Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh, a Vietnamese pastor and former prisoner of conscience, arrived with his family in the United States following release from prison on 28 July. His release, which was conditional on the basis that he leaves Vietnam, came amid a spate of arrests of human rights activists in the country.
Pastor Chinh, a passionate advocate for religious freedom and the rights of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, had been serving an 11-year sentence for ‘undermining national unity’ under Article 87 of the Penal Code.
His wife, Tran Thi Hong, is an activist with Vietnamese Women for Human Rights. During Chinh’s imprisonment, in which his health deteriorated to a potentially life-threatening degree due to ongoing abuse, Hong was also interrogated, harassed and beaten by the authorities on several occasions.
