Breaking News: Police of Prison No. 6 punish writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia for informing Dieu Cay’s hunger strike

Danlambao//Translated by Như Ngọc - A confidential report informed Danlambao that writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia has currently faced punishment from prison officials of Prison No. 6 for informing his family the hunger strike of blogger Dieu Cay, which is currently on the 34th day.

The source said on July 17, 2013, prison officials issued a ‘disciplinary solitary confinement’ to punish Mr. Nguyen in an inhuman manner after prison police gagged his mouth and dragged him away after hearing him told his wife about the hunger strike of blogger Dieu Cay.

‘Disciplinary solitary confinement’ is a barbaric form of punishment of the inhuman communist prison system. Prison guards often use it to punish inmates for refusing to follow their orders. When an inmate is sent to ’solitary discipline,’ he or she is locked up in a very small and dark room called ‘discipline room.’ Although it is called a ‘room,’ it actually is a tiny place looked just like an animal cage.

‘Solitary discipline’ often associates with leg shackling. This is a form of torture. Communist prisons frequently use this barbaric punishment to control and punish prisoners. There have been known cases in which detainees died from suffering this cruel punishment. One particular case, in which a prisoner died after 10 days in solitary confinement, was testified by a former prisoner after his release from prison. (Please read the article: Z30A prison in Xuan Loc shackled prisoner to death.)

Talking to Danlambao, Mrs. Nguyen Thi Nga, Mr. Nguyen’s wife, said the family is very worried about him because of his old age and illnesses.

Through the cruel treatments of prison officials of Prison No. 6 against blogger Dieu Cay, we can see that the current situation of writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia is also dangerously bad.

Please be reminded, in the last minutes of the 15-minute visitation on July 17, 2013, Mr. Nguyen suddenly yelled to his wife: "You know, Mr. Hai – Dieu Cay has been on a hunger strike for 25 days!” Being a sentimental person, the writer trembled his voice as if he was about to burst out. At that very moment, four prison police angrily rushed toward Mr. Nguyen, gagged his mouth and rapidly dragged him away in a cruel manner, leaving his wife standing there in shock, tears and resentment. 

Before the visitation, the couple was seriously warned by prison officials that they could only talk and ask about health-related and ordinary family issues but absolutely not about anything else. Police even threatened writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia not to disclose any information about the hunger strike of Dieu Cay.

Without the savvy and courageous action of writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia to inform his wife the hunger strike of Dieu Cay, we can hardly predict any terrible things would have happened to Dieu Cay. Currently, writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia is also suffering the same fate as blogger Dieu Cay as a result of police’s retribution for his selfless action.

In November 2012, while detained in Prison No. 6 writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia had a surgery to treat hemorrhoids. However, only a few hours after the surgery, prison police wanted to handcuff him to the hospital bed and shackle his legs.

Writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia, 64 years old, was arrested in September 2008, sentenced to 6 year in prison and 3 years of probation, and currently detained in Prison No. 6 in Thanh Chuong, Nghe An Province.

Blogger Dieu Cay - Nguyen Van Hai, and Nguyen Xuan Nghia are both from Hai Phong and detained in Prison No. 6 in Nghe An Province.Both men are considered the leading figures of the democracy movement in Vietnam. Writer Nguyen Xuan Nghia is a representative of the Bloc 8406 and blogger Dieu Cay is the founder of the Club of Free Journalists.