Trần Vũ Anh Bình and four political prisoners at the Xuyen Moc Prison in Vietnam have entered Day 7 of a hunger strike which started on March 11, according to The 88 Project. Trần Huỳnh Duy Thức, Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng, Đinh Nguyên Kha, and Liêu Ly are protesting with Bình against human rights violations perpetrated by the prison staff and administration, according to Trần Huỳnh Duy Thức’s Facebook page, which is managed by his family.

Trần Vũ Anh Bình (bottom-left) is among five prisoners involved in a collective hunger strike against prison conditions (Facebook.)

Specifically, the inmates maintain they are protesting two prison cadres: Colonel Lê Văn Tuất, assistant superintendent of the prison, and Cadre Nguyễn Văn Bộ, for basic prisoners’ rights violations like prohibiting Nguyễn Hoàng Quốc Hùng from receiving a copy of his own appeal for the case from his family, and he and Trần Vũ Anh Bình being moved to solitary confinement cells for protesting the installation of cameras in their cells.

Nguyên Kha has reportedly not been allowed to share food with a fellow inmate without an application, and was disciplined with a “warning,” and Trần Huỳnh Duy Thức not allowed to mail certain letters to his family nor submit a formal complaint, and his calls with family were cut short when human rights became a topic of discussion.

Trần Vũ Anh Bình, a Vietnamese musician, was sentenced to six years in prison and two years of house arrest in 2012 for producing music with Vo Minh Tri (aka Viet Khang) that criticized the violence and police brutality committed towards peaceful anti-China protests. He was arrested for “anti-state propaganda.”

One of their songs, shared online accompanied with images of police brutality, “Where is My Country?” asks the following questions of Vietnam’s government:

“Where is your nationalism?
Why consciously take orders from China?
You will leave a mark to last a thousand years,
Your hands will be stained with the blood of our people.”

The singer is scheduled to remain in prison until October 2018, followed by two years of house arrest. The Voice Project continues to support Trần Vũ Anh Bình as part of its Imprisoned For Art campaign. You can add your name in solidarity here.

We will continue to provide updates on this story as it develops.