International PEN Writers in Prison Committee (PEN WIPC) strongly protests sentence against writer Tran Khai Thanh thuy

 

 

9 March 2010

 

The Writers in Prison Committee of International PEN strongly protests the three and a half year prison sentence handed to writer and journalist Tran Khai Thanh Thuy. PEN considers Tran Khai Thanh Thuy to be convicted solely for peacefully exercising her right to free expression, and calls for her immediate and unconditional release in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which Vietnam is a signatory.

According to International PEN’s information, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy, a novelist, poet, essayist and editor of the underground dissident magazine To Quoc (Fatherland), was sentenced by the People’s Court in Dong Da District of Ha Noi to three and a half years in prison and 47 months of probationary detention, on 5 February 2010. The verdict was given after a one day trial and was based on Article 104 of the Penal Code. At the same trial, Thuy’s husband was given a two year suspended prison sentence and 47 months of probation, but has been allowed to remain at home to care for the couple’s youngest daughter, aged thirteen.

Tran Khai Thanh Thuy was arrested on 8 October 2009, after publicly expressing her support for six dissidents facing trial. On the day of her arrest an incident took place near Thuy’s home, in which two men reportedly attacked Thuy’s husband, and she intervened on his defence. She was subsequently questioned and charged with assault, although it is widely believed that she herself was in fact the victim of the attack. Thuy suffers from diabetes and tuberculosis, and there are serious concerns that her health is deteriorating in prison. She is held at Hoa Lo Number 1 Detention Camp (Cau Dien), Ha Noi.

Background : Tran Khai Thanh Thuy has been under heavy surveillance and harassment since September 2006 for her writings published online. She was arrested at her home in April 2007, where she had already been under house arrest for six months for her critical writings. She is a member of the Union of Writers and the Club of Women Poets of Hanoi, and is a recipient of the 2008 Hellman Hammet Award. She is among at least nineteen dissident writers currently detained in Vietnam.

BBC report: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8500462.stm

Monsters and Critics: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1531283.php/Vietnam-convicts-pro-democracy-novelist-of-assault-Roundup[1

Please send appeals:

Calling for the immediate and unconditional of Tran Khai Thanh Thuy  and all those currently detained in Vietnam in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Vietnam is a signatory;

Seeking assurances that she is given full access to all necessary medical care whilst in prison. (...)

 

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