KHÁNH HÒA — The Đà Nẵng-based Council of Judges of the Việt Nam Supreme People’s Court on Thursday upheld a 10-year prison sentence for Nguyễn Ngọc Như Quỳnh, known by her blogging and Facebook name “Mẹ Nấm” (“Mother Mushroom”), who was convicted of propagandising against the State.
The appeal trial took place in Nha Trang City in the central province of Khánh Hòa. Quỳnh, born in 1979, resided in Vĩnh Phước Ward of Nha Trang City. She was taken into custody by the Investigation Security Agency of the Khánh Hòa Department of Public Security on October 10, 2016.
According to the indictment, from 2012 to October 2016, she used her personal Facebook page to draft, post and share many stories with false and groundless content that distorted, criticised and defamed the guidelines and policies of the Communist Party of Việt Nam and law of the State of the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam, falsified Việt Nam’s revolutionary history and split the national unity bloc.
Those stories stirred up public worry and affected people’s trust in the Party’s leadership and the State’s governance and management of society. They incited people to resist the State, thus harming national security, social order and safety.
From 2013 to 2016, Quỳnh also gave many interviews to foreign press and media outlets, in which she distorted the domestic situation in terms of history, economy, politics, defence, diplomacy, law, democracy and human rights, the indictment said.
In 2014, she created and posted a file of documents named “Stop police killing civilians” with hostile stances against the People’s Public Security force.
Quỳnh organised or took part in activities and events which aimed to incite people to oppose the State. She also kept at her house some publications with content that distorted the socialist regime and incited people to sabotage the great national unity bloc, according to the indictment.
At the appeal trial, Quỳnh admitted all the violations but she said the actions did not mean she opposed the State.
The lawyers at the trial also focused on this point to defend Quỳnh.
However, the Council of Judges said that based on the defendant’s statements and confessions during the investigation, evidence and documents of the case, arguments at the trial, and opinions of procurators, the defendant and the lawyers, it concluded that the verdict issued at the first trial was correct.
Therefore, under Clause 1 of Article 88 of the Penal Code, the court upheld the 10-year jail sentence for Quỳnh for conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Việt Nam. — Quang
