Phung Thuy

On May 8th, the Vietnamese public security entrapped and arrested Phung Thuy, a shipper in Ho Chi Minh City, as he was delivering books for Liberal Publishing House.

Police took him to the southern office of the Ministry of Public Security at 235 Nguyen Van Cu Street (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City), interrogated, and tortured him from 9 AM to the middle of the night. Their questions centered around LPH’s personnel and activities: What is your relationship with Pham Đoan Trang? Where is Trang? Each question or every response of “I don’t know”  was met with blows to his chest and stomach; his body was beaten and his toes were crushed.

By midnight, Phung Thuy was worn out. A relative came to the station to bring him medicine, but police confiscated the rellative’s motorbike and pressured Phung Thuy to sign a statement claiming “fair treatment," and that he was “not subjected to torture or physical harm during the work session."

At 3 AM, when Phung Thuy’s blood pressure dropped again, police “allowed” him to call his relative for his medicine a second time. As his relative arrived, helplessly waiting by the office gate, Phung Thuy made a run for it with the police station’s only remaining motorbike. Officers chased him. Ultimately, he was able to escape, ragged and beaten, not able to feel his toes. Two motorbikes (his and his relative’s), his phone, money, documents, and all the books, remained confiscated.

Three days after the incident, Phung Thuy experienced chest pain, shortness of breath, and threw up blood but did not want to go to the doctor for fear of being detained by the police again. He remains in critical condition at the time of this writing.