Vietnam Sentences Degar Christian to 5 Years imprisonment for refusal to sign religious renunciation documents
Update: An Abducted and detained Degar Christian villager named Y-Huong Nie was given 5 year prison term for refusing to sign a document renouncing his religious
beliefs on 4 July 2011. Y-Huong Nie, was abducted by security police on September 15, 2010 has been in prison in Dak Lak province ever since. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment for practicing Christianity in a so called ‘illegal house church” and his repeated refusal to sign documents (even while being tortured by authorities) that renounced his religious beliefs. His relatives were prohibited from visiting him during his imprisonment despite continuously asking Vietnamese authorities about his welfare.
Y-Huong Nie and his wife H’Yer Mlo with an infant son Y-Wot Mlo was previously detained and interrogated a year ago on July 14, 2010. See a prior press release on this story at http://montagnard-foundation.org/wp/2010/11/28/1057. Y-Huong is from the village of Buon Drao, commune of Cu Ne, district of Krong Buk of Dak Lak province. His trial occurred on July 4, 2011 (9am to 11:30am). Y-Huong Nie was given an option for a term of two years in prison if they paid a 25,000,000 dong fine. His family did not have the money for the proposed shorter prison sentence and at the time of this report, it is not clear as to which prison Y-Huong Nie was sent to.
THE MONTAGNARD FOUNDATION URGENTLY CALLS ON:
- Concerned Embassies, US State Department, European Commission, United Nations, Red Cross and other international humanitarian agencies to investigate these attacks on Montagnards and do everything in their power to prevent further revenge attacks on Siu Thoan’s relatives.
- Concerned Embassies, US State Department, European Commission, United Nations, Red Cross and other international humanitarian agencies demand Vietnam release and account for Siu Thoan and all the hundreds of other Degar Montagnard prisoners imprisoned in Vietnam as documented by Human Rights Watch and the US Commission of International Religious Freedom.
- The US State Department seriously review the cases of hundreds of Degar Montagnards imprisoned in Vietnam and place Vietnam back on the ‘Country of Particular Concern’ watch list as recommended by the US International Commission of Religious Freedom.
