A court in Vietnam sentenced on Friday a prominent lawyer to three years in prison for Facebook posts criticizing a former chief justice that the supreme court said contained fabricated content, state media reported.
Tran Dinh Trien was found guilty of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” under Article 331 of the criminal code according to the Tuoi Tre news site.
The charges carried a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
The 65-year-old former deputy head of the Hanoi Bar Association was arrested on June 1, 2024, for three posts on Facebook that prosecutors said criticized the actions of then-Chief Justice Nguyen Hoa Binh.
Trien and his team of 12 lawyers argued that he was exercising his right to freedom of speech and had not broken the law.
In one of the posts he was prosecuted for, Trien criticized Binh for upholding a death sentence for Ho Duy Hai at his final appeal in May 2020. Hai had consistently proclaimed his innocence after being found guilty of murder and robbery in 2009.
RELATED STORIES
Vietnam tightens controls on social media users
US-based lawyer calls for people’s court to try corrupt Vietnam officials
City bar association cancels membership of Vietnamese activist lawyers
The trial panel in a Hanoi court said that when exercising free speech individuals must obey the law and not infringe on the interests of the nation, the people and the state, Tuoi Tre reported.
It said the prosecution’s indictment stated that Trien “had personal grievances, believing that the judiciary and the leadership of the Supreme People’s Court had unreasonable issues.”
Vietnam’s top court, the Supreme People’s Court, said three of Trien’s Facebook posts contained “fabricated and untrue” content “seriously insulting the dignity, honor, and reputation” of its chief justice.
The Ministry of Information and Communications said the articles “negatively affected security, order, and social safety.”
Ahead of the sentencing, groups including U.S.-based Human Rights Watch had called for Trien’s immediate release saying lawyers must have the freedom to exercise their opinions as much as anyone else.
Edited by Mike Firn.
