Vietnamese journalist gets five years of prison for his online criticism

Journalist Le Anh Hung was sentenced to five years in a Hanoi court for ‘abusing democratic freedoms’ and ‘infringing upon the interests of the state’. He was detained in a mental institution for the first three years and ten months following his detention.

A Hanoi court sentenced journalist Le Anh Hung, 49, to five years in prison for ‘abusing democratic freedoms’ and ‘infringing upon the interests of the state’ after he published an open letter criticising a draft law on his Facebook page. In the letter, Hung demanded that the draft law designating ‘special economic zones’ in three different regions of Vietnam be changed. Hung was first arrested in 2018 and was interned in a mental institution in Hanoi for the first three years and ten months of his five years sentence. It is likely he will be released in 2023.