Two
well-known bloggers in Vietnam accused of spreading anti-government propaganda
have denied the charges, their lawyers have told the BBC, while a third has
asked for leniency.
“All Vietnamese media outlets are under state control”
Human rights groups have criticised the action brought against the trio |
BBC 16 April 2012
Nguyen
Van Hai and Ta Phong Tan say they are not guilty of disseminating anti-state
information and materials.
However
the third blogger, Phan Thanh Hai, admitted the charges.
All
Vietnamese media outlets are under state control. The trio are now in custody
awaiting trial.
Lawyers
representing Nguyen Van Hai - who correspondents say is the best known of the
trio - and Ta Phong Tan say that their clients "did not confess and did
not sign the [police] interrogation paper".
Lawyer
Ha Huy Son, defending Nguyen Van Hai, said his client "insisted he did not
violate Vietnamese law".
Another
lawyer, Nguyen Thanh Luong, said his client, Ta Phong Tan always "denied
all the charges".
"Therefore,
I will not ask for a lighter sentence at the trial because it would imply my
client is guilty," he said.
A report
in the Thanh Nien newspaper said that the bloggers posted 421 articles on the
Independent Journalists' Club website between September 2007 and October 2010.
The paper accused them of "distorting the truth, denigrating the party and
state".
The
newspaper said that Phan Thanh Hai and Nguyen Van Hai are also suspected of
attending a training course in 2008 organised by a Vietnamese overseas
political party, Viet Tan.
Viet Tan
is considered by the Vietnamese government to be a terrorist organisation.
Correspondents
say that Phan Thanh Hai's blog covered various sensitive issues in Vietnam,
including a dispute with China over maritime boundaries, controversial bauxite
projects, a scandal around a debt-laden state-owned shipbuilder and case
studies of famous dissidents.
He was
arrested in Ho Chi Minh City in October 2010. Police confiscated his two
computers and numerous documents and articles printed from the internet.
Nguyen
Van Hai was set to be freed from 30 months' imprisonment for tax evasion in October
2010, but was made to stay in jail because of the new charges.
Before
his arrest in 2008, he took part in anti-Chinese protests over Vietnam's
maritime territorial dispute with Beijing and a demonstration in Ho Chi Minh
City against the Beijing Olympic torch relay.
The blog
of former policewoman Ta Phong Tan denounced corruption and injustice in
Vietnam's legal system.
Human
rights groups including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have
criticised the action brought against the trio.
Amnesty
says that Nguyen Van Hai has lost a lot of weight and is ill. It says that he
is a "prisoner of conscience", detained solely for the peaceful
exercise of his right to freedom of expression.
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