A prominent Vietnamese blogger known as ‘Mother Mushroom’ was jailed for
10 years on Thursday, her lawyer said, during a brief trial rights
groups decried as “outrageous”.
nickname “mushroom”, was arrested in October 2016 and later charged with
anti-state propaganda over critical Facebook posts about politics and
the environment.Vietnam’s one-party state
keeps a tight clamp on dissent and routinely jails activists, bloggers
and lawyers who speak out against the communist regime.
The
37-year-old blogger faced a maximum of 12 years in prison, and her
lawyer said the heavy sentence she received at the closed-door trial was
“harsh”.
“I am not happy with the result of the trial today,” Nguyen Kha Thanh told AFP, adding that Quynh would likely appeal.
AFP
was barred from attending the one-day trial in south-central Khanh Hoa
province Thursday, which was heavily guarded by police, according to
images on social media.
Thanh said Quynh was calm throughout the
trial. In a pre-sentence statement she admitted no guilt and instead
used the opportunity to send a message to her two kids and mother, the
lawyer added.
“She apologised to her mother and the two kids for
what effect this has had on them, but she said they must be very proud
of her,” Thanh told AFP.
– Woman of Courage award –
Quynh
was charged under Article 88 of Vietnam’s criminal code and held
incommunicado with no access to lawyers until June 20, according to
Thanh.
She has been a vocal critic of Vietnam’s human rights
record, civilian deaths in police custody and the government’s handling
of a toxic leak that killed tonnes of fish last year.
She was arrested in Nha Trang on October 10 as she was visiting a fellow activist in prison
In
the verdict, the judge said Quynh had defamed the government, harmed
national unity, eroded popular trust of the government and undermined
national security.
She was also convicted for publishing
inaccurate information to humiliate the police and erode public trust in
them, based on her reports about police brutality.
Human Rights Watch earlier decried the trial as “outrageous” and demanded her release.
“The
scandal here is not what Mother Mushroom said, but Hanoi’s stubborn
refusal to repeal draconian, rights-abusing laws that punish peaceful
dissent and tarnish Vietnam’s international reputation,” Phil Robertson,
HRW deputy Asia director said in a statement Wednesday.
The United States, Britain and the European Union have all called for Quynh’s release.
Vietnam’s
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang said Thursday
“all acts that violate the law will be seriously punished in accordance
with Vietnamese laws” when asked about the case.
Quynh received
an International Woman of Courage Award from the US State Department in
March, which Vietnam said was “not appropriate and of no benefit for the
development of relations between the two countries”.
In 2015, she was awarded the Civil Rights Defender of the Year by a Sweden-based international advocacy group.
AFP.