Vietnamese Pastor arrested for “anti-governmnet propaganda”

Vietnamese authorities arrested the Protestant pastor in his home. He is detained and facing charges that could carry up to 20 years in prison.
Nguyen Manh Hung, a 71-year-old Vietnamese Protestant pastor, was arrested by Vietnamese authorities on January 16. According to his son, Nguyen Tran Hien, first the electricity in the house was cut, then somebody knocked on the door saying he was there to check for fire risk. When the pastor opened the door, police officers stormed the flat and handcuffed him.
The pastor’s son told RFA Vietnamese that his father is charged with “anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of Vietnam’s Penal Code. The warrant that the officers showed Nguyen Manh Hung also stated that he can be temporarily detained for four months.
“They then read a house search warrant and confiscated some of my father’s documents, two mobile phones, and a laptop. They also took my mobile phone and laptop,”
said Nguyen Tran Hien. Authorities then told him to go to the Ministry of Public Security’s Institute for Criminal Sciences where he was interrogated for hours about his father’s activities. Authorities then released him around midnight after assuring them he didn’t know anything about his father’s activities.
Nguyen Manh Hung was a former soldier of the Northern Vietnam Army but joined a monastery and became a pastor in 2011. He is a member of the Interfaith Council of Vietnam, a group advocating religious freedom. The pastor himself is a frequent critic of the government and has been targeted by authorities for a long time. Pastor Nguyen Manh Hung was the first person arrested under these charges this year.
Source: RFA