Prosecution of Pham Thi Doan Trang for anti-state propaganda
Pham Thi Doan Trang confirmed that she is the author of the research report on the Law on Belief and Religion. She and a group of authors wrote this report in English, then translated it into Vietnamese and posted it on the website she created.
The People's Procuracy of Hanoi has just issued an indictment to prosecute Pham Thi Doan Trang (born 1978), residing in Cau Giay district, Hanoi, for the crime of "Anti-state propagandaSocialist Republic of Vietnam", as prescribed in Article 88 of the 1999 Penal Code.
According to the indictment, from November 16, 2017 to December 5, 2018, Pham Thi Doan Trang made, stored, and circulated documents and articles with content aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Pham Thi Doan Trang gave interviews to foreign media with content distorting the State's guidelines and policies as well as "defaming the people's government".
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| Pham Thi Doan Trang. |
Specifically, Pham Thi Doan Trang possessed the following documents: "Summary report on Vietnam's marine environmental disaster"; "General assessment of the human rights situation in Vietnam"; "Assessment report on the 2016 Law on Religion and Belief related to the implementation of freedom of religion and belief in Vietnam"...
According to the indictment of the Hanoi People's Procuracy, the above documents contain propaganda content with psychological warfare rhetoric,spread false news, causing confusion among the people, propagating and disseminating information distorting the guidelines and policies of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
During the process of working with the Police Agency, Pham Thi Doan Trang confirmed that she was the author of the research report on the Law on Belief and Religion. The defendant and a group of authors wrote this report in English, then translated it into Vietnamese and posted it on the website she created.
The Hanoi People's Procuracy determined that this defendant had given interviews to foreign radio stations BBC News Vietnamese and Radio Free Asia (RFA), in which she made statements "propagating information that distorts the State's guidelines and policies." Therefore, Pham Thi Doan Trang must bear criminal responsibility for repeatedly creating, storing, and circulating documents with content that opposes the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
Pham Thi Doan Trang was a student at Hanoi Foreign Trade University. From 2000-2002, she was a reporter for Vnexpress Electronic Newspaper; from 2002-2004, she was an employee of HAKI Le Advertising Company; from 2002-2006, she was an employee of VTC Digital Television Company; from 2006-2008, she was a contributor to Vietnamnet Newspaper.
From March 2010 to January 2013, Pham Thi Doan Trang was a reporter for the Ho Chi Minh City Law Newspaper in Hanoi. In January 2013, she left the country for the Philippines without permission and was disciplined and forced to quit her job.
