Nghe An (VNA) – The Hanoi high-level People’s Court on October 18upheld the imprisonment sentence for a defendant found guilty of “trying tooverthrow the people’s administration” at a first-instance trial two monthsago.

The court held atrial in Nghe An’s Vinh City at the appeal submitted by Le Dinh Luong, born in1965 and residing in Hop Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district of the centralprovince of Nghe An.

Luongwas arrested in July 2017 on suspicion of conducting activities aiming atoverthrowing the State. In the first-instance trial in August, Luong wassentenced to 20 years in prison and five years of probation after completingthe prison term.

Basedon investigation results and arguments at the trial, the court concluded thatLuong was an active agent of the Viet Tan organisation, which is listed as aterrorist organisation by the Vietnamese government. He operated in Nghe An, HaTinh and Quang Binh to lure Vietnamese citizens to join the organisationthrough posting and sharing stories advocating Viet Tan and its operation whilespreading wrong information about Vietnam’s situation and the Communist Partyof Vietnam through social media platforms.

He was found to haveconducted many forms of propaganda against the State of Vietnam, and takenadvantage of political events and sensitive issues to incite people to protestagainst the administration.

At the appeal trial, the judges found that there aresufficient grounds to prove that Luong was an active member of Viet Tan, and hehad engaged in propaganda activities designed to undermine the national unitybloc, the people’s trust of the Party and the State.

As a result, the court upheld the verdict onLuong.-VNA