The Hanoi People’s Court on Sept. 10 opened a trial for Nguyen Vu Binh, an independent journalist, and blogger who extensively writes about democracy and social issues, and sentenced him to seven years on charges of “distributing anti-state propaganda” under the controversial Article 117 of the Penal Code. Binh was a former journalist at the Communist Journal (Tạp chí Cộng sản), an official mouthpiece of the Communist Party. According to Radio Free Asia (RFA), he had three defense lawyers, Le Dinh Viet, Le Van Luan, and Nguyen Thi Trang. Binh’s sister, Nguyen Thi Phong, and his daughter were allowed to witness the trial.

Nguyen Vu Binh was arrested on Feb. 29 in Hanoi, along with activist Nguyen Chi Tuyen. According to the indictment, Binh, 55, was accused of participating in a talk show that discussed political, economic, and social issues in Vietnam. The show was published on a YouTube channel called “TNT Media Live,” hosted by the Vietnamese lawyer and former political prisoner Nguyen Van Dai. The court declared that Binh had participated in four video clips uploaded between January and March 2022, which allegedly “contained false information and caused public confusion.”

One of Binh’s lawyers, who requested anonymity, said that the journalist admitted to his activities but rejected the conviction because he only exercised the right to freedom of speech and expression guaranteed in the Vietnamese Constitution and the Convention on Civil and Political Rights that Hanoi has ratified. The lawyer added that Binh would not appeal the sentence because he did not believe in Vietnam’s justice system. Previously, in 2003, Nguyen Vu Binh was convicted under “espionage” charges and sentenced to seven years in prison and three years of probation for sending reports on the human rights situation to international organizations.

Before Binh’s trial, rights advocate Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Sept. 8 urged the Vietnamese authorities to “drop all charges and release” Nguyen Vu Binh. The arrest and trial of Binh have become the latest example of repression that occurred after police general To Lam assumed his new position as the Vietnamese Communist Party’s general secretary. HRW noted that between April 2016 and May 2024, when To Lam led the security ministry, Vietnamese police “arrested at least 269 people for peacefully exercising their basic civil and political rights.” In 2002 and 2007, HRW awarded Nguyen Vu Binh the Hellmann/Hammett Writers’ Award, dedicated to the activists who faced political persecution.