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with Article 87 and 91 of the Penal Code respectively. Currently, they are carrying out their
sentence in the Nam Ha prison camp.
298. According to the results of the health examination on 20 April 2005 and 19 December
2005 all three persons’ habitus, skin, weight, blood pressure and eye sight were normal. Mr. Ksor
Jak could walk well and did not have a broken leg. Mr. Ksor Har’s both ears were normal. The
doctor concluded that Ksor Daih’s and Ksor Jak’s health was ranked at the first category, Mr.
Ksor Har’s at the second.
299. According to the minutes of meetings, reports of other prisoners, the superintendent, the
educator-warden and minutes of the inspection by a delegation from the Department for
Management of Prison Camps, there was no cruel treatment against Mr. Ksor Daih, Mr. Ksor Jak
or Mr. Ksor Har. The information that Mr. Ksor Jak was forced to eat rice mixed with broken
glass is slander. All three persons have received the right ration of food and drink in strict
accordance with provisions of laws on regimes for prisoners. Since they have been arrested, no
complaint has been lodged by or on behalf of Mr. Ksor Daih, Mr. Ksor Jak or Mr. Ksor Har.
Observations
300.
The Special Rapporteur is grateful for the Government’s response.
Urgent appeal sent on 23 February 2007 jointly with the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention and the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to
freedom of opinion and expression
301. The Special Procedures mandate holders brought to the attention of the Government
information they had received regarding Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest and one of the
editors of the underground magazine “Tu do Ngôn luan” (Free Speech). According to the
information received, Father Nguyen Van Ly was arrested on the evening of 19 February 2007,
the Lunar New Year, in the central city of Hue, during an administrative check at the archdiocesan
building where he lives. Several police cars had been pulled up outside the archdiocesan Nha
Chung building. Around 60 police officers, reportedly led by a colonel who specializes in
religious matters, cut phone lines and searched the entire building, breaking open a cupboard
which Ly refused to unlock. They took away six computers and mobile phones and many
documents.
302. It was reported that Father Nguyen Van Ly is a member of the pro-democracy movement
called Bloc 8406. He spent several years in prison in 1977 and 1978 and from 1983 to 1992 as a
result of his activities in support of freedoms of opinion, expression and religion. He was
sentenced again in October 2001 to 15 years in prison for activities linked to the defence of free
speech. The sentence was commuted several times and he finally left prison in February 2004.
303. Two others editors of “Tu do Ngôn luan”, Father Chan Tin and Father Phan Van Loi,
were also put under house arrest. No information was provided about the reasons for their
detention.