Vietnam: Internet writer returned to psychiatric detention
Published: May 2, 2008
English PEN is seriously concerned for the well-being of female internet writer, human rights lawyer and member of the banned Demoncratic Party of
Bui Kim Thành, aged forty-nine, was taken to the
This is not the first time that Bui Kim Thành has been sectioned in a psychiatric hospital by the Vietnamese authorities. She was previously detained on
After her release in July 2007, Bui Kim Thành was placed under house arrest. She nonetheless continued reporting for various media outlets, the internet and international NGOs on issues of social injustice and human rights violations in
Please send appeals:
- Expressing serious concern that Bui Kim Thành is held in psychiatric detention without any apparent medical basis, and that she is at risk of ill-treatment;
- Seeking further details as to the reason for her detention, and calling for her immediate and unconditional release if held in violation of Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which
Addresses:
His Excellency Nguyên Minh Triêt
President ,
Prime Minister Nguyên Tân Dung
Lê Doan Hop, Minister of Culture and Information
It may be more effective, however, to send the above appeals via the Vietnamese representative in London:
His Excellency Mr Tran Quang Hoan
Embassy of the
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