Convicted in 2010 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, Thuc is serving a 16 yr sentence for writing online articles criticizing #Vietnam’s one-party #communist state.
Thuc is now in the final year of his sentence, counting the time of his detention in 2009 & is in poor health. He has staged other hunger strikes in the past to protest conditions at Prison No. 6 in #NgheAn province. He began his latest hunger strike on Jan. 27.
Bach, who worked to inform people whose health & livelihoods were threatened by coal projects & other polluting industries, was arrested in June 2021, and was sentenced to 5 yrs in prison for tax evasion.
The experts, who are appointed by the #UNHumanRightsCouncil but don't speak on behalf of United Nations, pointed out Bach was being held 8 hrs away from his family, on whom he depended for food, as per his vegetarian diet.