Vietnamese court upholds blogger's 10-yr jail term: lawyer

A court in Vietnam on Thursday upheld a 10-year jail sentence handed down to a blogger convicted of publishing anti-state propaganda, her lawyer said.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, 37, known as "Me Nam" (Mother Mushroom), was found guilty in June for distributing what police called anti-state reports on Facebook.

She was arrested in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years behind bars, and a court in the central coastal town of Nha Trang upheld her sentence.

Under Vietnam’s Penal Code, anti-government propaganda is a crime punishable by up to 20 years in jail. 

On Monday, 22-year-old Nguyen Van Hoa was sentenced to seven years in jail for sharing notes and images against the government on social media. Videos that he shared following the toxic spill caused by Formosa ignited local protests and were deemed to have complicated public security by police.

Last month, the country sentenced 24-year-old Phan Kim Khanh to six years in jail for posting fabricated information on social media, according to the court verdict. In July, blogger Tran Thi Nga, 40, was sentenced to nine years in prison for posting anti-state propaganda videos on the internet.