According to PEN's information, Nguyen Hong Quang, general secretary of the banned Vietnamese Mennonite Church, was arrested in 2004 for allegedly "instigating others to obstruct persons carrying out official duties", after police searched his house in Ho Chi Minh city. Security agents also confiscated computer equipment and numerous documents, which included his legal files on human rights cases he was working on. The charges stemmed from an altercation on 2 March 2004 between Nguyen Hong Quang, several of his associates at the Mennonite church, and two plainclothes police officers who the Mennonites alleged were harassing church workers at the church where Nguyen Hong Quang lived and worked.

Five other Mennonite church workers were also convicted along with Nguyen Hong Quang on the same charges, and received sentences from nine months to two years' imprisonment. All six were tried in a four-hour closed hearing by the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh city on 12 November 2004.

Nguyen Hong Quang, aged 47 and a married father of three young children, has written numerous essays on human rights in Vietnam, in particular the repression of religious freedom and freedom of speech. He has also provided legal assistance to other prisoners of conscience in Vietnam, though he is banned from officially practicing as a lawyer. He is thought to have been targeted for his writings published on the Internet on the suppression of religious freedom and human rights violations in Vietnam.

MORE INFORMATION

For further information, contact Cathy McCann at the WiPC, International PEN, 9/10 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7AT, U.K., tel: +44 207 253 3226, fax: +44 207 253 5711, Internet: www.internationalpen.org.uk