The Supreme People’s Court maintained the original prison sentence from the first trial of Cu Huy Ha Vu for “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, at an appeal court held in Hanoi on August 2.

The appeal court of the Supreme People’s Court sentenced Cu Huy Ha Vu to seven years imprisonment (calculated from his arrest on November 5, 2010) and a three-year probation period in his residential area after serving his sentence.

The sentence took effect as from the day of sentencing.

The appeal court took place following the order and process of the law. After examining opinions of the procuracy, lawyers’ arguments and the defendant’s answers, the jury came to conclusion from evidence and argumentation at the appeal court, there were enough grounds to reject Cu Huy Ha Vu’s appeal and maintain the first sentence.

The appeal court was chaired by Judge Nguyen Van Son from the Appeal Court of the Supreme People’s Court in Hanoi . The representative from Supreme People’s Procuracy attended the court in power as prosecutor's supervision.

Four lawyers, Vuong Thi Thanh, Tran Dinh Trien, Tran Vu Hai and Tran Quoc Thuan defended the accused at the court.

A number of people from Ba Dinh district, Hanoi , the residential locality of the defendant, some of his family members, related persons, representatives from foreign diplomatic corps, and domestic and foreign reporters attended the court.

According to the verdict of the trial of the Hanoi People’s Court on April 4, 2011, Cu Huy Ha Vu, who was born in 1957 and resided at No. 24, Dien Bien Phu Street, Dien Bien ward in Ba Dinh district of Hanoi, was accused of “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” pursuant to Article 88, Item 1, point c of the Penal Code.

The trial’s verdict concluded that from 2009 to October 2010, Cu Huy Ha Vu had posted many writings and interviews on the Internet and foreign radios with contents against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

These writings and interviews distorted the Party and State’s guidelines and policies, defamed the government and State institutions and blackened the Vietnamese people’s resistance war.

The defendant was charged with “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”./.