Jailed Vietnamese priest, Father Thadeus Nguyen Van Ly, who has been
undergoing medical treatment at a Church-run home, says he will go on
hunger strike to protest his sentence when he is returned to his prison
camp in mid-March.
“The communist government plans to take me back to the camp on March 15,” Father Ly, said in a testament dated February 2.
“I will go on indefinite hunger strike and refuse medical treatment to oppose the sentence,” he declared.
The priest gave copies of the testament to visitors who went to see him ahead of the Tet festival or Lunar New Year.
He has been at a home for retired priests in the compound of the Hue
Archbishop’s residence since his release from Ba Sao Camp in northern Ha
Nam province due to health problems on March 15, 2010.
Father Ly, 64, said the government is forcing him to serve out the rest of his sentence.
The priest was sentenced to eight years in prison and five years
house arrest in March 2007 for alleged anti-government activities.
Father Ly denies the charges.
“The sentence is unfair and against international law,” he said in his testament.
He said his partially paralyzed right leg and arm, which were caused by three strokes in 2009, were 60 percent better.
In his 10-page testament, Father Ly said he wants to donate his
organs to those that need them and his body to a medical school in Hue.
Father Ly, who was ordained in 1974, has been imprisoned five times
for a total of 17 years and placed under house arrest eight times for a
total of 15 years.