Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Vietnam jails French-Vietnamese teacher over blogs

Aug 10, 2011
AP

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A French-Vietnamese math teacher has been imprisoned for three years in Vietnam after publishing an anti-government blog on the Internet.

A defense lawyer says Pham Minh Hoang was convicted of trying to overthrow the government by posting 33 articles against Vietnam's communist government and holding membership in the banned Viet Tan group.

The U.S.-based group says it is a nonviolent promoter of democracy, but is considered a terror organization by the Vietnamese government. Hoang told the court he joined Viet Tan in France where it is not banned.

Defense lawyer Tran Vu Hai says the judges also convicted Hoang on Wednesday of attending a Viet Tan-organized course in Malaysia and helping to recruit new Vietnamese members.

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