AFP
Inmates angered by the spread of COVID-19 at a detention center in Vietnam’s largest city started a disturbance during a medical examination this week, drawing attention to the healthcare situation in the country’s prisons, state media reported.
During the examination at Ho Chi Minh City’s Chi Hoa Detention Center, 81 people tested positive for the coronavirus, including 45 staff members and 36 detainees.
An account of the incident appeared on Wednesday morning in
Tuoi Tre, but the country’s largest newspaper took down the report by mid-day.
Video obtained by RFA showed gunshots fired at the detention center as staff attempted to gain control over the uprising. There were no reports of casualties resulting from the incident.
State Media
An appeals court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City on Friday upheld harsh prison terms handed down last year to four activists convicted of planning protests on Vietnam’s National Day on Sept. 2, 2018.
Arrested in September 2018, the four were part of a group of eight named by police as members of the Hien Phap (Constitution) Group, a network of activists formed on June 16, 2017 to call for the rights to freedom of speech and assembly promised under Article 25 of Vietnam’s Constitution.
All eight were convicted of “disturbing security” under Article 118 of Vietnam’s 2015 Penal Code, and were sentenced on July 31, 2020 to prison terms ranging from two years and six months to eight years in a trial from which family members were barred.