Vietnamese activist sentenced to 8 years in jail for Facebook posts

A court in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, on Friday sentenced war veteran and democracy activist Tran Van Bang to eight years in prison and three years probation for posts on Facebook that were deemed anti-state propaganda in a trial that lasted less than three hours.

Tran Van Bang, better known as Tran Bang, is a 62-year-old war veteran who fought during the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War. He had regularly participated in demonstrations against China over its controversial claims to territories in the South China Sea.

He was arrested in March 2022 for what were initially determined to be 31 Facebook posts between March 2016 and August 2021.

Upon further investigation, authorities found that he wrote 39 problematic posts across three Facebook accounts that were seen as “distorting, defamatory, and badmouthing the popular government; provide false information, causing confusion among people; and expressing hatred and discontent towards the authorities, the Party, the state and the leaders of the country,” the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported, citing the indictment.

The posts violated article 117 of the penal code, a vague law that the government has often used to silence dissent.

It was the latest conviction in Hanoi’s ongoing campaign against bloggers and activists. Vietnam has convicted at least 60 of those people under the same article and sentenced them to between four and 15 years in prison, and another 13 to between four and 12 years under the old article 88, because it was the law when it happened. the alleged crime, New York-based Human Rights Watch reported.

During the trial on Friday, Bang claimed that his Facebook accounts had been hacked and that he had not used them in a long time.

But the Prosecutor’s Office rejected the explanation and used the posts on the accounts to convict him.

Tran Dinh Dung, Bang’s defense lawyer, told the FRG Vietnam Service after the trial that freedom of speech is guaranteed in Article 25 of Vietnam’s constitution, and Article 117 does not explain anti-state propaganda.

“The current law does not clarify what is free speech and what is anti-state propaganda,” Dung said. “In addition, some electronic documents and evidence are missing, so I requested that the case file be returned to the prosecution and a verdict be issued only when everything is cleared up.”

trial closed

Two diplomats, from the United States and France, were barred from attending the process. They were made to wait in the courtyard until the conclusion of the trial.

Meanwhile, the relatives were only allowed to watch the proceedings on a television screen from another courtroom.

Bang’s brother, who declined to be named, told RFA the audio of the broadcast cut out several times when the defense lawyer was speaking and got very low when Bang spoke in his own defense.

“The lawyer requested further investigation as some of the investigator’s assessments of the Facebook stories, which were the basis of the allegations, were wrong,” Bang’s brother said.

“The lawyer also said that the grounds for the prosecution were only the point of view of the investigator, and with another point of view, other people may find my brother innocent.”

According to Dung, his client will appeal the verdict. He told the judging panel that Bang suffered from a serious health problem as he had a tumor in his groin area, which had not been determined to be benign or malignant. The verdict noted this information, but also said that it was necessary to wait for the opinion of the Bang Detention Center clinics, Dung said.

“On May 10, I had a working session with the detention center and they told me that their clinic had recommended removing the tumor,” Dung said, adding that bureaucracy is preventing the operation. “If the tumor is malignant, that is, cancer, it would be a very serious health problem.”

Human Rights Watch issued a statement on Thursday Press release Calling on the Vietnamese government to drop all charges against Bang and release him immediately.

Translated by Anna Vu. Edited by Eugene Whong and Malcolm Foster.