Two anti-State agitators had their sentences reduced at the Appeal Court of the People’s Court of southern Long An province on August 16.

Charged with “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, Dinh Nguyen Kha, 25, received a four-year jail term, instead of 8 years’ imprisonment previously given by the lower court. Nguyen Phuong Uyen, a 21-year-old student, had her six-year jail term cut to a three-year suspended sentence and a 52-month probation.

The court heard that Kha, who resided in Ward 6, Tan An city, Long An province and Uyen, who lived in Ham Tri commune, Ham Thuan Bac district, central Binh Thuan province made friends via social network Facebook with Nguyen Thien Thanh, who was living in Thailand, between April and May 2012.

Thanh encouraged the pair to join the so-called “Tuoi tre yeu nuoc” (Patriotic Youth), a reactionary organisation of which Thanh is a member.

On August 31, 2012, Thanh sent Kha three files with different contents to spread in urban and rural areas and roads. Kha was also asked to take four or five photographs to be posted on the Tuoi tre yeu nuoc website.

Indicted by Thanh, Kha and Uyen produced, stored and circulated anti-State documents. In August 2012, they erected a yellow flag with three red stripes, the flag of the former Sai Gon regime, and a banner that defames the Communist Party of Vietnam in public spaces in Tan An city and Ham Tri commune. They took photographs of the scene and sent them to Thanh to publish on the Tuoi tre yeu nuoc website.

On October 10, 2012, the pair scattered leaflets on An Suong flyover in Ba Diem commune, Hoc Mon district, Ho Chi Minh City.

Under the direction of Thanh via the Internet, both Kha and Uyen conducted planned actions against the Vietnamese State.

They were charged with “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” stipulated in Point C, Clause 1, Article 88 of the Penal Code.

Thanh is being hunted by Ho Chi Minh City’s security forces for his involvement in another anti-State case that the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court judged on October 10, 2012.-VNA