Father Nguyen Van Ly Risks Return to Prison

Catholic Priest Risks Return to Prison

Vietnam Review, News Report, Posted: Feb 10, 2011

Vietnamese human rights activist and Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly is at risk of being returned to prison in mid-March despite his fragile health. He suffered from a stroke in prison in November 2009 which left him partially paralyzed, after being held in solitary confinement. He did not receive adequate medical treatment.

Father Ly, now aged 64, was granted a 12-month “temporary suspension” of his eight-year prison sentence on March 15, 2010 so that he could receive medical treatment after also being diagnosed with a brain tumour. Since his release, he has been living under surveillance at a house for retired priests in the diocese of the Archbishop of Hue, in central Viet Nam.

Father Ly was sentenced to prison in 2007 for spreading "propaganda" against the state. Amnesty International considers him to be a prisoner of conscience, arrested and convicted for the peaceful dissemination of his views on democracy and human rights.

Father Ly was first jailed for his criticism of government policies on religion in the late 1970s, and has already spent 17 years as a prisoner of conscience, for calling for respect for human rights and

freedom of expression. He is one of the founders of the internet-based pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406, and has helped to set up other political groups, which are banned by the Vietnamese authorities. He also secretly published a dissident journal, To Do Ngon Luan (Freedom and Democracy).

Father Nguyen Van Ly is one of more than 30 dissidents imprisoned in Viet Nam, as part of the authorities’ aim to suppress any criticism of government policies and allegations about human rights violations.

Despite illness, Vietnamese priest planning hunger strike in prison

FEBRUARY 16, 2011

Catholic News Service

BANGKOK — A jailed priest in Vietnam undergoing medical treatment at a Church-run home said he will begin a hunger strike to protest his sentence when authorities return him to a prison camp in March.

"The Communist government plans to take me back to the camp on March 15," Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly said in a statement Feb. 2, reported the Asian church news agency UCA News.

"I will go on indefinite hunger strike and refuse medical treatment to oppose the sentence," he said.

The priest gave copies of the statement to visitors ahead of the Tet festival marking the Lunar New Year, which started Feb. 3.

Father Ly, 64, has been at a home for retired priests in Hue since his release from the prison camp in northern Ha Nam Province because of health problems last March 15. The home is within the compound where Archbishop Etienne Nguyen Nhu The resides.

A longtime supporter of religious freedom and human rights, Father Ly said the government is forcing him to serve out the rest of his sentence.

The priest was sentenced to eight years in prison and five years of house arrest in March 2007 for alleged anti-government activities. He has denied the charges.

"The sentence is unfair and against international law," he said in the 10-page statement.

He said his partially paralyzed right leg and arm, caused by three strokes in 2009, are 60 percent better. He also said he wanted to donate his organs to people in need of them and his body to a medical school in Hue.

Ordained in 1974, Father Ly has peacefully criticized government policies on religion and advocated for greater respect for human rights in Vietnam since the late 1970s. He has been imprisoned for his actions for a total of 17 years and held under house arrest for total of 15 years.

Write to the Ambassador of Vietnam expressing concern:

Embassy of Vietnam

12-14 Victoria Road,

London W8 5RD

Tel: 0207 937 1912