Nguyen Phuong, an environmental activist in Ho Chi Minh City was held for hours and tortured in a police station in Phu Xuan commune, Nha Be district on July 18 after filming the facility, according to local social networks. According to Tin Mung Cho Nguoi Ngheo news website, Phuong, 20-year-old activist often participating in anti-Formosa demonstrations in May-June, and his friend went to the Phu Xuan commune police to request the return of the friend's items which were illegally confiscated by the local police on June 30. Police received his friend but not let Phuong to go inside of the police station. Phuong took his cell phone to film the facility and then policemen detained him and took him to a close room from 2 PM until mid-night without providing him food and drink. At 11 PM, when friends of him came to the police station to request the police to release Phuong, the detainee called for help. Ten policemen, in order to prevent him from shouting out, filled his mouth with a dirty rag and sealed it with tape. They also tied his hands with tape and started to beat the young man until he collapsed on the floor. Later, a police officer came to interrogate Phuong, but the detainee refused to cooperate, just demanding for warrant if they want to arrest him. At mid-night, police released Phuong, advising him not to participate in demonstrations which will harm the country's stability as they said. Phuong said he was beaten by professionals as he felt great pain but the medical check-up found any trace. Phuong is a student in Japan. He returned to the home country during summer holiday and on May 8, he participated in a peaceful demonstration to protest the toxic waste discharge of the Taiwanese Formosa steel plant which caused serious environmental disaster in the country's central coastal region. He was shocked after witnessing police officers and plainclothes violently dispersed protestors. Many activists, including the elderly, female and children, were brutally beaten by security forces. Police abuse is systemic in Vietnam, according to the New York-based Human Rights Watch while the Ministry of Public Security admitted that 226 detainees and suspected people died in police's custody between October 2010 and September 2014, and police said most of their deaths were caused by illness and suicides while social networks and the families of the victims said their deaths were caused by police power abuse. Dozens of people were reported to die in police's custody since beginning of 2014. Few of perpetrators have been punished for their power abuse, state media has reported.