Vietnam dissident jailed for 5 years
AFP -
06 June 2012
HANOI, - A court in
southern Vietnam sentenced a dissident to five years in prison on Wednesday, an
official said, the latest in a string of convictions of anti-government
activists in the authoritarian nation.
Phan Ngoc Tuan, 53, was found guilty of spreading anti-state propaganda by the
court in Ninh Thuan province which also ordered him to serve three years under
house arrest, a court official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Tuan was charged with distributing anti-state documents and leaflets in Hanoi
and Ho Chi Minh City between April 2010 and his arrest in August 2011.
His prison term will reflect time already served.
According to Kien Thuc, a popular online newspaper, Tuan had received money from
“reactionary groups and individuals” to spread documents defaming the Communist
Party and the Vietnamese state.
Tuan denied the allegations, the report said.
Charges of disseminating anti-state propaganda and attempting to overthrow the
regime are routinely laid against dissidents in a country where the Communist
Party forbids political debate.
Vietnam has recently jailed a number of dissidents under charges of “spreading
anti-state propaganda”.
Last week a court threw out the appeals of two human rights activists against
their jail terms for spreading anti-government propaganda.
Rights groups say the charge is one of many vaguely worded, loosely interpreted
national security crimes used to imprison peaceful political and religious
dissidents in the communist country.