37 US Senators Urge Vietnam to Free Imprisoned Priest

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/02/world/asia/02vietnam.html?_r=1

Maran Turner, the executive director of Freedom Now, said Father Ly’s case and similar ones involving other religious figures should mean that Vietnam was placed on a United States government list of “countries of particular concern” for violations of religious freedom.

The United States, which put Vietnam on that list in 2004, lifted the designation before President George W. Bush visited Hanoi in November 2006.

Michael Cromartie, vice chairman of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, was permitted to visit Father Ly in prison in May. Father Ly was “in solitary confinement for reasons that are not clear,” Mr. Cromartie said.