Declaration
from Catholic Youth Activists and Former Prisoners of Conscience
February 18, 2016
Regarding
the Vietnamese authorities’ brutal actions toward former prisoner of conscience
Tran Minh Nhat and his family
We, the former prisoners of conscience from the
group of Catholic and Protestant youth who were arbitrarily arrested in 2011,
jointly denounce the Vietnamese communist authorities’ ongoing harassment and
intimidation of former prisoner of conscience Tran Minh Nhat and his family.
Tran Minh Nhat, born in 1988, is a student at Ho
Chi Minh University of Foreign Languages and Information Technology (HUFLIT).
He has a passion for truth and justice, participating in protests against
Chinese aggression and opposing bauxite mining in Tay Nguyen. He is an
independent journalist and a contributor to the Vietnam Redemptorist News and
Radio Alphonso. Tran Minh Nhat was arbitrarily detained on August 27, 2011 and
sentenced to four years in prison and four years house arrest under Article 79
of Vietnam’s Penal Code because of his ideals and love for his country. Nhat
was released on August 27, 2015.
