Stocking was released from police custody after about two and a half hours, requiring four stitches on the back of his head for a gash caused by the assault.
John Daniszewski, the AP's managing editor for international news, protested Stocking’s treatment, saying "It is an egregious incident of police abuse and unacceptable treatment of a journalist by any civilized government authority."
The U.S. Embassy has also reportedly filed a formal statement of protest with Vietnam’s Foreign Ministry.
The police and government have started ratcheting up their use of aggressive techniques over the past two days.
On Wednesday the Redemptorists reported that the People’s Committee of Hanoi had invited them to discuss the dispute. At the meeting, the Redemptorists stated they had received four documents from the committee purporting to prove that the disputed land at Thai Ha Church had been donated to the government by Father Vu Ngoc Bich in 1961.
However, the documents were contradictory and of questionable authenticity. Two documents said that the priest had donated the land on Oct. 24, 1961, while one reported the date as Nov. 24, 1961 and another as Jan. 30, 1961.
“Also,” Fr. An Dang told CNA, “the papers showed characters in a Unicode font that could not have been available in 1961, as computers simply did not exist at that time.”
During the meeting between the Redemptorists and the People’s Committee of Hanoi, committee vice chairman Vu Hong Khanh addressed the differences by saying “I will sort them out and among them, choose the best.”
He reportedly claimed that the clergy would have no way to challenge the ownership of the land and also told the clergy how to preach to their flock.
Finding himself being harshly ridiculed, one priest stood up and asked Khanh not to teach him how to be a priest.