Thuy, who was arrested on April 21, was released after a sudden and unpublicized trial before the Hanoi People’s Court on January 31. She was sentenced to nine months and 10 days, or time served, on charges of “causing public disorder” under article 245 of Vietnam’s penal code.

Winner of the 2007 prestigious Hellman/Hammett prize for persecuted writers, Thuy, 47, is among close to 40 peaceful activists – including more than 10 women – who have been imprisoned or placed under house arrest during the last 18 months in Vietnam. They include human rights lawyers, opposition party members, underground publishers, independent church activists, cyber-dissidents, and labor union leaders.

“Like the dozens of other peaceful dissidents who have been jailed, Tran Khai Thanh Thuy should never have been arrested in the first place,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. “The Vietnamese government should stop locking people up simply for expressing their views.”

During her more than nine months of detention at Thanh Liet Detention Center (known as B14 Camp) in Hanoi, authorities prohibited Thuy from receiving visits or letters from her family. According to her family, authorities rejected requests that Thuy, who suffers from tuberculosis and diabetes, be transferred to the Dong Da Tuberculosis Center in Hanoi for better medical treatment. Instead, her health worsened and she developed rheumatism after months of sleeping without a blanket on the cement floor of a small cell, when Hanoi’s winter temperatures drop below 7 degrees Celsius (45 degrees Fahrenheit).

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