Vietnamese blogger sentenced to 10 years in prison for anti-state propaganda

By VnExpress   June 29, 2017 | 05:20 am PT
Blogger 'Mother Mushroom' was found guilty of abusing democratic rights by publishing distorted stories against the state.

A court in the central province of Khanh Hoa on Thursday sentenced Vietnamese blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh to 10 years in prison for anti-state propaganda.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh at the trial on June 29, 2017. Photo by N.X.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh at the trial on June 29, 2017. Photo by N.X.

The 38-year old blogger, known as "Me Nam" (Mother Mushroom), was accused of abusing democratic rights by publishing distorted stories and videos against the government and the Communist Party on her Facebook page from 2012 until her arrest in October 2016.

During the trial, the prosecutors said her posts were one-sided, short-sighted, undermined people's trust in the leadership of the Party and the government, and caused harm to national security as well as social order and safety, according to Vietnam News Agency.

In 2014, Quynh allegedly compiled and published a document named “Stop police killing civilians” based on information she collected from online newspapers about 31 cases of residents dying in police custody or while under investigation.

The document was claimed to have distorted facts and misled readers about the nature of the incidents in order to "offend and defame the police", as well as to "sabotage the relationship between the public and the police."

Quynh was also accused of distorting facts about the country in multiple fields such as history, economics, politics, national defense, diplomacy, law, democracy and human rights in her interviews with foreign media between 2013 and 2016, Vietnam News Agency reported.

 
 
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