The family of Australian Chau Van Kham says his mother-in-law is gravely ill and her dying wish is to see him before she passes away.
Mr Chau, a retired baker from Sydney, has been detained in Vietnam since 2019 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison for terrorism in a four-hour trial that human rights observers described as a sham.
He came to Australia as a refugee in the late 1980s and is a member of Viet Tan, a human rights and democracy group that the Vietnamese government has branded as a "terrorist organisation".
Mr Chau, 73, was accused of travelling to Vietnam on a false document and meeting with pro-democracy activists in Ho Chi Minh City.
His mother-in-law, Thi Thao Nguyen, 96, was recently hospitalised in Australia with COVID-19 and developed a lung infection.
Doctors have told the family she has days to live.
"She is currently for comfort care only without additional medical interventions and sadly is expected to pass away in the near future," a letter from Bankstown Hospital circulated by Mr Chau's lawyer read.
"It is being requested for son-in-law Mr Van Kham Chau to be granted entry to Australia so that they may be with her in her final days."
Mr Chau's son, Dennis, said his father and grandmother were very close.
"My grandma helped raise me and my brother, while my parents worked," he said, adding she had lived with the Chaus for at least the past 25 years.
Mr Chau's wife, Trang, said it would mean so much to have her husband by her side during this difficult time.
"I really miss my husband here because I am very saddened that my mum is passing away," she said.
A message about his mother-in-law's condition was conveyed to Mr Chau in a Vietnamese prison, and he was able to contact his wife this week.
"I pray that my mother-in-law can recover," he said, according to his family.
"If she passes, my darling wife and children: do not cry, so she may go peacefully."
He also told them to eat vegetarian for 49 days after her death, as part of a Buddhist custom to ensure she reaches heaven.
Mr Chau's Sydney-based lawyer, Dan Nguyen, said the Vietnamese prison facilities do not have the technology to allow for a zoom call to say final goodbyes, and Mr Chau cannot contact his family in Australia directly by phone, but instead via a relative in Vietnam.
Michael Polak, director of Justice Abroad and a barrister working with Ms Nguyen, said the United Nations working group on arbitrary detention ruled that Mr Chau did not have a fair trial and was forcibly disappeared for months.
"[He] has been imprisoned for his beliefs rather than anything he has done. They [the UN working group] have also ordered Vietnam to release him immediately," Mr Polak said.
"Given this, and Mr Van Kham's age and health problems, the Australian government does not have time to spare in facilitating Mr Chau's release and return to Australia.
"The wishes of Chau's mother-in-law to see him before she passes away only adds to the urgency."
The ABC has approached Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong raised Mr Chau's case with Vietnam's President, Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during her visit to the South-East Asian country last month.
Dennis, who travelled from the UK to be by his grandmother's bedside, said his father's presence would be a great support and comfort for Trang.
"Help us and bring my husband home [to be] with us," Trang said.
"It's very devastating. I think we're all trying to be a bit stronger than we usually are," Dennis added.
"Bring him home to reunite with us as a family as we go through this grief together."
