Five activists face up to 15 years’ jail for attempted subversion in Vietnam
Group leader Luu Van Vinh is accused of heading a reactionary organisation that wanted to abolish the Communist Party leadership
A court in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City sentenced five activists to up to 15 years in prison on Friday after finding them guilty of running a political group that worked to overthrow the country’s one-party communist rule.
The official Vietnam News Agency said group leader Luu Van Vinh was convicted of attempting to overthrow the “people’s administration” and sentenced to 15 years in prison in the one-day trial. It said four others received sentences of eight to 13 years on the same charges. They were also given three years of house arrest after their release from prison.
The agency said Vinh was leader of a “reactionary organisation called the Vietnam National Coalition” that criticised, tarnished and distorted the policies of the Communist Party and state with the intent of abolishing the party’s leadership and overthrowing the government.
It said the group was formed in October 2016, and the five were arrested three weeks later at its official launch.
“The defendants’ acts directly infringed on the national security and the people’s interests,” the agency quoted the judges as saying. It said Vinh and another defendant denied the charges, but there was enough evidence to convict them based on confessions by other defendants, testimonies of witnesses and evidence collected by investigators.