Vietnamese blogger sentenced to 10 years in prison

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Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh stands trial in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, June 29, 2017. (Vietnam News Agency via AP)
CPJ.
Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh stands trial in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, June 29, 2017. (Vietnam News Agency via AP)

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh stands trial in Khanh Hoa, Vietnam, June 29, 2017. (Vietnam News Agency via AP)

New York, June 29, 2017–The Committee to Protect Journalists strongly condemns the 10-year prison sentence a Vietnamese court today imposed on blogger Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known as Mother Mushroom.

A court in the central Vietnamese province of Khanh Hoa convicted Quynh of distributing propaganda against the state after a one-day trial, news reports said. The blogger has been jailed since October 2016, when police arrested her as she tried to visit an imprisoned political activist.

“The harsh measures Vietnam has taken against journalists like Nguyen Ngnoc Nhu Quynh should be an embarrassment to the country’s rulers,” CPJ Asia Program Director Steven Butler said from Washington, D.C. “Quynh never should have spent a day behind bars. Condemning her to 10 years in prison for her writing is an obscene injustice.”

Quynh’s lawyer, Vo An Don, told The Associated Press that Quynh denied the charges against her and would appeal the verdict.