9/25/2012 5:41 PM ET
(RTTNews) – UN human rights chief Navi Pillay on Tuesday expressed her deep concern and dismay over the conviction and harsh sentencing of three dissident bloggers in Vietnam a day earlier on charges of spreading anti-government propaganda.
Pillay noted that the jailing of the bloggers reflected a trend of increasing restrictions on freedom of expression in the South Asian country, especially against those who use the internet to voice criticisms of the state.
“The harsh prison terms handed down to bloggers exemplify the severe restrictions on freedom of expression in Vietnam,” Pillay said in a news release issued Tuesday.
On Monday, a Vietnamese court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced three prominent dissident bloggers to prolonged prison terms under article 88 of the penal code for “conducting propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” by posting articles on the website of the Vietnamese Club of Free Journalists.
In a trial that lasted just a few hours, Nguyen Van Hai was given 12 years’ jail, while Ta Phong Tan, whose mother burnt herself to death in July after police harassed her family, received ten years. The other blogger Phan Thanh Hai was sentenced to four years. Nguyen’s case had been raised by US President Barack Obama during a speech to mark World Press Freedom Day in last May.
Read more: http://www.rttnews.com/1971916/un-rights-chief-dismayed-by-harsh-sentencing-of-vietnam-bloggers.aspx?type=msgn&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=sitemap
