Vietnam arrests another Facebook blogger for anti-state propaganda

• Vietnam arrests Facebooker accused of distorting facts, defaming police
• Blogger sentenced to five years in prison for 'smearing' state

Police in Ho Chi Minh City arrested a man for disseminating information designed to undermine the government on Wednesday.

Ho Van Hai who is known by his Facebook name “Ho Hai” was arrested Wednesday night for distributing documents and information designed to undermine the state from a house in Thu Duc District.

Colonel Nguyen Sy Quang, a spokesman of the HCMC police force, said Hai had used “distorted” information to cause the public to lose trust in the government.

The 52-year-old doctor shows signs of having violated a Penal Code provision prohibiting “propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,” Quang said, adding that police have been monitoring Hai's online activities for some time and only arrested him after they caught him in the act.

Facebooker Ho Van Hai in a file photo.

The city police said they will investigate further to clarify his violations.

Hai is the second Facebook blogger Vietnam has arrested in a month.

On October 10, police in the central province of Khanh Hoa arrested Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 37, after accusing her of publishing distorted posts and videos designed to denigrate the government and the Communist Party on a blog and Facebook page she has run since 2012.

In March, the People’s Court of Hanoi sentenced blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh and his assistant Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy to five and three years in prison each for blogging against the state. An appeals court upheld the sentences in September.

Related news:

>Vietnam arrests Facebooker accused of distorting facts, defaming police

>Blogger sentenced to five years in prison for 'smearing' state