Two-year imprisonment kept for blogger infringing State interest
The appeal court of the Supreme People’s Court, during its hearing in central Da Nang city on June 26, rejected the appeal lodged by blogger Truong Duy Nhat and upheld his two-year imprisonment sentence for the charge of "abusing freedoms to infringe upon interests of the State, legitimate rights and interests of organisations and/or citizens."
The charges are stipulated under Clause 2, Article 258 of the Penal Code.
According to the indictment issue at his initial trial on March 4, Nhat, 50, a resident of Da Nang’s Hai Chau District, had published a number of articles written by himself and others on his blog, between 2009 and May 25, 2013.
Twelve of the items reportedly contained untruthful information that distorted the Party and State’s guidelines, policies and laws.
The indictment said the articles had offered a one-sided perspective, causing public concern and undermining the public trust in the leadership of the Party and State.
The articles attracted more than 34,000 views and received 483 comments.
Nhat was found to have persisted in publishing the articles, despite repeated requests to stop the offences.