The sister of Father Nguyen Van Ly, Nguyen Van Hieu, told The Associated Press authorities released him from a prison near Hanoi Monday at 4 a.m. and drove him in an ambulance back to his hometown of Hue.

In 2007, Father Ly was sentenced to 8 years in prison for disseminating anti-government propaganda during a dramatic trial in which police muzzled him for shouting anti-communist slogans and accusing Vietnamese officials of practicing “the law of the jungle.” Father Ly is one of Vietnam's best-known human rights activists.