Appeals court reduces penalty on man charged with anti-state activities

Hoa Binh (VNA) – The Hanoi High-level People’s Court has reduced the sentence given by the Hoa Binh People’s Court to Dao Quang Thuc for conducting “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration” under Clause 1, Article 79 of the 1999 Penal Code.

At an appeal trial held on January 17 with Thuc’s plea for commuted penalty, the defendant and his lawyer presented mitigating factors to the judge.

Considering that Thuc had made significant achivements while working as a primary school teacher and that his family had contributed to the country’s revolutionary movement, the court decided to mitigate the 14-year prison sentence down to 13 years.  

Earlier, the Hoa Binh People’s Court sentenced Thuc to 14 years in prison and a five-year surveillance at the locality after finishing his prison term.

According to the indictment, Thuc, born in 1960 and residing in Toan Son commune of Da Bac district, is a former teacher at Trieu Phuc Lich Primary School in Da Bac district. He has committed many violations of the law over time and often undermined solidarity at his place of work and within the local community, forcing local authorities to take action.

After that, he became discontented and conducted sabotage activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration. Thuc used his two Facebook accounts and email to contact domestic and overseas reactionary forces. He also posted and shared many articles and comments with anti-State content.

Thuc joined the “Chinh phu Quoc Gia Viet Nam lam thoi” (Provisional National Government of Vietnam) group, a reactionary and terrorist organisation that aims to eradicate the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam via armed riots. He carried out many activities and wrote many articles with anti-State content to send to this organisation.

State agencies warned Thuc about those activities many times, and he also pledged to stop such actions and not take part in reactionary organisations. However, Thuc still continued anti-State activities and even colluded with others to plan terror attacks targeted at senior officials of Thanh Hoa and Hoa Binh provinces, the indictment said.

Searching Thuc’s house, police seized many pieces of evidence relating to his anti-State activities. On July 11 last year, the Hoa Binh People’s Procuracy prosecuted him for conducting “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration”.   

At the first-instance trial, the defendant admitted all of his violations. –VNA