{"id":29256,"date":"2020-08-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-13T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/csw-welcomes-and-echoes-parliamentarians-call-for-release-of-nguyen-bac-4769\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:59:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:59:00","slug":"csw-welcomes-and-echoes-parliamentarians-call-for-release-of-nguyen-bac-4769","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/press\/csw-welcomes-and-echoes-parliamentarians-call-for-release-of-nguyen-bac-4769\/","title":{"rendered":"CSW welcomes and echoes parliamentarians’ call for release of Nguyen Bac Truyen"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CSW welcomes an open letter<\/a> dated 13 August and signed by 62 parliamentarians from around the world calling for the immediate and unconditional release of imprisoned Vietnamese human rights activist Nguyen Bac Truyen.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The letter, which also calls on Vietnam to \u201callow all independent religious organisations in Viet Nam to freely conduct religious activities without fear of persecution, harassment and imprisonment,\u201d argues that the charges against Truyen are \u201ccompletely unfounded\u201d and his imprisonment is \u201cin direct breach\u201d of Vietnam\u2019s constitution and international legal obligations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nguyen Bac Truyen is a Hoa Hao Buddhist and legal expert who has provided pro bono legal assistance to families of political prisoners, victims of land grabs, and persecuted religious communities. He was abducted by the Vietnamese police on 30 July 2017 in Ho Chi Minh City and held in incommunicado arbitrary detention in Hanoi until his trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April 2018 he was charged<\/a> with \u2018carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the government\u2019 under Article 79 of the Vietnamese penal code and sentenced to 11 years in prison. During his imprisonment, concerns have been raised<\/a> for Truyen\u2019s health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the open letter, the parliamentarians raise concerns that Truyen\u2019s imprisonment illustrates \u201coutstanding issues relating to the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in Viet Nam.\u201d The parliamentarians recognise some progress made by the Vietnamese government in this regard, but state that they are \u201cextremely concerned by continued reports of persecution of individuals and religious and ethnic groups solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of religion or belief.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW continues to receive reports of severe violations of FoRB<\/a> against every major religious community in Vietnam, including Buddhists, Catholics, Cao Daists, Hoa Hao Buddhists and Protestants. Violations range from harassment, intimidation and intrusive monitoring, to arrest, imprisonment, torture and extra-judicial killing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said: \u201cCSW welcomes this letter which draws important attention to the ongoing unjust imprisonment of Vietnamese activist Nguyen Bac Truyen. We fully support the parliamentarians\u2019 calls and share their concerns regarding the situation of freedom of religion or belief in the country. As members of the international community, including the EU, the UK and the USA, continue to seek closer relationships with Vietnam, it is essential that they do not side-line or overlook human rights issues in favour of securing trade deals.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CSW welcomes an open letter dated 13 August and signed by 62 parliamentarians from around the world calling for the immediate and unconditional release of imprisoned Vietnamese human rights activist Nguyen Bac Truyen.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":43393,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[128,136],"class_list":["post-29256","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-east-asia","regions-vietnam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29256","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29256\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39840,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/29256\/revisions\/39840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29256"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29256"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=29256"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}