May 4, 2012
In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Dan Lungren and five other House members urged the State Department “to secure the immediate release of Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan so he can be reunited with his wife and two sons.”
The Members of Congress wrote today:
“At a time when Vietnam has expressed the desire to increase economic and security exchanges with the United States, it is not acceptable for Hanoi to intensify its crackdown on peaceful activists and disregard laws and norms observed by the international community. The detention of Dr. Quan is the latest case of ‘rule by law’ in which the Vietnamese government is abusing vague national security provisions as the pretext to arrest and detain individuals who peacefully advocate for religious and political freedom.”
A resident of California, Dr. Nguyen Quoc Quan, 58 years old, received his doctorate in mathematics from North Carolina State University. He is a former high school teacher in Vietnam, long time democracy activist and member of Viet Tan. He was detained on April 17 upon arriving at the airport in Saigon.
“We welcome the strong support from human rights defenders in Congress. There is a fundamental difference between Dr. Quan’s peaceful democratic advocacy versus the ‘terrorism’ charges invented by the Hanoi authorities,” said Viet Tan Chairman Do Hoang Diem.
Initiated by Congressman Dan Lungren, the letter to Secretary Clinton was also signed by Representatives Zoe Lofgren, Ed Royce, Loretta Sanchez, Brad Sherman and Frank Wolf. The full text of the letter can be viewed online here.
Contact: Duy Hoang +1.202.470.0845
