of his hunger strike,” Tran Huynh Duy Tan said.
Arrested in May 2009 because of his writings online, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc was
convicted in 2010 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government under
Article 79 of Vietnam’s 1999 Penal Code.
He is now calling for the charges against him to be changed to involvement in
“preparations to commit a crime,” an offense calling only for a five-year term
of imprisonment under Vietnam’s revised 2015 Penal Code, and Tran’s family and
lawyers have petitioned authorities several times for his sentence to be reduced
in line with the new law.
Reached for comment on Thursday, a hospital staff member confirmed Tran had been
admitted, saying, “Did you ask about a person from the No. 6 detention camp in
Nghe An? Yes, he is here now.” But ten minutes later, after being called for
more details, a staff member denied Tran was there.
“He was staying at the No. 6 detention camp, not at my hospital,” the staff
member said. “He didn’t have any illness, so why should he be hospitalized?”
An email seeking comment from the U.S. Embassy in Hanoi received a reply stating
they had “nothing to share,” while an email to the German Embassy received no
response.
Long hours at hard labor
An Australian citizen jailed in Vietnam on charges of engaging in terrorism is
meanwhile being subjected to long hours at hard labor in prison, Australia’s ABC
news service said on Wednesday, citing information received from a former prison
inmate.
Chau Van Kham, an ethnic Vietnamese resident of Sydney, Australia, and member of
the banned U.S.-based Viet Tan opposition party, was sentenced on Nov. 11, 2019
to a prison term of 12 years, while his colleagues Nguyen Van Vien and Tran Van
Quyen were handed terms of 11 and 10 years respectively.
Labeled a terrorist group by Vietnam in October 2016, Viet Tan describes itself
instead as committed to peaceful, nonviolent struggle to promote democracy in
Vietnam.
Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has raised Chau’s case nine
times between January 2019 and June 2020 over humanitarian concerns, but Chau’s
family and lawyers have criticized the Australian government for what they say
has been a ”lack of urgency” in pursuing the case, ABC reported.
Rights activists and relatives of political prisoners in Vietnam called this
week for sanctions to be imposed under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights
Accountability Act, a U.S. law, on Vietnamese officials deemed responsible for
torture and other abuses in the country’s jails, as criticisms of Hanoi’s
repression of critics and dissenters mounts around the world.
The call comes as authorities in Hanoi prepare for the Jan. 25 launch of the 13th ruling
Communist Party Congress, cited by activists and rights experts as the reason
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply in 2020 with the
round-up of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook commentators.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English
by Richard Finney.
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