Last week we reported on the harsh sentencing of six Mennonite workers, unjustly convicted of "resisting officers of the law while doing their duty" (click here for details). During the trial, it became apparent that Le Thi Hong Lien, the only woman charged, was facing serious health concerns. Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, the general secretary for the Mennonite Church of Vietnam asked the court for a medical examination for her, but the judge refused. When Lien's family attempted to visit her three days after the sentencing, they were told that she was in the infirmary. She was then transferred to a hospital, suffering from "a mental disease." The family reports that, while in prison, Lien was subjected to serious abuse and beatings.
Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang |
The Voice of the Martyrs urges the international community to continue to protest these unjust sentences and physical abuse to government officials, both domestically and in Vietnam . To download an advocacy package, click here. For help in knowing how to write to governments, click here.
For more information on persecution of Christians in Vietnam , click here.