May 16, 2025
Prisoner of conscience Le Dinh Luong began a hunger strike on May 10, 2025, to protest the denial of access to medical care at Nam Ha Prison, located near Ha Noi. Weakened by several years of incarceration and nearing 60 years old, he is currently suffering from severe tooth pain and debilitating migraines. Despite submitting multiple written requests for medical attention, prison authorities have ignored his pleas.
His son, Le Dinh Hieu, raised concern in a Facebook post dated May 15. He stated that his father already had fragile health before his arrest in 2017, and his father’s well being has significantly declined during his imprisonment. On the same day as the Facebook post,, Le Dinh Luong spoke to his wife, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Quy on the phone. In a very weak voice, Le Dinh Luong asked her, to share his plight and issued a heartfelt appeal for help.
Mrs. Quy explains that Le Dinh Luong’s physical appearance looks like it is visibly deteriorating with each family visit to the prison. The family is increasingly concerned for his survival. In 2019, Mrs. Quy traveled to Geneva during Vietnam’s Universal Periodic Review to testify about the repression of human rights defenders in the country, including the case about her husband Le Dinh Luong.
Since being sentenced in August 2018, Le Dinh Luong is serving 20 years in prison for “activities aimed at overthrowing the state.” This has been the harshest sentence ever handed down to an activist in Vietnam. He is widely known for organizing and reporting on the 2016 Formosa environmental disaster and its devastating impact on local fishing communities.
In 2019, the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (UNWGAD) issued Opinion No. 45/2019, deeming his arrest and detention arbitrary and calling for his immediate release.
Le Dinh Luong’s current hunger strike follows a wave of others that occurred in late 2024 including the hunger strike of Dang Dinh Bach, Trinh Ba Tu, and Le Trong Hung, at Prison No. 6 in Nghe An Province. These protests were aimed at denouncing the inhumane detention conditions these political prisoners faced.
Although Vietnam has ratified the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Vietnamese government lacks a commitment to uphold these obligations, which international human rights organizations often highlight and denounce.
Since 2018, on International Human Rights Day, which is also Le Dinh Luong’s birthday, Viet Tan annually confers the Le Dinh Luong Human Rights Award to another human rights defender that embodies Le Dinh Luong’s courage and advocacy.
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