Compass Direct and Agence France-Presse (AFP) are reporting that Vietnamese officials have promised to release Le Thi Hong Lien two months early as part of an amnesty on April 30: the 30th anniversary of the fall of Saigon during the Vietnam War. She will be one of six "political prisoners" released along with 7745 other prisoners. This news comes from a European diplomat speaking to AFP. The news was confirmed by an American diplomat. Others to be released include Rev. Pham Ngoc Lien sentenced to 20 years in 1987 for "hostile propaganda" and four Montagnards sentenced in February 2004.
Lien was one of six Mennonite church workers who were arrested in 2004 and sentenced for "resisting officers of the law while doing their duty." In February 2005, Lien was transferred to the Bien Hoa Mental Hospital after suffering from a severe mental breakdown. Since that time there was been some recovery. She has begun to speak again and is beginning to remember the severe torture she faced; including drug injections, severe beatings, food deprivation, verbal abuse and more. She has begun to recognize her parents. Her father reports that among the first words spoken to them were, "I am now in great suffering from the top of my head to the extremities of my body. Father, please pray for me. I am very tired." He wrote, "And so I comforted my daughter by praying to our Lord Jesus."
Pray that there will be no delays in her release. Pray for the long journey of recovery ahead: physical, mental and spiritual. Sources close to her have said, "Without God's help she will never be the same again."
Continue to intervene on behalf of two other Mennonite workers still in prison: Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang and Pham Ngoc Thach. The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada recently released a video news report about the Mennonite Six through their multimedia website, www.vomcanada.com. This video includes testimony from former prisoners and family members, such as the wife of Pastor Quang.
Concerned Christians are encouraged to write Vietnamese authorities. An advocate's pack, along with more information on the persecution of Christians in Vietnam, is available through our website.
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