Updated Jan. 10, 2025 at 06:22 a.m. ET.
A court in Vietnam sentenced on Friday a prominent lawyer to three years in prison for Facebook posts criticizing a former chief justice that the supreme court said contained fabricated content, state media reported.
Tran Dinh Trien was found guilty of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State and the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” under Article 331 of the criminal code according to the Tuoi Tre news site.
One of his lawyers called the sentence “inappropriate,” and said Trien would appeal. The charges carried a maximum sentence of seven years in prison.
“From the moment the Vietnamese authorities hauled Tran Dinh Trien in to face charges for his Facebook posts, there was no doubt that he would face prison time,” said Phil Robertson, the director of Asia Human Rights and Labour Advocates, or AHRLA.
“For years, he has been fighting a good yet futile fight, demanding justice for his clients in a system where judicial independence is non-existent, and courts just rubber stamp whatever verdict and sentence has been mandated by the ruling CPV in a closed room.“ he said, referring to the Communist Party of Vietnam.
The 65-year-old former deputy head of the Hanoi Bar Association was arrested on June 1, 2024, for three posts on Facebook that prosecutors said criticized the actions of then-Chief Justice Nguyen Hoa Binh.
Trien and his team of 12 lawyers argued that he was exercising his right to freedom of speech and had not broken the law.
In one of the posts he was prosecuted for, Trien criticized Binh for upholding a death sentence for Ho Duy Hai at his final appeal in May 2020. Hai had consistently proclaimed his innocence after being found guilty of murder and robbery in 2009.
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The trial panel in a Hanoi court said that when exercising free speech individuals must obey the law and not infringe on the interests of the nation, the people and the state, Tuoi Tre reported.
It said the prosecution’s indictment stated that Trien “had personal grievances, believing that the judiciary and the leadership of the Supreme People’s Court had unreasonable issues.”
Vietnam’s top court, the Supreme People’s Court, said three of Trien’s Facebook posts contained “fabricated and untrue” content “seriously insulting the dignity, honor, and reputation” of its chief justice.
The Ministry of Information and Communications said the articles “negatively affected security, order, and social safety.”
Two months after Trien was arrested for insulting Nguyen Hoa Binh, the former chief justice was appointed deputy prime minister.
“In my opinion, Trien is innocent and his case is purely political,” said a Hanoi-based lawyer who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue.
“This case further rips off the mask of Vietnam’s kangaroo courts, showing that there is no justice possible for anyone who dares criticize the CPV’s single party dictatorship,” said AHRLA’s Robertson.
“Once Vietnam’s dictatorial system started running out of human rights activists and political dissidents to attack, charge, and imprison, it turned its attention to those daring to defend those activists, like Tran Dinh Trien.”
Global civil society alliance CIVICUS called Trien’s three-year sentence “extremely disturbing” saying it showed that 2025 would be no different for activists under the Vietnamese regime.
“His jailing following a sham trial will create a chilling effect among those in the legal sector who already face various forms of intimidation and harassment for defending human rights,” CIVICUS Asia Pacific researcher Josef Benedict told Radio Free Asia.
“CIVICUS calls on the international community, especially lawyers and bar associations to speak up and call for his sentence to be quashed and for him to be released immediately and unconditionally.”
Updated to include reaction from CIVICUS, AHRLA and a Vietnamese lawyer.
Edited by Mike Firn.