Dear High Representative Mogherini,
We are writing to express our deep concern about the arrest and sentencing of legal expert and human rights defender Nguyễn Bắc Truyển in Vietnam, and to request that you take all necessary measures to secure his immediate and unconditional release.
Nguyễn Bắc Truyểnwas abducted by the Vietnamese police on 30 July 2017 in Ho Chi Minh City and held in incommunicado arbitrary detention in Hanoi until his trial. He was not allowed to receive a visit from his wife until six months after incommunicado detention and with his defense counsel until two weeks before his trial. Along with five other human rights activists, Truyển was convicted of ‘carrying out activities aimed at overthrowing the government’; he was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment followed by three years’house arrest on 5 April 2018.