Trial of subjects of anti-state propaganda
Nguyen Van Hai (left), Ta Phong Tan (right)
According to the Trial Panel, the defendants' criminal acts were particularly serious, continuous, prolonged, clearly exposed, and had a negative impact on national security as well as the image of Vietnam.
At the trial as well as at the investigation agency, defendant Phan Thanh Hai admitted and repented of his crime, and requested leniency. Nguyen Van Hai and Ta Phong Tan stubbornly refused to admit to the actions as alleged in the indictment.
Maintaining the prosecution viewpoint of the indictment, the representative of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy exercising the right to prosecute said that the criminal activities of the defendants were tightly organized, had specific assignments, and had connections and collusion with reactionary organizations of Vietnamese exiles and hostile forces.
The defendants took advantage of freedom of speech, freedom of democracy, used information technology, and applied the Internet to create the blog “Free Journalists Club” to communicate, exchange, write, disseminate, and store documents, distort the truth, and slander the Party and the State; with the aim of causing suspicion and undermining people’s trust in the regime; and took advantage of attracting and encouraging elements with opposing ideology to build and prepare forces, and when the opportunity arose, they would overthrow the government.
After deliberation, the Trial Council sentenced Nguyen Van Hai to 12 years in prison and 5 years of local probation after completing his prison term; Ta Phong Tan to 10 years in prison and 3 years of probation; Phan Thanh Hai to 4 years in prison and 3 years of probation./.
According to VNA-M
