The People’s Court of the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre Monday opened the first instance trial of seven people accused of “working to overthrow the people’s administration” under Clause 2, Article 79 of Vietnam’s Penal Code.

The defendants included Tran Thi Thuy, 40, residing in Dong Thap province; Duong Kim Khai, 53, in Ho Chi Minh City; Pham Van Thong, 49, in Ben Tre province; Cao Van Tinh, 37, in Can Tho city; Pham Ngoc Hoa, 57, in Ho Chi Minh City; Nguyen Thanh Tam, 58, in Ben Tre province and Nguyen Chi Thanh, 38, in Ho Chi Minh City.

According to the indictment issued by the Ben Tre provincial People’s Procuracy on March 21, 2011, between August 2009 and April 2010, these people, under the arrangement of the reactionary Vietnam Reform Party (Viet Nam Canh Tan Cach Mang Dang or Viet Tan for short) went to Thailand and Cambodia to study and receive training in guidelines and goals as well as action plans to overthrow the people’s administration under the form of “peaceful developments” with the “non-violence” method.

Six of them, excluding Pham Van Thong, voluntarily applied for Viet Tan membership, and were admitted to this organisation and provided with aliases. They were assigned tasks and given money and documents from Viet Tan and then returned home to carrying out acts of sabotage.

They gathered forces and set up an organisation called “Hiep hoi than huu nguoi Viet Nam tuong tro” (Vietnamese Association of Friendship and Mutual Assistance), stored and distributed documents with contents opposing the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam State.

They abused rights to democracy and freedom and took advantage of poor understanding of some people to mobilise, entice and gather forces in staging anti-State demonstrations and disturbances.

Their acts were extremely serious as they infringed national security and national interests.

At the trial, all the defendants pleased guilty to the charges in the indictment.

The court handed down eight years of imprisonment to Tran Thi Thuy, seven years to Pham Van Thong, six years to Duong Kim Khai and five years to Cao Van Tinh. They were also sentenced to a five-year probation after serving their term in prison.

The remainder, including Pham Ngoc Hoa, Nguyen Thanh Tam and Nguyen Chi Thanh, each received a 2-year imprisonment and three years of probation after release.

Source: VNA