Vietnam’s Political Prisoners Continue to Face Abuses and Mistreatment While in Custody

Nguyen Thi Tam, a political prisoner and land rights activist, told her family that the correctional officers of Thanh Hoa Prison No. 6, where she is being held, had confiscated the notebooks, paper, and pens her family had sent to her and the paintings she drew in prison, without providing any explanation. Nguyen Thanh Mai, Tam’s daughter, wrote on social media that when Tam talked about the unfair treatment and violations of human rights in the Thanh Hoa Prison in a call home last March, a female officer named Hoang Thi Anh Hong argued with Tam and hung up the phone after they only talked for about five minutes. 

The sister of the detained journalist Nguyen Vu Binh, Nguyen Thi Phong, told The 88 Project that she visited him at Detention Center No. 1 in Hanoi on April 3. Phong explained that since Binh is still under investigation, he is still not allowed to have visitors. She could only send Binh some food and money. Binh, a former writer at the Party mouthpiece, The Communist Review, and one of the founders of the pro-democracy group Brotherhood for Democracy, was arrested under Article 117 for his alleged engagement in the distribution of anti-state propaganda.