Upholding 10-year prison sentence for anti-state subject

According to the indictment, since the beginning of 2018, Vu Tien Chi (born in 1966; residing at 107/5 Nguyen Cong Tru, Ward 1, Bao Loc City, Lam Dong) regularly sought information from foreign newspapers and websites posted on the internet with content criticizing the policies, guidelines, and lines of the Party and State of Vietnam.distorting history, spoke ill of President Ho Chi Minh and high-ranking leaders of the State and gradually instilled negative and discontented thoughts.

From here, Chi regularly wrote complaints and denunciations against police officers and local authorities with untrue content and images. At the same time, through 2 personal Facebook accounts, Chi posted and shared 338 articles and 181 videos with content distorting and defaming the people's government, insulting and slandering leader Ho Chi Minh and other high-ranking leaders of the Party and State, broadcast live on the internet by Nguyen Thi Cam Thuy, residing in Khanh Hoa province.

Defendant Vu Tien Chi at the appeal hearing.

On June 23, 2020, Chi was prosecuted and temporarily detained by the Lam Dong Provincial Police Department's Security Investigation Agency for the crime of "Making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".

The Security Investigation Agency requested an appraisal of documents, videos and articles seized from Chi's computer and concluded: The documents and videos contained content that distorted the actual situation.defamation of the governmentpeople, slandering the socialist regime with vulgar words; defaming and attacking the policies and laws of the Party and State, spreading untrue information, slandering and fabricating to cause confusion, doubt, anxiety and insecurity among the people; insulting leader Ho Chi Minh, defaming high-ranking leaders of the Party and State.

During the investigation, the police also determined that Chi and Nguyen Thi Cam Thuy intended to gather and attract people with similar views and discontent to establish a "self-proclaimed National Assembly" to replace the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

However, due to disagreements, conflicts and the inability to find a qualified person to build the organization's Platform, Chi and Thuy were unable to carry out their plan.

On March 30, 2021, Lam Dong Provincial People's Court brought the case to trial and sentenced Vu Tien Chi to 10 years in prison. Chi later appealed to review the charges.

At the appeal hearing of the High People's Court held on the morning of December 17, Chi continued to claim that he had not committed any criminal offense, and that the videos he had made public online were a demonstration of his civil rights. Chi continued to show an uncooperative and insincere attitude.

The trial panel rejected the appeal, upheld the first instance judgment, and sentenced Chi to 10 years in prison for “Making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents and items aimed at opposing the Socialist Republic of Vietnam”, and sentenced him to 3 years of probation after completing his prison term./.