VietNamNet Bridge – The People’s Court of Hanoi on August 10 handed down a five-year sentence and four-year probation to Le Thanh Tung on a charge of "carrying out propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam".

The court said this is pursuant to Points A and C, Clause 1, Article 88 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.

According to the verdict, Tung, born in 1968 in Hanoi’s Soc Son District, was found to have written and published on the Internet several articles from August 2009 to October 2011, distorting the truth about Vietnam’s society and authorities, sabotaging the National Party Congress and the elections of the National Assembly and local People’s Councils.

The investigation was conducted at the request of the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications, which held that there were a number of articles by a man who described himself as a reporter for the "Vietnam Freedom and Democracy Movement".

The articles were said to have defamed the administration, demanded a multi-party system - and changes to the nation's constitution.

VNN/VOV/VNA