Freelance | Imprisoned in Vietnam | January 21, 2017

Job:Internet Reporter
Medium:Internet
Beats Covered:Corruption, Politics
Gender:Female
Local or Foreign:Local
Freelance:Yes
Charge:Anti-state
Length of Sentence:5 years to <10 years
Reported Health Problems:Yes

Nga was sentenced on July 25, 2017, to nine years in prison and five years' probation on charges of "spreading propaganda against the state," according to news reports.

After a one-day trial, the People's Court in Ha Nam province, roughly 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Hanoi, found Nga guilty under Article 88 of the penal code, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for the vague offense of "propagandizing" against the state.

The verdict said that Nga produced and posted online videos that accused "the communist state of violating human rights and called for pluralism and the elimination of Article 4 of the Constitution," which enshrines a one-party state, news reports said.

As evidence, prosecutors presented 13 videos they said Nga produced and that they claimed were in violation of the law, including films on a toxic maritime spill, territorial disputes with China, and state corruption, reports said. Nga's lawyer, Ha Huy Son, told media that the verdict was unfair and that Nga was not guilty, news reports said. Nga later appealed the decision, which was still pending in late 2017.

Nga, an activist who blogs under the pen name "Thuy Nga," reported on various state abuses, including trafficking, the confiscation of land, and police brutality, according to reports. When authorities arrived to arrest the blogger at her home in northern Ha Nam province on January 21, 2017, she posted video clips online showing the dozens of police officers who had surrounded her house, reports said.

Nga was held for over six months in pretrial detention. Before her arrest, she had complained about years of official harassment. In 2014, assailants attacked her with metal bars while she rode a bicycle with her children, breaking her left arm and right leg, according to news reports.

Her lawyer, Ha Huy Son, said Nga's health had deteriorated due to an aggravated mucosal condition and that prison authorities had denied her medical treatment for the ailment. He wrote in an October 3 Facebook post that authorities held her in solitary confinement for five days and barred family prison visits as punishment for her decision to appeal her conviction. As of late 2017, she was being held in Ha Nam prison.

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