August 27, 2012
About 50 family members and supporters of 17 detained Catholic youth activists marched to government offices in Hanoi this morning. With the majority of their family members facing arbitrary detention with limited access to legal counsel for over a year, marchers demanded the release of their loved ones.
Marching on multiple routes to avoid the authorities, the marchers were nonetheless met with plainclothes police. Witnesses recount hectic scenes as marchers were dragged away and shuttled to a public security station. Several relatives were beaten up by police, including the mother of Nguyen Van Duyet, who was beaten unconscious.
According to family sources, marchers who have been detained where all released by Monday night.
Earlier, on Sunday night, over 4,000 people attended a prayer vigil at Thai Ha church in Hanoi in solidarity with the seventeen. This was one of the biggest mass gatherings to date in support of prisoners of conscience in Vietnam.
Meanwhile, in a Washington Post op-ed, Stanford Law’s Allen S. Weiner argues that the United States should work for the freedom of the detained activists. Weiner recently filed a petition to the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention challenging the legality of the arrest and detention of these 17 Vietnamese activists.
A coalition of twelve international human rights NGOs sent a letter Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung this morning, calling for the release of the 17 Catholic activists. “We believe Vietnam as a country would benefit from greater respect for the civil liberties of its citizens and Vietnamese society would be richer with the contributions of all its citizens,” wrote the rights groups.
Source: Catholic Youth Blog, Vietnam Redemptorist News
Photo credits: Catholic Youth Blog