By Bennett Murray
HANOI, Vietnam (AA) – A Hanoi court announced Thursday night that it had upheld the prison sentences for two dissident bloggers convicted of anti-state crimes.
Nguyen Huu Vinh, also known by his pen name Anh Ba Sam, and his assistant Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy will continue their respective five- and three-year prison sentences which were handed down in March.
Both were convicted of “abusing freedom and democracy to infringe upon the interests of the state” due to the content of Vinh’s website.
Vinh, a former national police officer and ruling Communist Party member, had run a website that shared news on Vietnam from a variety of sources, including state-run media and anti-government blogs.
Both Vinh and Thuy were arrested in May 2014 and have been locked up since.
Their imprisonment has been condemned by rights groups, which have called for their release.
In a statement issued Monday about the case, Human Rights Watch’s Asia director Brad Adams said, “Vietnamese authorities have decided it is a crime to provide independent information to the Vietnamese public.”
Vietnam, which is ruled by a single-party communist state, is consistently ranked one of the world’s least free countries for media. Reporters Without Borders ranks Vietnam the 175th place out of 180 countries for press freedom.
