Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court on Wednesday sentenced Pham Nguyen Thanh Binh, 30, to three years in prison for “spreading propaganda against the Vietnamese government”.
He was also sentenced to another three years under probation. During the probation time, Binh will be deprived of citizenship and all other rights that come with it such as the right to vote and work for state agencies or for the army.
Binh has confessed to all his crimes at the trial and asked for a lighter sentence.
According to the court’s indictment, in 2012, Binh frequently searched for information and materials necessary for his job as a real estate and banking – finance freelance consultant. During that time, he came to know Nguyen Xuan Chau, leader of an exiled reactionary group called “Nguoi Viet vi dan toc Viet” (Vietnamese people dedicated to Vietnam) based in Australia.
After some exchanges, Chau encouraged Binh to write about the political, economic, social issues in Vietnam for him. Chau edited and published them on his blog at Chauxuan…@.com.
From January 1 to May 2012, Binh wrote eight articles in total, whose contents are against the guidelines of the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Vietnamese government. The articles are made-up stories of private lives of several Vietnamese Communist Party leaders and are aimed at inciting the people to act against the government.
According to investigators, Binh admitted that he used materials from the Internet and wrote made-up stories. He tried to make people believe that he was holding crucial information of or worked for the Communist Party of Vietnam and the government. But in fact, Binh was unemployed and no individual or organization provided him with such materials.
Binh confessed that he is not even a member of the said exiled reactionary group.
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