Khanh Hoa (VNA) – The People’s Court inthe south central province of Khanh Hoa on June 29 opened the first instancetrial against Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh who was charged with conducting anti-Statepropaganda under Clause 1 of Article 88 of the Penal Code.
Quynh, born on July 18, 1979, resided in VinhPhuoc ward of Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province. She was prosecuted andarrested by the Investigation Security Agency of the Khanh Hoa Department ofPublic Security on October 10, 2016.
According to the indictment announced by the provincialPeople’s Procuracy, Quynh opened a Facebook account in 2010 named “Me Nam”(Mother Mushroom) which was later renamed “Me Nam Gau”, “Nguyen Nhu Quynh” and “NguyenNgoc Nhu Quynh”.
From 2012 to October 2016, she used her Facebookpage to draft, post and share articles with false and groundless contents thatdistorted, criticised and defamed the guidelines and policies of the CommunistParty of Vietnam and law of the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,falsified Vietnam’s revolutionary history and split the national unity bloc.
Those articles gave one-sided and superficialviews that stirred up public worries and affected people’s trust in the Party’sleadership and the State’s governance and management of society, and incitedpeople to resist the State, thus harming national security and social order andsafety, the indictment said.
From 2013 to 2016, Quynh also gave interviews toforeign press and media outlets, in which she distorted the domestic situationin many fields, from history, economy, politics, defence, diplomacy, law todemocracy and human rights.
In 2014, she collected information from onlinenewspapers about 31 people who reportedly died after working with police andthen created a file named “Stop police killing civilians” to post on herFacebook page.
However, Quynh did not thoroughly learn about theofficial information about the outcomes of the investigations and settlement ofthese cases provided by authorised agencies. Instead, she intentionallydistorted the truth with the aim of making readers wrongly understand thenature of the issues, insulted and lowered the prestige of the people’s publicsecurity force, and blighted the relationship between the people and the publicsecurity force.
Quynh also organised or took part in activitiesand events which aimed to incite people to oppose the State, according to theindictment.
A representative of the People’s Procuracy ofKhanh Hoa province said this charge is subject to a sentence of between 3-12years in prison.
The trial is scheduled to last for two days,with three lawyers defending the accused.-VNA