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Jailed pastor's wife asks for UN intervention

Wife of Pastor Nguyen Trung Ton said Vietnamese government has been terrorizing her family
Jailed pastor's wife asks for UN intervention

In this file photo, Nguyen Thi Lanh (standing right), Nguyen Trung Ton and their children and parents pose for a photo. (Photo supplied)

Published: November 20, 2017 08:42 AM GMT
Updated: November 20, 2017 09:02 AM GMT

The wife of a prominent pastor who is imprisoned for human rights activities has called on the U.N. Human Rights chief to help stop the Vietnamese government terrorizing her family.

"My husband is an honest man and loves the people and motherland more than his life," said Nguyen Thi Lanh, wife of Pastor Nguyen Trung Ton who was arrested in July and charged with acting to overthrow the communist government.

Lanh, who has not seen her husband since his arrest, said he dedicated his life serving and protecting the weak from oppression. The pastor worked with farmers who have their land grabbed by authorities and victims of environmental pollution, and trained other people in democratic values.

"The government which violates human rights most in the country disapproves of his activities," she said in a Nov. 10 letter to Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Her husband's detention has left her family in a difficult situation, said the mother of two who is from the northern province of Thanh Hoa.

Her blind mother-in-law recently had an operation on her legs and her 19-year-old daughter suffers from severe depression due to her father's arrest. The daughter, who only weighs 20 kilograms and is 1.2 meters high, was hospitalized lately and needed a blood transfusion.

Lanh said she could not afford to pay their medical treatment and some benefactors gave her 2.3 million dong (US$101).

"After I left the bank, a police woman stopped me, took away all my personal papers and money, and questioned me at a nearby police station," she said.

Later she was again forcibly questioned by provincial security officers on Nov. 3. They accused her of receiving money from terrorists and asked her to release her bank account details.

"I told them that 'I have no responsibility to tell you my account information," she said.

Lanh, a farmer, said she begged them to treat her family with humanity but they refused.

"I entreat the High Commissioner for Human Rights to intercede with the Vietnam government on behalf of my family so that they stop immediately their terror and threats against us," Lanh said.

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