Vietnamese blogger gets 10 years jail

Vietnamese blogger gets 10 years jail, by AP.

A prominent Vietnamese blogger has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after being found guilty of distorting government policies and defaming the Communist regime in Facebook posts and in interviews with foreign media, her lawyer says.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known as “Mother Mushroom,” was sentenced at the end of a one-day trial in the south-central province of Khanh Hoa, lawyer Vo An Don said on Thursday.

Her conviction relates to the content of 18 articles on her Facebook page and interviews with foreign news outlets such as Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, Don said.

Quynh, 37, co-founded a network of bloggers and is very popular in Vietnam. She has written about human rights, civilian deaths in police custody and the release of toxic chemicals by a Taiwanese-owned factory that killed thousands of fish in one of Vietnam’s worst environmental disasters.

Quynh, the single mother of two young children, maintained her innocence throughout the trial, her lawyer said. “Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh did not admit that she committed any crime, saying she has a right to freedom of expression,” Don said.