The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on Monday, September 24, sentenced
three bloggers to between four and 12 years in prison for charges of
“conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
50-year-old blogger Nguyen Van
Hai, alias Dieu Cay, of HCMC’s District 3, was sentenced to 12 years in prison,
while 44-year-old Ta Phong Tan, the assistant to the chief of Phap Quyen Law
Office, and 43-year-old Phan Thanh Hai, alias Ba Saigon, the director of Nhan
Quyen Law Consulting Co Ltd., were given 10 years and 4 years in jail
respectively.
They were sentenced under Clause
2, Article 88 of the 1999 Criminal Code.
Nguyen Van Hai will also have to
serve five years under house arrest after he completes his prison sentence,
while the probation duration after release for both the others is three years.
During the probation terms, all
the three will be deprived of a number of citizens’ rights such as the right to
vote and election and the right to join armed forces.
The defendants’ offence was
extremely serious, causing negative impacts on national security and the image
of Vietnam in the international community, the jury said.
According to the indictment,
Nguyen Van Hai was the leader of the blog “the freelance journalists club"
that was set up for writing, disseminating and storing documents distorting the
Party and State to sow suspicions and undermine people’s trust in the
administration.
Nguyen Van Hai had posted on the
blog 26 articles with contents against the State, while Tan, a member of the
blog, had launched on the Internet 101 materials holding a grudge against the
regime and offending high-ranking officials and State agencies.
Meanwhile, Phan Thanh Hai had
been in charge of the blog’s science and law page and had created another blog
named “Anhbasaigon”. He wrote and posted on these blogs 21 articles that
propagandized against the State and called for a change to the political system
in Vietnam.
Phan Thanh Hai and Nguyen Van Hai
had also taken part in a training course for non-violent struggle held in
Thailand by Viet Tan, a US-based terrorist organization.
TUOI TRE
Business & Investment Opportunities
YourVietnamExpert is a division of Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd, Incorporated in Singapore since 1994. As Your Business Companion, we propose a range of services in Strategy, Investment and Management, focusing Healthcare and Life Science with expertise in ASEAN. Since we are currently changing the platform of www.yourvietnamexpert.com, you may contact us at: sbc.pte@gmail.com, provisionally. Many thanks.
No comments:
Post a Comment