ICC Note:

A Christian attorney that is in jail in Vietnam has been awarded the Human Rights Prize by the German Association of Judges for his human rights defense work. Nguyen Van Dai was unable to attend the ceremony since he is in jail and his wife was stopped in the airport from traveling to Germany to receive the award for him. His is facing 20 years imprisonment for teaching a workshop on basic human rights in Vietnam.

4/10/2017 Vietnam (UCA News) – Jailed Christian attorney Nguyen Van Dai received an award by the German Association of Judges on April 5 for his efforts to defend human rights in Vietnam.

Dai, who has been held incommunicado at a prison in Hanoi, was the first Vietnamese lawyer to win the Human Rights Prize for fighting for a democratic and liberal future in the communist country, said Deutscher Richterbund (German Association of Judges) the largest professional organization of judges and public prosecutors in Germany.

“The path to democracy in Vietnam is still long and needs people like Dai,” the organization said.

On April 4, Dai’s wife, Vu Minh Khanh, was stopped at Noi Bai Airport so she couldn’t fly to Germany to receive the award. She was told that she was not able to leave the country until 2019.

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