The defendants at the court (Photo: VNA) HCM City (VNA) - The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City on January 5 sentenced Pham ChiDung to 15 years in prison for making, storing, and spreadinginformation, documents, and items for the purpose of opposing the State of theSocialist Republic of Vietnam.
Afterserving his sentence, he will be placed under home probation for three yearsand must return all illegal earnings from writing stories for and being interviewedby foreign media outlets in an attempt to change Vietnam’s political institutions.
Dung’s twoaccomplices - Nguyen Tuong Thuy and Le Huu Minh Tuan - were sentenced to 11years in jail each on the same charges.
Authorisedagencies concluded that the contents of 25 stories from Dung, five from Thuy,and six from Tuan distorted and defamed the people’s administration andfabricated information to harm the prestige of the Communist Party of Vietnam andundermine the Vietnamese State.
Dung was identifiedas the mastermind. According to the indictment from the HCM City People’sProcuracy, he founded a so-called “Hoi nha bao doc lap Viet Nam” (Vietnameseindependent journalists’ association) and established the “Vietnam Thoi Bao”(Vietnam Times) website and blog to publish propaganda and distortedinformation on the policies of the Party and laws of the State.
The boardof judges said the acts of the defendants are extremely serious and dangerousto society as they abetted malcontents and political opportunists in erodingthe people’s trust in the Party and State and caused public concern. They weredeemed to have deliberately committed the crimes.
Dung wasarrested by HCM City's police on October 21, 2019, while Thuy was detained onMay 23, 2020 and Tuan on June 12, 2020./.
VNA
