Appeal for Vietnam Church Leaders Rescheduled

Lawyers acting on behalf of the secretary general of the Mennonite Church in Vietnam informed his wife last week that his appeal before the People’s Supreme Court of Vietnam has been rescheduled for Apr. 12

By Kenneth Chan, Thursday, April 07, 2005

Lawyers acting on behalf of the secretary general of the Mennonite Church in Vietnam informed his wife last week that his appeal before the People’s Supreme Court of Vietnam has been rescheduled for Apr. 12, Christian persecution watchdog groups reported this week.

Last November, the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang was sentenced to three years in prison for “obstructing people from carrying out official duties,” along with five other members of the Church.

The appeal of the sentencing, which was filed also on behalf of fellow Mennonite pastor Pham Ngoc Thach, was cancelled without explanation just a day before it was to have originally taken place on Feb. 2.

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According to a report released last year by Calif.-based Compass Direct, those close to the situation said that the charges and trial were an artifice to take out of circulation Rev. Quang, an outspoken leader of the Vietnam Mennonite Church. Quang, who also served as an active member of the Vietnamese Evangelical Fellowship, had actively campaigned against religious freedom and human rights abuses.

In one such campaign, Quang held a sit-in in December 2003 at a Police station in Ho Chi Minh City along with other church leaders. According to the Paris-based Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR), the sit-in was organized to protest the detention of 19 Christians for distributing religious pamphlets at the SEA Games in Ho Chi Minh City.

Quang also called attention to the illegal detention and abuse of the three evangelists that were being held without formal charges more than three months after their arrest. On June 25, he released a report addressed to Mennonite bodies and other churches both in the country and internationally. The report charged that public security officers of Ho Chi Minh City District 2 violated at least four sections of the criminal code on “temporary imprisonment.”

At the four-hour trial at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court, Nguyen was sentenced to three years imprisonment and his co-workers—Pham Ngoc Thach, Nguyen Van Phuong, Le Thi Hong Lien, Ngyuen Thanh Nhan, and Hieu Nghia—were given sentences ranging from 9 months to 2 years.

Following sentencing of Quang and the other “Mennonite Six,” groups such as the VCHR “strongly condemn[ed] the unfair prison sentence handed down on several members of the banned Vietnamese Evangelical Mennonite Church simply for the peaceful exercise of their religious beliefs.”

Since then, three of the six have released in recent months. However, concern continued for those still in prison.

“We need to support our Vietnamese brothers and sister in Christ who are suffering in prison for their faith,” said Open Doors USA President Dr. Carl Moeller. “Let’s cover them in prayer. Through the power of prayer, three of the leaders have already been released. Miss Lien is especially in need of physical, emotional and mental healing.”

Since the beginning of the year, Open Doors has been supporting the prisoners through a letter writing campaign.

With two of the remaining six facing their appeal trial and one in a mental hospital after allegedly being abused and beaten in prison, Open Doors reports that Christians in Vietnam will be observing fasting and prayer on Apr. 11 and 12 to express solidarity with the prisoners.

According to the Voice of the Martyrs, the Vietnam Mennonite Church issued the urgent appeal for two days of prayer and fasting from 7:30 a.m. on April 11 to 5:00 p.m. on April 12 for "the serious problems of the church in Vietnam in general and for the Vietnam Mennonite Church in particular."

The Church has asked for prayer intercessors to remember the following:
(a) To pray for the Lord to grant strength to the Rev Nguyen Hong Quang and the Mennonite Evangelists still in prison. Pray especially for Ms. Le Thi Hong Lien, a Mennonite church worker who is being held as a prisoner in dangerous circumstances in the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital.
(b) To pray for all children of the Lord that they will remain strong in the faith in spite of persecution and will have freedom of spirit to worship the Lord in any circumstances.
(c) To pray for the judges’ panel sitting at the appeal trail on April 12, 2005, that they will judge justly and release the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang and the other imprisoned Mennonite evangelists, and also return all property seized from the Vietnam Mennonite Church.
(d) To pray that the Lord will grant peace and protection to all Christian who come to attend the trial.

Currently, Vietnam is ranked No. 3 on Open Doors’ World Watch List of the world’s worst persecutors of Christians. Last September the U.S. State Department classified Vietnam as a “Country of Particular Concern” for serious religious liberty offenses.