Hoat, editor and publisher of the pro-democracy newsletter Freedom Forum, was sentenced to 20 years of hard labor in late March 1993 for his involvement with the newsletter. He is currently serving out his sentence, commuted to 15 years on appeal, in Thanh Cam prison. Located in northern Vietnam, near the Laotian border, Thanh Cam is normally reserved for serious criminal offenders. Hoat suffers from kidney stones, a condition that developed during his previous 12-year incarceration by the Hanoi regime.