By Ian Timberlake (AFP) – March 16, 2010
HANOI — A dissident Vietnamese Catholic priest jailed for spreading propaganda against the communist state said Tuesday he had been temporarily released from prison to undergo treatment for a brain tumour.
Nguyen Van Ly, whose release has been sought by US lawmakers and who was labelled a prisoner of conscience by the European Parliament, was let out of prison on Monday, his sister said.
He was convicted on charges of propaganda and sentenced in 2007 to eight years’ incarceration. The verdict drew condemnation from diplomats and human rights groups.
“This is not a liberation,” Ly, 62, told AFP.
“The authorities temporarily suspended the exercise of my prison sentence so that I can take care of myself. After my medical treatment I will return to prison,” he said from the family home in the central Vietnamese city of Hue.
“When the authorities saw that my health was getting worse they wanted my family to take care of me,” Ly said. “I have a two-centimetre (one-inch) tumour in my brain that doctors discovered four months ago.” His temporary release coincides with what analysts and other observers have said is a worsening human rights situation in the country.
In December Ly was transferred back to prison after almost a month in hospital.
His sister says he had three strokes last year.
“My right arm and leg are still painful” but less paralysed than after the strokes, Ly said.
He said he was under surveillance and had five years left to serve in his sentence, but authorities told his family they could make another request after 12 months for continued suspension of his sentence if his health deteriorates.
Paris-based watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said authorities had “finally shown a minimum of compassion” towards the priest and called on them not to send him back behind bars.
At his trial, prosecutors said Ly was a founding member of the banned “Bloc 8406” pro-democracy coalition and also a driving force behind the outlawed Vietnam Progression Party.
Ly yelled “Communist court!” and labelled proceedings as the “law of the jungle” before a policeman could cover Ly’s mouth with his hand. In August, Ly was not among thousands of prisoners granted amnesty because he had not made progress in “rehabilitation”, an official said. He has been jailed three times since the 1970s for a total of 14 years. In July last year a bipartisan group of 37 US senators sent a letter to Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet calling for Ly’s release. The US embassy last year also expressed concern over his imprisonment. “We’re seeking confirmation from the Vietnamese authorities that his prison sentence has been suspended for a year so that he can obtain medical treatment,” a US embassy spokesman said Tuesday.
Last week Vietnam released dissident lawyer Le Thi Cong Nhan, 30, who served three years in prison for challenging the authorities. The rising influence of political hardliners could be behind Vietnam’s worsening crackdown against a small but increasingly diverse group of critics, analysts say.
“No one should fool themselves — by releasing Father Ly, the Vietnamese government has not reversed its deplorable rights record,” said US-based Human Rights Watch.
Vietnam said last week that it has recorded “significant achievements in ensuring human rights in all civil, political, economic, cultural, social aspects”.
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