According to RFA News, Pastor Nguyen Trung Ton is suffering from multiple diseases without treatment, including the long-term effects of Covid-19 and an eye disease which has caused near total loss of vision, yet prison authorities haven’t allowed him to be examined or treated, and have prevented his family from sending medicine to help him.
Pastor Ton received a 12-year sentence in April 2018 on a charge of ‘carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the government’, violating Article 79 of the Vietnamese penal code after he advocated for religious freedom and spoke against social injustices. He is being held at Gia Trung Prison, Gia Lai Province.
His wife Nguyen Thi Lanh said she had repeatedly petitioned the Gia Trung Prison and the Police Prison Management Department to allow her husband to be examined and treated and that the family was willing to bear all costs. She said she was worried about Ton because several political prisoners died in custody this year because of Vietnam’s abusive prison system.
