The People’s Court of southern An Giang province on December 21 sent five local people to jail for conducting “anti-State propaganda” under Article 88 of the Penal Code.

The defendants at the court

Nguyen Tan An, born in 1992, will serve five years in prison, while the four-year imprisonment was given to Huynh Thi Kim Duyen, 1979, and Nguyen Ngoc Quy, 1992,  and a three-year jail term to Pham Van Trong, 1994, and Nguyen Thanh Binh, 1994.

All of them will be put under house arrest in two years after they finish their terms.

According to the verdict, Chau Doc city’s policemen detected the yellow flags with three horizontal red stripes of the old US-backed Saigon regime flying in several places in the city on April 25.

Nguyen Tan An was arrested on April 30 with many objects related to the production of the flag of the old Saigon regime.

That arrest led the investigators to the arrest of four others, who admitted that they established secret groups on social networks serving the making and distribution of the flag of the old Saigon regime in Chau Doc city.

At the trial, the defendants admitted that they have been affected by distorted and biased information posted on the Internet that led them to commit these law violations.

Acknowledging their sincere declarations, the provincial People’s Court sentenced the defendants with the lowest penalty framework for the charge for conducting anti-State propaganda.

The sentence was a deterrent and showed the clemency of the State’s law.-VNA