Proposal to sentence defendant Nguyen Huu Vinh to 5-6 years in prison

The People's Procuracy affirmed that there is sufficient basis to prosecute the two defendants under Article 258 of the Penal Code. Accordingly, the People's Procuracy proposed sentencing blogger Anh Ba Sam to 5-6 years in prison.

On the morning of March 23, the representative of the People's Procuracy proposed to sentence defendant Nguyen Huu Vinh (aka blogger Anh Ba Sam) to 5-6 years in prison for the crime of "Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and citizens."

On March 23, the Hanoi People's Court brought defendants Nguyen Huu Vinh (aka blogger Anh Ba Sam, born in 1956, residing in Dong Da district, Hanoi) and Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy (born in 1980, residing in Ba Dinh district, Hanoi) to trial for the crime of "Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and citizens" under Article 258 of the Penal Code.

Defendant Nguyen Huu Vinh, alias blogger Anh Ba Sam.

The panel of judges consisted of three members, with Judge Nguyen Van Pho presiding. Two prosecutors from the Hanoi People's Procuracy exercised the right to prosecute at the trial. Seven lawyers were also present at the court this morning to defend the two defendants.

After completing the procedures and checking the defendants' identities, entering the questioning session, the representative of the People's Procuracy announced the indictment against the two defendants.

Next, the panel of judges began the interrogation. During the interrogation, the panel of judges decided to isolate the two defendants for questioning.

After the interrogation, the trial entered the debate phase. At the beginning of the debate, the Procuracy presented its opinion on the charges against the two defendants Nguyen Huu Vinh and Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy.

In the part stating the opinion of the indictment, the People's Procuracy proposed that defendant Vinh be sentenced to 5-6 years in prison. Defendant Minh Thuy was proposed to be sentenced to 24-30 months in prison.

The trial this morning paused at the defense of the lawyers.

According to the indictment, defendant Vinh created the blog Chep su viet and the blog Dan quyen. After creating these two blogs, defendant Vinh provided the access password and shared with defendant Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy some administrative rights for these two blogs such as: the right to write articles, the right to edit articles, the right to delete articles, the right to post articles to the blog, the right to censor comments, etc.

According to the indictment, in addition to directing and exchanging information by phone, defendant Vinh also directed Minh Thuy to edit and post articles, and approved the display of comments on these two blogs via email.

From the time the blog was created until the two defendants were arrested by the police, the Dan Quyen blog posted 2,014 articles, while the Chep Su Viet blog posted 383 articles.

According to the conclusion of the Ministry of Information and Communications, 24 articles contained false and baseless content, distorting the Party's policies and the State's laws, defaming individuals, affecting the reputation of agencies and organizations, presenting a one-sided pessimistic view, causing confusion and anxiety, affecting the people's trust in the leadership of the country by the Party, Government, National Assembly and State./.

According to VOV