Jailed Vietnamese Democracy Advocate Launches New Hunger Strike
RFA | 2021-04-02
Jailed Vietnamese democracy activist Tran Huynh Duy Thuc has begun a new hunger
strike, his third since October, aimed at reducing his 16-year sentence for
subversion to five years in line with revisions to the penal code passed after
his 2010 conviction, family members say.
Tran, who has already served 11 years of his prison term, was arrested in May
2009 for writing online articles criticizing Vietnam’s one-party communist state
and 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
“preparation 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 tried several times to petition authorities for his sentence to be
reduced.
Tran has now begun a new hunger strike just 16 days after ending an earlier
70-day strike on Feb. 3, Tran’s brother Tran Huynh Duy Tan told RFA’s Vietnamese
Service on Thursday, following a family visit to Tran at his detention center
last week.
“He said that he had resumed his hunger strike on Feb. 20 in an effort to urge
the Supreme Court to excuse him from serving the remainder of his sentence,” Tan
said, adding that his brother told him he had begun his strike by drinking soy
sauce mixed with lemon juice and antibiotics, but was now drinking only water.
Tran had gained 12 kilograms (26 pounds) during the 16-day interval between his
two hunger strikes but had lost 10 kilograms again during the first 43 days of
his current strike, Tran’s brother said.
State media dispute claims
Vietnam’s state-controlled media have meanwhile tried to cast doubt on Tran’s
hunger-strike claims, with two newspapers quoting Tran as saying in an undated
video “filmed in secret by police" that he had ended his strike and gained 4.5
kilograms after beginning to eat again.
Tran’s brother said that Tran was aware of the articles and had sent petitions
to both papers asking that they either provide evidence to support their claims
or publish an apology.
Tran’s health in prison has been a continuing source of concern to his family
following a series of hunger strikes.
In July 2019, Tran began a hunger strike over poor conditions in detention,
including the removal of electric fans from cells in the soaring summer heat,
and an earlier strike in August 2018 left him exhausted and thin after he
protested police pressure on him to admit his guilt in the offenses for which he
was jailed.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Vietnam 175 out of 180 in its 2020 World
Press Freedom Index. About 25 journalists and bloggers are being held in
Vietnam’s jails, “where mistreatment is common,” the Paris-based watchdog group
said.
Vietnam’s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a
spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook
personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the
ruling Communist Party Congress held in January.
Reported by RFA’s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Chau Vu. Written in English
by Richard Finney.
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