Pastor returns to family after years-long imprisonment in Vietnam

A pastor who says that he was falsely imprisoned, tortured and beaten is coming home.

In August of 2018, Pastor A Dao was on his way home from East Timor, after attending a conference about religious freedom when he was detained by Vietnamese authorities. The protestant pastor of the Montagnard Evangelical Church of Christ says was at the conference sharing how his own church was experiencing difficulties, asking the international community for help defending their religious rights. 

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) says that Dao was tortured in an attempt to get him to give a false confession, that he was helping individuals to escape abroad illegally. Dao was charged with helping individuals to escape abroad illegally in April of 2017 and sentenced to five years at Gia Trung Prison in Gia Lai Province.

While in jail, his wife, Nguyen Thi Tuoi visited him regularly, but one visit on September 1, 2018, was unlike the rest.

"The guards allowed a very brief visit, much shorter than in the past. His face was bruised, with traces of blood. She learned that in August 2018 the prison guards had been using other inmates to beat him. His health was poor as a result of frequent beatings," USCIRF says in a statement.

They say he was tortured again in 2019. USCIRF says that Dao's health deteriorated due to "harsh treatment typically reserved for prisoners of conscience."

As she now had no source of income, Nguyen Thi Tuoi had to sell their land, move in with relatives, and send their two children to live with other family members. Dao has a 16-year-old son and a six-year-old daughter to return to.

“I am delighted that Pastor A Dao is free, even as I lament the fact that prison robbed him of four years of his life,” USCIRF Commissioner James W. Carr says. 

Dao was originally set to return to his village on August 16, 2021 but has now been made free.

“I hope this release is a sign that the Vietnamese government is serious about improving religious freedom conditions and will release other individuals detained for their religious freedom advocacy," Carr says.