Writer Nguyễn Xuân Nghĩa (Nghia)’s health has been getting worse after many years being persecuted in the regime’s prisons

nguyen xuan nghia

Vietnam Human Rights News | Aug. 12, 2014

For 6 years in prison, writer Nghia has been being excruciated in many forms. He once went on a hunger strike to ask for his decayed tooth to be extracted. However, the prison’s dentist took his normal teeth off (!). The decayed one was extracted only after a continuously struggling.

Writer Nguyễn Xuân Nghĩa (Nghia)’s health has been getting worse after many years being persecuted in the regime’s prisons because he had raised the voice to protect national territorial sovereignty, and called on the Communist Party to respect the wishes of the people of Vietnam. Mr. Nghia was arrested on Sep 10, 2008. He is also the recipient of two international human rights awards – one of these was ‘Liu Xiaobo’.

Writer Nghia, born in 1949 in Nghệ An province, is the author of many articles criticizing the regime’s policies. Being a member of the Writer’s Association of Hải Phòng province, and a representative member of Bloc 8406, he has organized the distributing of leaflets calling for political freedom, whistleblowing against corruption, and conspiracy that the Vietnamese Communist Party sells out the country to China in exchange of enriching themselves. 

In a 2-day trial, on Oct 8 and 9, 2008, Hải Phòng provincial court sentenced Mr. Nghia 6 years of imprisonment on charge of “anti-state propaganda”. The same charge was applied to his fellow intellectual men, such as Nguyễn Văn Trúc (4 years of imprisonment), Nguyễn Văn Tính and Nguyễn Mạnh Sơn (3 years and 6 months of imprisonment each), Ngô Quỳnh (3 years of imprisonment), and Nguyễn Kim Nhàn (2 years of imprisonment). Additionally, all these six accused will also be under 2 to 3 years of local watch after release.

For 6 years in prison, writer Nghia has been being excruciated in many forms. He once went on a hunger strike to ask for his decayed tooth to be extracted. However, the prison’s dentist took his normal teeth off (!). The decayed one was extracted only after a continuously struggling.

In prison, writer Nghia had endocrine diseases, but this was used as mean for the guards to mistreat him. In November 2012, Mr. Nghia was shackled right on the bed immediately after the surgery. He fought fiercely to be un-shackled in the condition of his body being sick and painful.

Mr. Nghia was transferred to different prisons in Northern and Central region, including Trần Phú prison (in Hải Phòng), B14 (Hà Nội), Nam Hà (Hà Nam), prison #6 (Nghệ An), and currently in An Điềm prison (Đà Nẵng). Prison guards have ordered the criminal prisoners to watch and beat him at those places.

Conscience prisoner Nguyễn Xuân Nghia was chosen as one of the recipients for the noble 2011 Hellman/Hammett award by Human Rights Watch.

On the ‘Writers in Prison’ day, Nov 11, 2013, Mr. Nghia was awarded a human rights prize named ‘Liu Xiaobo Courage to Write Award’ by the Independent Chinese PEN Center (ICPC).

This resilient writer, with a pained and ill body, will be placed under house arrest after returning home in Oct 2014.

Aug 12, 2014
Vietnam Human Rights News
Vietnamhumanrightsnews@gmail.com

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