Jailed Vietnamese activist Vu Quang Thuan is suffering from serious illnesses and his life is in danger according to his former cellmate.
Nguyen Viet Dung, who completed his six year sentence last week, told Radio Free Asia that he had to alert prison guards at Nam Ha Prison in Ha Nam to Thuan’s condition on several occasions.
“I was the one who voluntarily asked to move into the same room with Thuan in the last months before I was released from prison, so I could call an emergency for him. There were nights when I had to call an emergency at 2 to 3am,” he said.
“Many nights, Mr. Thuan confided that he did not know if he was still healthy enough to be able to return home to see his mother.
“I always comforted and encouraged him, but inside I was really sad. Every day he had an itchy rash with red hives all over his body.”
Dung said Thuan was disciplined and held separately for more than a year and was returned to the area for political prisoners in mid-May 2022. At that time, Thuan’s weight dropped from 75 kilograms to 38 kilograms (165 lbs to 84 lbs).
Dung said Thuan was suffering from many illnesses including lung failure with only a quarter of his lung capacity left, severe asthma, and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Thuan’s mother Nguyen Thi Nhien, who visited him on Sept. 30, confirmed that the information from Dung was correct.
“Thuan’s health is very weak. When he talks to me, he finds it difficult to breathe. Sinusitis distorts his nose. Lung disease causes shortness of breath and he is weak and thin.”
She said in the last two months, Thuan’s health had not improved even though his family provided him with medicine.
Nhien said her family asked prison authorities to allow Thuan to go for treatment at a specialized hospital, but the prison refused.
Dung is the second former prisoner of conscience to raise the alarm about Thuan’s poor health. In early July, Le Anh Hung completed his five-year prison term and also called for authorities to pay attention to Thuan’s case.
“Vu Quang Thuan’s health is very bad,” he told RFA in July.
“For a period of more than a year, he had to stay in solitary confinement, lying on wet floors due to leaking water tanks with not enough warm blankets in winter.”
Nam Ha prisoners are forced to work. Those who do not have to stay in cramped cells without a fan, Hung said.
The prisoners’ job is knitting. The raw materials are sprayed with chemicals to prevent mold, which Hung said made prisoners sick.
Although the work is hard, the prisoners are not paid and it is unclear whether the prison uses their wages to improve meals for prisoners.
RFA called Nam Ha Prison to ask about Thuan’s health condition, but no one answered the phone.
Thuan, 57, is serving an eight-year prison sentence. He is a key member of the Vietnam Restoration movement, arrested in early March 2017 on charges of “anti-state propaganda.”
Since 2007, he worked to protect the rights of Vietnamese workers in Malaysia.
He also founded the Restoration of Vietnam movement with the goal of peacefully campaigning for multi-party democracy in Vietnam.
After Thuan and two other members of the Vietnam Restoration Movement were sent to prison, the U.S. government, Amnesty International and a number of other organizations called on Vietnam to release them immediately and unconditionally.
Translated by RFA Vietnamese. Edited by Mike Firn and Elaine Chan.
