On 27 October 2010, Vi Duc Hoi, democracy activist and member of Bloc 8406, a pro-democracy network of human rights defenders and organisations was arrested, immediately ahead of an ASEAN summit. Prior to his arrest public security officials had raided his home on 7 October 2010. At that time he was detained and interrogated for one week On 26 January 2011, he was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for "spreading anti-government propaganda" (Article 88 of the Penal Code) for posting copies of pro-democracy articles online. The trial was closed to media. On 26 April 2011, Hoi's sentence was reduced by an appeals court to five years in prison, followed by three years' house arrest. Hoi had written extensively about corruption and injustice in Vietnam. Vi Duc Hoi, 56, is a writer and blogger from the remote province of Lang Son in northern Vietnam near the China border. He is an ethnic Tay, the largest minority group in Vietnam. His essays on democracy, pluralism, and human rights and his qmemoir, Facing Reality, My Path to Joining the Democratic Movement (Doi Mat: Duong di den voi phong trao dan chu), have been widely circulated on the Internet. Hoi quietly started supporting calls for respect of human rights and greater democracy in 2006, while still holding important positions in the party and government apparatus in Lang Son. He was the head of the Committee for Propaganda and a member of the Party's Standing Committee of Huu Lung district. After his changing views became known, he was expelled from the party, subject to orchestrated public denunciation sessions, and detained and interrogated. He then publicly affiliated with the dissident To Quoc (Fatherland) bulletin. Hoi joined the Communist Party in 1980 and held key positions within the organization. But he was expelled from the party in 2007 after he started calling for democratic reforms. He was previously arrested in April 2008 for his part in protesting the Beijing Torch Relay in Vietnam, and was publicly denounced by a 300-strong party rally the following June. Hoi was previously arrested in April 2008 for his part in protesting the Beijing Torch Relay in Vietnam. On 12 June 2008, during a Communist Party rally, Hoi was publicly denounced, accused of treason, and threatened with expulsion from his hometown. His wife was dismissed from the Communist Party as a result of her "inability to educate her husband". Since joining Bloc 8406 Hoi has been denied his health insurance and pension.