{"id":6199,"date":"2021-01-07T21:17:19","date_gmt":"2021-01-07T21:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiofree.org\/?p=147386"},"modified":"2021-01-07T21:17:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-07T21:17:19","slug":"vietnamese-facebook-user-jailed-for-one-year-for-offending-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/01\/07\/vietnamese-facebook-user-jailed-for-one-year-for-offending-officials\/","title":{"rendered":"Vietnamese Facebook User Jailed For One Year For \u2018Offending\u2019 Officials"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A court in southern Vietnam\u2019s Dong Nai province on Thursday sentenced a Facebook user to a year in jail for \u201coffending\u201d local officials he said had mismanaged local land disputes, according to reports in Vietnamese state media.<\/p>\n

Nguyen Van Nhanh was convicted by the People\u2019s Court of Dong Nai\u2019s Trang Bom district for posting videos online between May and June last year that prosecutors said were intended to defame district chairwoman Vu Thi Minh Chau and deputy chairwoman Luong Thi Lan.<\/p>\n

After seeing the videos, the two women had denounced Nhanh to local police, leading to his arrest, media sources said.<\/p>\n

At his trial, Nanh said his posts had been meant only to raise concerns over what he called the unsatisfactory outcome of the officials\u2019 handling of land disputes in which local householders\u2019 interests had been harmed, and that he had not intended to defame the pair.<\/p>\n

However, judges rejected Nanh\u2019s defense and jailed him for a year at the end of his one-day trial.<\/p>\n

Also on Thursday, a court in southern Vietnam\u2019s Binh Duong province fined a Facebook user for postings offending local police, while a woman in Ho Chi Minh City was arrested for running online \u201cscams\u201d after posting videos on her Facebook page criticizing police corruption.<\/p>\n

Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hong, a resident of Binh Duong\u2019s Dau Tieng district, was fined VND 7.5 million (U.S. $322) for a Dec. 6 Facebook posting accusing local police officers of theft after they seized her bicycle during a traffic stop.<\/p>\n

Hong was fined for \u201coffending the honor and prestige\u201d of the police and was forced to promise not to re-offend, media sources said.<\/p>\n

Nguyen Thi Bich Thuy, owner of a Facebook account called Bich Thuy TV showing more than 300,000 \u201clikes\u201d from viewers, was arrested on Thursday by police in Ho Chi Minh City\u2019s Binh Chanh district and held for investigation into running scams and \u201cseizing assets\u201d under Article 174 of Vietnam\u2019s Penal Code.<\/p>\n

Police provided no details of Thuy\u2019s alleged crimes in their announcement of the arrest.<\/p>\n

Thuy had earlier received a two-year and six-month suspended sentence on related charges in 2011 in Dong Nai\u2019s Xuan Loc district, but had also frequently posted videos on Facebook criticizing lawbreaking by local traffic police and promoting charitable work helping disadvantaged families in several areas.<\/p>\n

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Vietnam 175 out of 180 in its 2020 World Press Freedom Index. About 25 journalists and bloggers are being held in Vietnam\u2019s jails, \u201cwhere mistreatment is common,\u201d the Paris-based watchdog group said.<\/p>\n

Vietnam\u2019s already low tolerance of dissent deteriorated sharply last year with a spate of arrests of independent journalists, publishers, and Facebook personalities as authorities continued to stifle critics in the run-up to the ruling Communist Party congress in January.<\/p>\n

Reported by RFA\u2019s Vietnamese Service. Translated by Huy Le. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Radio Free<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A court in southern Vietnam\u2019s Dong Nai province on Thursday sentenced a Facebook user to a year in jail for \u201coffending\u201d local officials he said had mismanaged local\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6199"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6200,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6199\/revisions\/6200"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}