Phan Cong Hai sentenced to 5 years in prison for anti-state propaganda

On the morning of April 28, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial of the criminal case against defendant Phan Cong Hai, who was prosecuted for "Making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".

Overview of the trial.

According to documents collected by the investigating authorities, although young, Phan Cong Hai (born in 1996, residing in Nghi Dien commune, Nghi Loc district), has extremist thoughts, often associating with reactionary and opposing elements. Phan Cong Hai has repeatedly carried out activities that violate national security for a long time and continuously, especially using social networks to propagate against the Party and the State.

Defendant Phan Cong Hai at the first instance trial.

At the first instance trial, the Trial Panel fully and comprehensively considered documents, evidence, opinions of the prosecutor, witnesses, and statements of the defendant...

The trial panel clarified the criminal acts of defendant Phan Cong Hai: Taking advantage of democratic freedom in using personal Facebook, Hai used Facebook accounts named "Hung Manh", "Ugly Vietnamese", "David Nguyen"... to create, store and disseminate documents with the following contents: distorting, defaming the people's government, fabricating, causing confusion in the people's psychology, causing psychological warfare against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam; posting 54 articles, many video clips, images distorting the policies, laws of the Party and State; creating distorted, offensive, and false images of the actions and activities of agencies, cadres, civil servants, leaders of the Party and State, political and social organizations; inciting opposing thoughts; posting distorted and fabricated images to cause conflicts between people and public agencies; posting images insulting the National Flag and leaders; posting articles insulting Party and State leaders, calling for opposition to the leadership of the Party and State of Vietnam...

The panel of judges at the first instance trial concluded that the defendant Phan Cong Hai had committed the crime of “Making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents and items against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”. The defendant’s actions need to be severely punished to warn those who take advantage of democratic freedom, reactionary and discontented elements who seek every way to propagate against the State, causing confusion among the masses, therefore, it is necessary to severely punish and isolate the defendant from society for a period of time.

At the investigation agency as well as at the trial, Phan Cong Hai honestly confessed his crimes.

For the above reasons, the Trial Panel sentenced the defendant Phan Cong Hai to 5 years in prison, the term of imprisonment calculated from the date of detention; additional punishment, probation for the defendant for 3 years from the date of completion of the prison sentence.