Vietnam jails 2 activists for anti-government propaganda

HANOI, Vietnam – A Vietnamese court in south-central province of Khanh Hoa has sentenced two activists to up to three years in prison for spreading anti-government propaganda.

The official Vietnam News Agency reported Wednesday that Nguyen Huu Quoc Duy, 31, was convicted of posting a dozen articles on his Facebook page that the court said distorted the policies of the Communist Party and government and had called for the overthrow of the government, and was given three years in jail at the one-day trial on Tuesday.

Duy’s cousin, Nguyen Huu Thien An, 21, was found guilty of painting “reactionary” slogans on the wall of a local police station and was sentenced to two years in jail at the same trial.

The defendants’ actions are “very serious, infringing on the strength of the state of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, reversing the people’s confidence in the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam and causing negative impact on the social order,” the agency quoted the judges as saying.

They could have been sentenced to up to 20 years in jail, but the court gave them lighter sentences because they confessed and showed sincere remorse, the agency said.

Court officials declined to comment on Wednesday.

International rights groups and some Western governments have accused Vietnam of using vaguely worded security laws to jail people for peacefully expressing their views, Hanoi has said that only those who break the laws are put behind bars.

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This story has been corrected to show that An’s age is 21.