Vietnamese pastor’s wife mistreated, beaten
By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent
(Worthy News) – Earlier this month, the wife of an imprisoned pastor suffered severe mistreatment at the hands of Vietnamese authorities.
According to Barnabas Aid, Tran Thi Hong’s mistreatment was part of a pattern of official harassment against both her and her husband, Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh — a religious freedom activist who was jailed in 2012 for having “colluded with foreign reactionaries” to accuse Vietnam of suppressing religious freedom.
On May 11, Hong was questioned about her contacts with foreign media as well as her “illegal” Lutheran faith. Hong had been previously “questioned” by security agents for three hours concerning a meeting she had with the U.S. Ambassador-at-Large on International Religious Freedom in March. The interrogation left Hong with injuries to her head, legs, feet and hands.
Vietnamese police had prepared a statement for Hong to sign claiming that she knew it was illegal for her to meet with the ambassador. When Hong refused to sign it, four female police officers physically abused her for hours.
What was left of Hong was released later that same day.