(New York) - The Vietnamese government should immediately release the imprisoned journalist Le Huu Minh Tuan and allow him to obtain medical treatment in Vietnam or abroad, Human Rights Watch said today. Tuan's family says that he is suffering from internal hemorrhoids causing severe bleeding and needs urgent care.

"Le Huu Minh Tuan is among a long list of Vietnamese imprisoned for their peaceful opinions," said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "By wrongly prosecuting him and then not providing the health care he needs, the Vietnamese authorities are culpable for his worsening condition."

Tuan, 36, is a member of the Independent Journalists Association of Vietnam. He has written about the democracy protests in Hong Kong and politics in Vietnam. He has stated that he wants "to campaign for a better society by contributing a critical voice on every front of life."

Police arrested Tuan in Quang Nam province on June 12, 2020, and charged him with "making, storing, disseminating, or propagandizing information, materials, and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" under article 117 of the penal code. In January 2021 he was sentenced to 11 years in prison, along with fellow journalists Pham Chi Dung and Nguyen Tuong Thuy.

Since he was imprisoned, Tuan has suffered periodically from bloody bowel movements, abdominal pain, and other gastrointestinal problems. The United States Lantos Human Rights Commission reported that in January 2024 Tuan described severe weight loss, indigestion, numbness in both calves, insomnia, dizziness, lightheadedness, confusion, chest pain, and difficulty breathing.

Under rule 27 of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules), "[a]ll prisons shall ensure prompt access to medical attention in urgent cases. Prisoners who require specialized treatment or surgery shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals."

"The Vietnamese authorities need to be held accountable for denying Le Huu Minh Tuan adequate health care," Gossman said. "They should immediately free Tuan and all other prisoners wrongfully detained."

Source: Human Rights Watch