Pham Doan Trang (center) and her friends before her arrest in 2020. (Photo courtesy of Pham Thanh Nghien's Facebook)
A high court in Hanoi has upheld a nine-year prison term for a well-known human rights activist convicted of anti-state activities.
State-run Hanoimoi newspaper reported that on Aug. 25, the People's High Court in Hanoi rejected an appeal by Pham Thi Doan Trang, who had been sentenced to nine years by a lower court last December for “conducting propaganda against the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.”
The newspaper said the jail sentence for Trang, who published material widely on human rights and condemned police brutality against activists, was fair and suitable for her crime.
It said the judges determined that her behavior was dangerous to society and aimed at infringing upon the socialist regime and the state in the ideology, culture and society.
The indictment charged the 44-year-old activist with making, storing and circulating documents and articles against the communist government in 2017-18. The Hanoi native was also convicted of giving interviews to foreign media distorting the state's policies and slandering the people's government.
The newspaper said the defendant denied the charges against her.
Trinh Vinh Phuc, one of four lawyers who defended Trang, said her appeal against the sentence was well founded and showed that she did not commit the crime. He said she had a sense of responsibility towards the community and society as a good journalist to protect human dignity, human rights and speak up for the environment and social injustice in a country where there is lack of transparency in information.
He said while government agencies are using legal tools to punish Trang, many international rights organizations, press freedom groups and foreign diplomats honor her.
Trang's mother and brother, and many diplomats from the embassies of European countries and the United States, who care deeply about her legal fate, were prevented from entering the courtroom.
The lawyer said sentencing Trang to nine years in prison shows the harshness of the law.
He concluded that if all efforts of the lawyers as well as the voices of the international community do not change the views and attitudes of the government, history will clear her sentence.
Nguyen Van Mieng, another lawyer, who met Trang at the prison before the appeal trial, said she has difficulty walking due to leg injuries, her illness has not been treated and she is not allowed to meet relatives as she refuses to wear jail clothes.
Mieng said she also called on other activists outside to keep high spirits and not to be discouraged. “It is important to overcome your weariness, not your fear,” she said.
