2015 prison census - Vietnam: Nguyen Huu Vinh (Anh Ba Sam), Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy

Vinh and Thuy were arrested by police at their homes in the capital, Hanoi. They were both charged with "abusing democratic freedoms to impinge on the interests of the state," an anti-state offense under Article 258 of the penal code.

According to a police statement on the charges cited in press reports, the two were accused of "posting false information about the state on the Internet," including articles "that had the potential to tarnish the state apparatus' prestige." The articles appeared on the blog Ba Sam, also known as Tan Xa Via He (Sidewalk Café News Agency), which Vinh created in September 2007. The charges also relate to two other blogs, Dan Quyen (Citizens' Rights) and Chep Su Viet (Writing Vietnamese History), which state prosecutors claimed Vinh and Thuy maintained and managed anonymously. Authorities claimed they used Gmail accounts that did not correspond to their real names.

On October 30, 2014, national police said they had gathered enough evidence in 24 blog posts, including entries on Dan Quyen and Chep Su Viet, to pursue the anti-state charges, according to news reports.

Ba Sam often posted links to state-run Vietnamese media, with critical commentary added by the blog's administrators, as well as translated versions of international news on political, economic, and social issues, according to reports. The site published posts from activists and was considered a rallying point by activists for protests against China's perceived encroachment on Vietnamese territories, news reports said. Vinh and Thuy's arrests came just after China stationed an oil rig in waters claimed by Vietnam in May 2014, setting off a months-long maritime standoff and anti-China riots.

It was unclear if Vinh, a former policeman and son of a Communist Party Central Committee member, was still running the Ba Sam blog at the time of his arrest, according to reports. In September 2012, the blogger announced that he would end his direct involvement with the blog due to increased pressure by the authorities, reports said. A prosecutor's indictment claimed Vinh and Thuy were involved in the daily production of the blog at the time of their arrests.

Due to frequent cyberattacks on Ba Sam, the blog has appeared under different Web addresses. Other administrators of the blog, including its U.S.-based editor, Ngoc Thu, were not mentioned in the charges.

Vinh and Thuy were both denied bail and were being held in pretrial detention at Hanoi's Detention Center in late 2015, according to the independent human rights website Vietnam Right Now. If found guilty under Article 258, they each face up to seven years in prison. No trial date had been set by late 2015.

Vinh's wife, Le Thi Minh Ha, said that when she visited her husband in prison on October 26, 2015, he had a rash that she suspected was symptomatic of liver and blood diseases caused by lack of sunlight, Ba Sam reported. Vinh's lawyer, Truong Hoa Binh, filed a petition two days later to President Truong Tan Sang and other authorities demanding that Vinh be allowed to visit a specialist doctor and receive medicine, and to be given access to reading materials. The requests had not been granted by late 2015. CPJ was unable to verify the state of Thuy's health in late 2015.