Defendant Tran Van Bang sentenced to 8 years in prison for opposing the State

On May 12, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court opened the first-instance trial of defendant Tran Van Bang (62 years old, residing in Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) for the crime of "Making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents, and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".

According to the prosecution, the Department of Information and Communications of Ho Chi Minh City discovered:

Tran Van Bang used 3 Facebook accounts to post 39 articles with content that propagated, distorted, defamed, spoke ill of the people's government, and provided false information that caused confusion among the people;

Distorting and calling for a boycott of the organization of the election of deputies to the Vietnamese National Assembly so that many other people can see and read the content of these articles, thereby influencing the thoughts, opinions, and ideas of readers, leading to negative behavior, expressing agreement, support, and encouragement for the views expressed by defendant Bang.

At the same time, expressing hatred and dissatisfaction towards the Party, State and leaders.

Defendant Tran Van Bang

In addition, defendant Bang also possessed many documents and books, including four books with propaganda content against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; sabotaged the great national unity bloc; incited war of aggression, and caused hatred among nations and peoples of different countries.

Inciting violence; distorting historical truth; denying revolutionary achievements; slandering and insulting the nation, insulting the prestige of agencies, organizations and the honor and dignity of individuals; insulting celebrities, national heroes, and leader Ho Chi Minh; insulting the prestige and honor of the Communist Party of Vietnam; inciting violence; providing fabricated or untrue information that seriously offends the honor and prestige of the People's Court and the People's Public Security force.

Defendant Tran Van Bang stated that he was provided with some of the above documents by Pham Thi Doan Trang and Pham Chi Thanh.

Previously, in July 2021, Pham Chi Thanh was sentenced by the Hanoi People's Court to 5 years and 6 months in prison for "Making, storing, disseminating or propagating information and documents aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".

In August 2022, the High People's Court in Hanoi held an appeal trial and upheld the first instance sentence of 9 years in prison for Pham Thi Doan Trang for "Propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".

Considering that the defendant Bang's crime is very serious, endangering society and violating national security, it is necessary to deal with it seriously to have the effect of education, deterrence and general prevention.

Therefore, after deliberation, the panel of judges decided to sentence defendant Tran Van Bang to 8 years in prison and 3 years of local probation after completing the prison sentence.