The Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court sentenced three women to prison for anti-State propaganda at a trial on March 30.

Defendant Nguyen Thi Tri (Centre) (Photo: sggp)

According to the jury panel, Ngo Thi Minh Uoc (born in 1959) along with Nguyen Thi Tri and Nguyen Thi Be Hai (both born in 1958) made, stored and distributed anti-State documents.

They were found guilty of anti-State propaganda as stipulated in Article 88 of the Penal Code.

Ngo Thi Minh Uoc from Tien Giang province received a total prison sentence of four years and three months. The three-month imprisonment is the sentence in another verdict given by the People’s Court of southern Binh Phuoc province.

She will also be kept under surveillance at her place of residence for three years after her imprisonment expires.

Uoc also has two previous convictions for intentionally causing injuries and disturbing public order.

Each of her accomplices, Tri (from Binh Duong province) and Hai (from Tay Ninh province), will be jailed for three years and under surveillance at their places of residence for two years.

The imprisonment periods are calculated as from July 7, 2014.

At the trial, Uoc confessed that she induced her accessories to come to her house on July 3, 2014 and make five big flags and 50 smaller ones (with the aim of distributing them to other people) along with many anti-State banners. The flags and banners were used in a demonstration four days later.

The three defendants said they conducted the activities on their own and were not incited by anyone.

According to the indictment, police of Ben Thanh ward in HCM City’s District 1 arrested Uoc, Tri and Hai in the morning of July 7, 2014 while they were waving flags that were not Vietnam’s national flag, holding banners and chanting anti-State slogans in the downtown area of the city.

Police searched their houses and seized a number of exhibits with anti-Party and State content.

Uoc, Tri and Hai repeatedly gathered to spread anti-State messages after their land-related claims in Binh Phuoc, Binh Duong and Dong Thap provinces were not resolved as they had wanted.

They were previously involved in many illegal demonstrations in HCM City and were fined for disturbing public order. However, they refused to pay the fines and continued to commit violations.-