Vietnam refuses political prisoner's plea to die at homeJul 13, 2011Asia-Pacific NewsHanoi - The request of a Vietnamese political prisoner, jailed since 1996 and suffering from cancer, to be allowed to die at home was rejected, his family said Wednesday.Nguyen Van Trai, 74, died on Monday, five months before his term was up, his son Nguyen Anh Phong said. 'We were not allowed to bring my father's body home. We had to bury him at the prison,' he said. As a member of anti-communist group the People's Action Party, Trai was imprisoned under law against 'fleeing abroad to oppose the people's administration.' He was arrested in Thailand, deported to Cambodia and then Vietnam. The authorities refused several appeals for clemency after he was diagnosed with cancer. Trai was hospitalized last month for a problem with the blood flow to his brain, Human Rights Watch said. He asked to be released so he could die at home, but was refused because 'he never admitted that he did anything wrong and did not file a petition for amnesty,' the group said. He died in prison in the southern province of Dong Nai the morning after he returned from hospital. Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for the New York-based group, called him 'a martyr to the cause of human rights in Vietnam.'
Vietnam Human Rights Network |