Two Vietnamese Political Dissidents Ill-Treated in Dong Nai-based Prison: Families

Three prisoners of conscience Le Thi Phuong Anh, Pham Minh Vu and Do Nam Trung.

by Vu Quoc Ngu | May 23, 2015

Two Vietnamese political dissidents Pham Minh Vu and Do Nam Trung has been inhumanely treated by authorities of Dong Nai province-based K2 prison, according to their families.

The duo was transferred from B5 prison from the same southern province to K2 in Xuan Loc district on May 12, their families informed after visiting Vu and Trung, who are members of the unsanctioned Brotherhood of Democracy, an organization advocating multi-party democracy and human rights in the one-party country in the Southeast Asia.

In the beginning, the authorities of K2 prison placed the two activists in a room with 60 other criminal inmates who, encouraged by policemen, forced Trung and Vu to learn the prison’s regulations, said two sisters of Vu who visited their brother on May 17.

When Vu and Trung refused to learn the regulations with arguments that they are not guilty, criminal prisoners threatened to beat the duo, the sisters were told.

The two activists, arrested on May 12 last year together with Le Thi Phuong Anh when the trio tried to cover news about anti-China demonstrations of tens of thousands of workers in Dong Nai, reported the situation to the prison’s authorities, the pair was removed to an another cell with 12 other prisoners.

In the new room, they were also forced to learn the regulations, the sisters said, adding as the duo refused, they were not given with tents and mats and other necessaries. Vu and Trung have been forced to sleep on a place near the toilet and they cannot sleep as other pass them to the toilet during night.

Vu asked the prison’s authorities to move them to the room with other political prisoners, however, the authorities refused.

Currently, Vu, who is suffering from liver diseases, cannot eat food provided by the prison. He has to buy food from the prison’s canteen at prices several folds higher than prices in supermarkets.

The sisters urged international human rights bodies and domestic activists to pay attention to Vu’s case.

In early 2015, Vu, Trung and Anh were sentenced by the Dong Nai provincial People’s Court to respective 18 months, 14 months and 12 months in prison for “Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and/or citizens” under Article 258 of the country’s Criminal Code.

Vietnam has been criticized by international human rights bodies for imposing the imprisonments for the trio who just came to Dong Nai to cover news on anti-China demonstrations which had been triggered by Beijing deploying HYSY-981 near Hoang Sa (Paracels) just about 130 nautical miles from Vietnam’s central coast.

Mrs. Anh, who completed her one-year imprisonment last week, said she was tortured by investigating officers during interrogation and ill-treated by authorities of the detention and prison facilities.

Torture and inhumane treatment of police officers and prisons’ authorities are systemic problem in Vietnam, especially in cases involved prisoners of conscience.

Many Vietnamese political prisoners, including Dr. Cu Huy Ha Vu and Nguyen Van Hai (aka Dieu Cay) who are forced to live in exile in the U.S., human rights lawyer Le Quoc Quan, and land rights activist Bui Thi Minh Hang, have conducted long-lasting hunger strike to protest inhumane treatment by prisons’ authorities.

In order to keep the country under communist regime, the government has harassed, persecuted and imprisoned all government critics and human rights activists.

Vietnam is imprisoning between 150 and 200 prisoners of conscience, according to international human rights organizations. However, Hanoi always denies, saying it is holding only law violators.

(Sourced: http://www.hoidanchu.org/2015/05/tu-nhan-luong-tam-pham-minh-vu-va-do-nam-trung-dang-bi-nguoc-dai-trong-trai-tu-xuan-loc.html?m=1)