the security police from the province of Phu Yen summoned the wife of Rahlan Hen...

the security police from the province of Phu Yen summoned the wife of Rahlan Hen, a Degar Christian, because he was sick. But when she arrived to the prison facility in the province of Phu Yen, the security police informed her that her husband was already dead. Rahlan Hen’s wife then begged the security police to allow her to take her husband’s corpse back home, but the security police refused. They told her “he has been sentenced to 6 years in prison so you can come back and pick up his bones in three more years after he had finished his prison term.” Rahlan Hen was a simple man who belonged to the Degar church in his village of Ploi Beng, commune of Ia Cia, district of Ia Grai, province of Gia Lai. His troubles all began when he refused to join Siu Kim’s church, which is the government sanctioned church. Rahlan Hen was arrested on June 14, 2006, and taken to the Ia Grai prison facility, where the security police repeatedly beat and tortured him; they kicked, punched, stomped on and shocked him with electric rods. Rahlan Hen was sentenced to prison for 6 years and was then transferred to the T-20 facility in Pleiku. He was later transferred to another prison facility in the province of Phu Yen. When his wife went to see him at the Phu Yen province prison, one of his legs was paralyzed and he could barely walk.