Woman jailed for abusing rights to freedom, democracy

The Hanoi People’s Court has sentenced a woman to 21 months in prison for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate interests of the State, rights and legitimate interests of organisations and individuals.”

The decision was made at a first-instance trial on March 31 under Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code.

49-year-old Le Thi Thu Huong, from Vu Di commune, Vinh Tuong district, the northern province of Vinh Phuc, had worked as a freelancer for some press agencies, including “Bao ve phap luat” (Law Protection) newspaper.

However, the newspaper ended the labour contract with Huong following a definite term from November 2015 to November 2018.

According to investigations, since 2020, Huong created and used Facebook accounts “Le Thu Huong (Hoang Ly)” and “Huong Le” and a Zalo account “Hoang Ly” to publish and spread articles, information and images with biased and distorted contents defaming the prestige of collectives and the honour of leaders of the newspaper, and violating legitimate rights and interests of organisations and individuals.

Huong also sent denunciations with the above-said contents to leaders of the Party, the State and some centrally-run agencies.

The Department of Information and Communications of Hanoi concluded on January 10, 2022 that the articles published by Huong’s Facebook and Zalo accounts have distorted and biased contents that defame organisations and individuals.

Centrally-run agencies and units like the inspection and personnel departments at the Supreme People’s Procuracy also affirmed that Huong’s denunciations are groundless./.