Duong Tien and Nguyen Phi Duy Linh at the appeals court in Da Nang court on Monday,

The People’s Court of Da Nang last Monday commuted the suspended prison sentence awarded to the former chief inspector of the Ministry of Public Security, Tran Van Thanh.

The court said it was giving consideration to the fact that Thanh and his family had contributed to the country during the war and that the major-general himself was in bad health.

At the trial held by the Da Nang People’s Court in August, prosecutors had said Thanh had instructed his accomplices to disseminate fabricated information about the Da Nang leadership from November 2006 through the second half of 2007.

The accomplices were Dinh Cong Sat, a former major from the Da Nang Police Department, local resident Nguyen Phi Duy Linh, and Duong Tien, ex-chief of the Hanoi bureau of the Cong An Thanh Pho Ho Chi Minh (Ho Chi Minh City Police) newspaper.

The documents accused top Da Nang officials of committing irregularities, covering up several land scams and wrongfully handling public complaints. Investigators found the allegations groundless and accused them of “taking advantage of democratic freedom to violate state policy as well as the rights and benefits of organizations and citizens.”

Thanh, Tien and Linh then filed an appeal asking for the case to be canceled and for them to be pronounced innocent.

The Supreme People’s Procuracy, which gathers the country’s top prosecutors, on September 3 also said in Da Nang that Thanh did nothing wrong.

Thanh was not present at the appeals court due to failing health. His lawyers and others’ argued at the court that the indictment at the August trial did not have enough evidence to prove that Thanh had edited the documents, or provoked false accusations.

Meanwhile, Linh and his lawyer said the investigation was illegal as his house had been searched and the documents seized without the presence of any witnesses.

However, the jury rejected the appeals, reinforcing the sentence of three years in jail for Linh and 17 months and five days for Tien.

Tien was freed after the August trial because he had already been detained for 17 months.

Source: Thanh Nien