A Vietnamese pastor who was jailed for his faith has related the intense abuse he experienced in jail, but said that his imprisonment was a 'gift' from God.

Evangelical pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh was charged in 2011 with 'undermining national solidarity' for violating a preaching ban through his ministry in Vietnam's Central Highlands. Chinh had also been an outspoken critic of the government and an advocate for persecuted believers.

He was sentenced to 11 years imprisonment but was released six years early last July, after pressure from the international community, on the condition that he and his family left Vietnam. Now residing in the US, Chinh attended the 20th anniversary meetings  of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), where he described his incarceration.

He told Catholic News Agency on Wednesday, through his translator: 'Even though I suffered physical suffering and pain, I felt in my soul happiness.'

He said he saw the experience as 'God's gift to me. It was like what Jesus Christ went through, the same suffering that his disciples experienced, and now I'm going through the same experience. That is how the good news comes out.'

Chinh told the summit that the state persecution had extended far beyond his individual case. 'In Vietnam's prisons, prisoners of conscience fare worse than common criminals,' he said. 'They are subjected to several measures such as solitary confinement, impurity in water, lack of food, no access to medical care, denied access to their families and are prohibited from other activities with other inmates.

'Since 2000, 127 prisoners of conscience have died from torture or contamination of food or water. Most victims [are] Christians from the southern islands, Hmong Christians from the northwestern region and Buddhists from [the] southwestern region in Vietnam.'

He told the Christian Post: 'The wardens did a lot of beating to the point that many of the prisoners of conscience became ill, injured, handicapped and some of them died.

'They used fists and they also used batons. They beat me on the head, my chest, my leg and arms. I still have injury, a scar on my head.' He also described being locked in tight confinement and having shards of glass put in his food.

Chinh's family had also suffered. Months before his release his wife Tran Thi Hong had been beaten and interrogated for her involvement with the international community supporting her husband.

Chinh told the summit that 'the United States must increase diplomatic pressure and use [country of particular concern] designations and sanctions to pressure Hanoi to release all prisoners of conscience'.

USCIRF has also been advocating on behalf of Andrew Brunson, the US missionary imprisoned in Turkey since 2016. Brunson faces his next hearing in the country on May 7.