Vietnam jails activist 14 years on sedition charges

A court in Vietnam has jailed a man for 14 years for attempting to overthrow the state, in cahoots with a group based in the United States, the Ministry of Public Security said on Wednesday.

Phan Van Binh, 47, was accused by the court of working for a California-based group called the Provisional National Government of Vietnam, which opposes the ruling Communist Party, the ministry said in a statement on its official news website.

"Binh's activities were serious violations of the law which undermined national unity, infringed upon national security, and went against the national interest," the ministry said, citing state prosecutors present at the one-day trial in the central province of Khanh Hoa.

The PNGV was established in 1990 in California, where large numbers of refugees settled after the Vietnam War.

The group has its own self-appointed prime minister that pledges allegiance to the US-backed former government of South Vietnam, which was toppled in 1975 at the war’s end.

Its members say their aim is to “liberate Vietnam from communism”.

Despite sweeping economic reform and increasing openness to social change, Vietnam's ruling Communist Party retains tight media censorship and does not tolerate criticism.

Binh uploaded posts to his Facebook account that "smeared the image of Ho Chi Minh, and the leaders of the party and the state", the ministry said in its statement, referring to the Vietnamese revolutionary leader and founding president.

Binh's Facebook posts "distorted the Party's history and guidance, and the state's policies and laws, with the aim of overthrowing the people's administration," the ministry said.

The organization's leader, Dao Minh Quan, assigned Binh to recruit people into joining the group by using his telephone to show videos created by the organization to his neighbors, the ministry said.

Hanoi has stepped up the arrest and jailing of activists since hardline communist party chief Nguyen Phu Trong took power in 2016.

At least 55 activists were convicted in Vietnam last year, with several handed prison sentences of up to 20 years.