VietNamNet Bridge – The HCM City People's Court sustained the original custodial sentences given to Nguyen Van Hai and Ta Phong Tan for "conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam" at an appeal court held on Friday, Dec 28.

Nguyen Van Hai (left) and Phan Thanh Hai. (Photo: Internet)

Nguyen Van Hai will serve 12 years in prison and Tan 10 years. Phan Thanh Hai, another defendant in the case, had his prison sentence reduced from four years to three.

The three will also remain on probation for a further three to five years after their incarceration. The sentences were based on Clause 2, Article 88 of the 1999 Criminal Code.

According to the verdict of the trial at the HCM City People's Court on September 24, the three defendants set up the blog "the freelance journalists club" to write, disseminate and store documents distorting the Party and State to sow suspicions and erode people's trust in the administration.

Source: VNS