Human Rights Watch has called for the release of outspoken church leader Reverend Nguyen Hong Quang who was detained in Vietnam earlier this month.

The organisation believes the arrest - which came after Reverend Quang publicly criticised the Vietnamese Government for detaining four members of a minority Christian church - is part of the government’s “mounting repression” of activists who promote human rights or religious freedoms.

Trained as a lawyer, Reverend Quang is a leader of the banned Mennonite Church in Vietnam. He has previously spoken out against the arrest of religious and political dissidents and publicised the plight of minority Christian churches in the country’s central highlands.

Human Rights Watch report that Reverend Quang was arrested on 8th June on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City.

The New York-based organisation say his arrest follows an earlier incident in March in which police arrested four members of the banned church after a scuffle between church members and paramilitary police.

- DAVID ADAMS