Release International

Pastor Pham Ngoc Thach, the last of the so-called Mennonite Six, has been released from jail after two years of abuse and hard labour.

Thach walked free from Z30A prison in Dong Nai province on March 3, to be met by members of his Ho Chi Minh City church and his pastor and fellow inmate Rev Nguyen Hong Quang.

The Vietnamese Mennonite Church immediately issued a statement thanking all those who had 'prayed... and supported our workers imprisoned because of their faith'. The release of the six, two of whom were set free before their sentences were up, would not have happened without people praying and campaigning on their behalf, it said.

It also called on the Vietnamese authorities to 'cease their abusive and oppressive actions towards religious organisations in general and the Mennonite church in particular'.

Since his release, Thach has been detailing his treatment in jail. He was held in up to four prisons in different provinces. He was abused and tortured, both by his guards and by other prisoners acting on orders from the prison authorities, according to Compass. The Voice of the Martyrs Australia reports that he was also forced to do hard labour, which included digging graves for those who died in jail.

His health has suffered considerably: he has had serious back pain and lost some sight in one eye. Despite all this, he still claims his innocence and remains defiant: 'I am not afraid of telling the truth.'

Thach, who was convicted of 'resisting an officer doing his duty', was arrested in 2004 along with five other members of the Vietnamese Mennonite Church, after challenging undercover police agents who were staking out their church. According to church officials, Thach and colleagues had merely insisted that police investigations should follow the correct legal procedure.

At the time of his arrest, Thach was working as an assistant to Rev Quang and as an advocate for religious rights on the legal committee of the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship.

• Thank God for the release of Pham Ngoc Thach at the appointed time -- and pray for his physical, emotional and spiritual recovery from his ordeal.
• Pray that the Vietnamese authorities would now give Thach and the rest of the Vietnamese Mennonite Church some respite from the harassment to which they have been subjected for the past two years.

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