PEN America is profoundly grateful to Rep. Michelle Steel for sponsoring Vietnamese writer and prisoner of conscience Le Huu Minh Tuan as part of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission’s Defending Freedoms Project (DFP). Tuan is serving an unjust 11-year prison sentence for his writings on human rights. He has been denied access to proper medical care despite his health rapidly deteriorating.
PEN America calls on Vietnam to grant Le Huu Minh Tuan a humanitarian release and ensure he receives immediate medical care as well as all other writers, journalists, and dissidents imprisoned for their free expression. No one should face imprisonment for exercising their right to free expression.
According to PEN America’s Freedom to Write Index 2023, Vietnam was the world’s third-greatest jailer of writers—following China and Iran and tied with Saudi Arabia—with 19 writers imprisoned or detained during 2023.
