Illustrative photo (Source: Reuters) HCM City (VNA) – The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City on May 9 sentenced Bui Hieu Vo from the central province of Ha Tinh to four and a half years in prison for “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”.
According to the indictment, 56-year-old Vo, a resident in Go Vap district, HCM City, made comments and collected documents on the social network to oppose the authorities’ settlement of the Formosa-related marine environmental incident in several central provinces and land compensation in Doi Nhai, the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.
He accessed unofficial, groundless documents online. Since September 2015, Vo had used a Facebook account named “Hieu Bui” to post information distorting, criticizing and opposing policies of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese State, as well as Party and State leaders.
His fabricated information has provoked public unrest, and disrupted political security and social order and safety, the indictment said.
On March 17, 2017, the security agency conducted an urgent check of Vo’s apartment on Nguyen Van Cong street, Go Vap district, where police officers collected 57 documents stored in the Facebook account of “Hieu Bui.”
Similar documents were also found in his laptop and other social accounts and email, along with 36 printed documents.
According to the HCM City Department of Information and Communications, 25 out of the documents have contents defaming and slandering Party and State leaders, and 14 others inciting violence, harming national security and social order and safety.
At the court, Vo admitted his wrongdoings and committed to not repeating such actions.-VNA
VNA
