URGENT ACTION

ILL CATHOLIC PRIEST RETURNED TO PRISON

Prisoner of conscience Father Nguyen Van Ly was returned to prison from hospital on 11 December: he had not fully recovered from a stroke. He is partially paralysed on one side. The prison authorities are not providing him with adequate medical care, and his health is in danger.

On 11 December Father Nguyen Van Ly was moved back to Ba Sao prison from Prison Hospital 198, administered by the Ministry of Public Security in Ha Noi, where he had been recovering from a stroke he suffered on 14 November. Although he has regained some movement, his family says that he remains partially paralysed on his right side, limiting what he is able to do without assistance. .

Pro-democracy activist Father Ly, who is 63 years old, began an eight-year prison sentence in March 2007 for "conducting propaganda" against the state. He has been held mainly in solitary confinement, and has suffered from high blood pressure and other health problems. In the seven months beforethe stroke, he had several bouts of ill-health, including some weeks of paralysis of the right side of his body, for which the prison authorities provided neither a proper diagnosis nor adequate medical treatment.

Father Ly was first jailed for his criticism of government policies on religion in the late 1970s, and has already spent some 17 years as a prisoner of conscience, for calling for respect for human rights and freedom of expression. He is one of the founders of internet-based pro-democracy movement Bloc 8406, and has helped to set up other political groups which are banned. He also secretly published a dissident journal, To Do Ngon Luan(Freedom and Democracy).

PLEASE WRITE IMMEDIATELY in English, Vietnamese or own language:

• Expressing grave concern that Father Ly has been returned to prison while still suffering the effects of a stroke, and pointing out that in prison he will not receive the medical care and assistance that he needs;

• Calling on the authorities to return Father Ly to hospital immediately, so he can receive the medical assistance he requires, and to ensure that his family are allowed frequent access to him;

• Calling on the authorities to release Father Ly immediately and unconditionally.

PLEASE SEND APPEALS BEFORE 29 JANUARY 2010 TO: