Thao Moua and Pa Fue Khang are prisoners of concience. Local Amnesty groups including the Ealing Amnesty group are working to put pressure on the Lao authorities to review their case.

Thao Moua and Pa Fue Khang were arrested in June 2003 in Xieng Khouang Province in Laos, with two European journalists and their Hmong interpreter. The journalists had been researching a news story on ethnic Hmong in the Lao jungle. Thao Moua and Pa Fue Khang, both ethnic Hmong, were local guides for the group.

They were all charged with numerous offences and given long sentences after an apparently politically motivated unfair trial. The journalists and interpreter were sentenced to between 10 and 20 years and deported from Laos. Thao Moua and Pa Fue Khang remain in Samkhe prison, Vientiane, serving sentences of 12 and 15 years respectively.

We are calling on the Lao authorities to review  their cases immediately. If there is sufficient evidence against them of wrong doing they should be given a retrial which meets international standards, including a presumption of innocence and the right to legal counsel. 

We are also calling on the authorities to ensure that their conditions of detention meet international standards including access to lawyers, relatives, and appropriate medical care.