The People's Court of Hanoi city imposed a six-year prison sentence on a local man for making, storing, disseminating or propagating information, documents or materials aiming to oppose the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, at a first-instance trial on September 10.

According to the indictment, Hoang Tung Thien, born in 1978 in Phuong Canh ward, Nam Tu Liem district, has used his Facebook account to post information defaming several organisations and individuals since April 2023. His writings got lots of likes and negative comments.

In October last year, Thien created two websites, namely “Uoc mo Viet” and “Dang doan.org”, to post his writings and viewpoints on pluralism and multiparty mechanism. He also inveigled other people to join his group, which was planned to be developed into two stages, with the first one to develop the free speech movement, and the other to establish Lac Hong party. To date, no one has joined his group.

The Investigation Security Agency of the Hanoi Department of Public Security seized Thien’s 78 writings, 33 documents on “Dang doan.org” and over 200 pages of printed documents.

The municipal Department of Information and Communications said Thien’s documents distorted and defamed organisations and individuals, and spread the propaganda of psychological warfare rhetoric, causing panic among the public.

At the investigation agency and the trial, Thien admitted to creating and posting the harmful materials./.VNA