Court upholds verdict on anti-State instigator Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh

Khanh Hoa (VNA) – The Da Nang-based Council of Judges of the Vietnam Supreme People’s Court on November 30 upheld a 10-year imprisonment sentence for Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, aka facebooker “Me Nam”, who was convicted of propagandising against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam under Article 88 of the Penal Code.

The appeal trial took place in Nha Trang city, the central province of Khanh Hoa.

Quynh, born in 1979, resided in Vinh Phuoc ward of Nha Trang city. She was taken into custody by the Investigation Security Agency of the Khanh Hoa Department of Public Security on October 10, 2016.

According to the indictment, from 2012 to October 2016, she used her personal Facebook page to draft, post and share many stories with false and groundless contents that distorted, criticised and defamed the guidelines and policies of the Communist Party of Vietnam and law of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, falsified Vietnam’s revolutionary history, and split the national unity bloc.

Those stories stirred up public worries and affected people’s trust in the Party’s leadership and the State’s governance and management of society, and incited people to resist the State, thus harming national security and social order and safety.

From 2013 to 2016, Quynh also gave many interviews to foreign press and media outlets, in which she distorted the domestic situation in terms of history, economy, politics, defence, diplomacy, law, democracy, and human rights, the indictment said.

In 2014, she created and posted a file of documents named “Stop police killing civilians” with hostile stance and viewpoints against the People’s Public Security force.

Quynh, for many times, organised or took part in activities and events which aimed to incite people to oppose the State. She also kept at her house some publications with content distorting the socialist regime ad inciting people to sabotage the great national unity bloc, according to the indictment.

At the appeal trial, Quynh admitted all the violations but she said the actions did not mean to oppose the State.

The lawyers at the trial also focused on this point to defend Quynh.

However, the Council of Judges said basing on the defendant’s statements and confessions during the investigation, evidence and documents of the case, arguments at the trial, along with opinions of procurators, the defendant, and the lawyers, it concluded that the verdict issued at the first instance trial is not wrong.

Therefore, under Clause 1 of Article 88 of the Penal Code, the court upheld the 10-year jail sentence for Quynh for conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.-VNA