Hanoi, July 9, (dpa/GNA) – A Vietnamese court on Friday jailed a high-profile former journalist for “anti-state propaganda,” his lawyer told dpa.
Hanoi People’s Court sentenced Pham Chi Thanh to five and a half years in prison followed by five years of house arrest at a closed-door trial, his lawyer Ha Huy Son said.
“He was charged with ‘making, storing, disseminating or propagandizing information, materials and products that aim to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’,” Son said.
“Thanh rejected the indictment, saying he did not break the law,” his lawyer said, adding that the court took note his words but did not accept his defence.
The retired journalist, who worked for the Voice of Vietnam, regularly expressed his support for democracy, openly criticizing the Communist Party and the government over corruption concerns and wrongdoings.
He quit the Communist Party after 41 years, saying it maintained a dictatorship and lacked democracy.
In 2019, he published a book including a collection of writings that criticized party Chief Nguyen Phu Trong for being too close to China.
“During 2019, so many people praised Mr Trong for his doings so I tried to criticize him to see how things were going,” Son quoted Thanh as saying at the trial.
“Pham Chi Thanh is among a long list of Vietnamese dissidents prosecuted for nothing more than their written words,” said John Sifton, Asia director of Human Rights Watch. “There are no allegations that he has committed a recognizable offence under international human rights law.”
Vietnam, a communist state of 96 million that right groups criticize for being intolerant of dissent, regularly detains social media users for posting “anti-state” content.
GNA