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A plainclothes Vietnamese communist police muzzles religious leader Father Nguyen Van Ly (Nguyễn Văn Lý) as he speaks out against Vietnam's Communist Party during a government Kangaroo trial "people's court" on March 30-2007 in Hue, Vietnam. Father Ly, a former "prisoner of conscience" and human rights activist who spent 14 years in prison, was arrested in a government sweep of dissidents earlier that year because he was deemed "a national security threat" according to state-controlled media. It's an evocative, iconic image widely circulated via the Internet. "TẠI SAO ANH BỊT MIỆNG TÔI ?" http://tdngonluan.com
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Lm. Nguyễn Văn Lý tại phiên tòa rừng rú của Cộng sản Việt gian, Huế, ngày 30-3-2007. Nhạc & lời: Thế Quang / Ca Sĩ: Như Mai / Videographer-Editor: www.Legraphic.com (Lê Cường)
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Father Thaddeus (or Thadeus) Nguyễn Văn Lý (born May 15, 1946) is a Roman Catholic priest and prominent Vietnamese dissident involved in many pro-democracy movements, for which he was imprisoned for a total of almost 15 years. For his ongoing imprisonment and continuous non-violent protest, Amnesty International has adopted Nguyen Van Ly in December, 1983 as a Prisoner of conscience. Most recently, his support for the Bloc 8406 (KhốI 8406 in Vietnamese) Manifesto has led to his sentence on March 30, 2007 for an additional eight years in prison.
HISTORY
Father Nguyen Van Ly began his dissident activities as early as the 1970s. He spent a year in prison from 1977 to 1978, and an additional nine from May 1983 to July 1992 for "opposing the revolution and destroying the people's unity (meaning: Vietnamese communist dictatorship). In November 2000, Nguyen Van Ly gained global and official attention when members of the Committee for Religious Freedom visited him in his village, during the visit of U.S. president Clinton to Vietnam.
On May 17, 2001 Father Ly was arrested at An Truyen church, for his alleged "failure to abide by the decisions on his probation issued by authorized State agencies,"and received in October 2001 another prison sentence of 15 years for activities linked to the defense of free expression. The sentence was later reduced several times and he was finally released in February 2004.
As a result of international pressure, Father Ly was released from prison in early 2004 but remains under house arrest in the Archdiocese of Hue.
On April 8, 2006, Father Ly collaborated with other writers on the "Manifesto on Freedom and Democracy for Vietnam." Later on, the signers of this Manifesto called themselves "Bloc 8406," with reference to the date of the document.
On April 15, 2006, Father Ly and three other Catholic Priests published the first issue of "Free Speech" (in Vietnamese Tự Do Ngôn Luận), an underground online publication (www.tdngonluan.com).
On September 8, 2006, Father Ly participated in the establishment of the Vietnam Progression Party (in Vietnamese Đảng Thăng Tiến Việt Nam).
2007 ARREST & SENTENCE
On February 19, 2007, security police surrounded and raided Hue Archdiocese to ransack the office, confiscate computers and arrested Father Nguyen Van Ly. They moved him to the remote location of Ben Cui in central Vietnam, where he was under house arrest; Father Ly engaged in a hunger strike from February 24 to March 5.
As a member of the Bloc 8406 pro-democracy movement, Nguyen Van Ly was sentenced again on March 30, 2007 by Vietnamese provincial court Judge Bùi Quốc Hiệp for eight years in prison for committing "very serious crimes that harmed national security" by trying to organize a boycott of the upcoming election.
The court appearance was televised in Vietnam, with foreign reporters allowed to attend. During the trial, when Father Ly tried to shout an unauthorized, dissident remark, ("Đả Đảo Cộng Sản", meaning "down with communism") he was immediately held silent with a hand over his mouth by the security officer behind him. The video and image was widely circulated afterwards on the internet.
The arrest has been condemned by leaders including US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice which calls this a "negative development".
After Father Ly's arrest, US Congressman Christopher Smith introduced a House Resolution to call on Vietnam to immediately and unconditionally release Father Ly and his collaborators and US Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren wrote a letter to the US Secretary of State to urge the US State Department to re-designate Vietnam on the US Countries of Particular Concern List due to its violations of human rights and religious freedom. Show less