Blogger Truong Duy Nhat was sentenced to two years in prison for “Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon interests of the State, legitimate rights and interests of organisations and/or citizens” at a trial in the central city of Da Nang on March 4.

The charges are stipulated under Clause 2, Article 258 of the Penal Code.

The verdict said Nhat, 50, residing in Hai Chau district, Da Nang city, posted many articles written by himself and several others on his blog between 2009 and May 25, 2013. Eleven of his articles and one post by another person contained untruthful information that distorted the Party’s guidelines and policies and the State laws. They offered a one-sided perspective causing public concern, undermining the public trust in the leadership of the Party and State. These articles attracted over 34,000 views and 483 comments.

Though he was asked to stop posting many times, he continued regardless.-VNA