Vietnam imprisons 12 people, including two Americans, charged with subversion
The defendants were accused of attempting to overthrow the government by recruiting members for a US-based exile group
Vietnam on Wednesday jailed two American citizens and 10 others from an outlawed US-based “terrorist” group for attempting to overthrow the state after they spread anti-government leaflets and tried to incite protests last year.
Critics of the communist regime are routinely jailed in the one-party state. Most are loosely-linked bloggers, activists and rights lawyers, with few groups designated as “terrorist organisations”.
One of those groups is the California-based Provisional National Government of Vietnam (PNGV), an anti-communist organisation with its own self-appointed prime minister that pledges allegiance to the former South Vietnam regime.
Twelve of their members were jailed for between five and 14 years after a two-day trial in Ho Chi Minh City for “attempting to overthrow the state”, according to Phap L uat newspaper, the mouthpiece of the city’s justice department.
They were accused of printing 4,000 leaflets, plotting to take over national radio and calling for demonstrations on April 30 last year – celebrated as “reunification day” to mark the end of the Vietnam war in 1975.