One of Vietnam's high-profile political prisoners refused amnesty. Prison guards forced him on a plane anyway
ABCFor almost 16 years Tran Huynh Duy Thuc sat in a Vietnamese prison waiting for freedom. "By default, I became an important supporting act for the president's visit to the US," Mr Thuc wrote on Facebook. According to a spokesperson for the Vietnamese embassy in Australia, the decision to grant amnesty for the prisoners was made by Mr Lam in late July "in alignment with Viet Nam's humanitarian traditions and the leniency policies of the Party and State towards offenders". However, Australia's director at Human Rights Watch Daniela Gavshon said the release of the two political prisoners was a stunt and the modus operandi of a country increasingly cracking down on freedom of expression. Mr Doan said political prisoners like Mr Thuc could not be broken by the regime despite having a real risk of being reimprisoned.
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