Vietnam: blogger sentenced to 8-year jail
Event- Country
- Viet Nam
- Initial Date
- May 5, 2022
- Event Description
Tran Hoang Huan was sentenced to eight years in prison plus three years of home surveillance for postings on Facebook that allegedly violated Article 117 of the Criminal Code. Huan, 34, was accused of making 186 posts and 60 statuses that “distort and defame the people’s government,” and 21 articles that “are lies which created confusion among the citizens.” The trial, which was televised, did not appear to show any lawyer representing Huan.
On May 5, the People’s Court of the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang convicted a local citizen named Tran Hoang Huan of “conducting anti-state propaganda” under Article 117 of the Criminal Code for his online posting. During a short trial which lasted a few hours, the court sentenced him to eight years in prison and three years of probation. Huan, who was arrested on April 8 last year, was accused of disseminating 186 articles on Facebook from early September 2020 to early April 2021 with the content criticizing the regime and defaming its leadership.
Before being arrested, in 2020, he was fined VND12.5 million ($560) for posting articles on Facebook unwanted by the regime. He was also summoned to a police station many times where he was forced to pledge not to post critical statuses, according to the state-controlled media.
- Impact of Event
- 1
- Gender of HRD
- Man
- Violation
- (Arbitrary) Arrest and Detention
- Judicial Harassment
- Rights Concerned
- Freedom of expression
- Online
- Right to liberty and security
- Freedom of expression
- HRD
- Blogger/ Social Media Activist
- Perpetrator-State
- Judiciary
- Source
- Monitoring Status
- Pending
- Event Location
Latitude: 10.349566783381604
Longitude: 106.35018748973698
- Event Location
- Summary for Publications
On 5 May 2022, Tran Hoang Huan, blogger, was sentenced to 8-year prison on anti-state propaganda charges after a few hours trial, for online criticising the regime by a court in Tien Giang Province, Viet Nam.