Vietnamese Court Sentences Journalist Phan Bui Bao Thy to "Non-Custodial Reeducation” Over Social Media Posts
Phan Bui Bao Thy / Facebook
A Vietnamese court has sentenced journalist Phan Bui Bao Thy to one year of “non-custodial re-education.” The People’s Court of Quang Tri said Thy had defamed Vietnamese state leaders on social media. The ruling means that while Thy won’t be required to report to a prison to serve out his sentence, he will nonetheless remain under state supervision and mandated to attend classes on local laws and regulations for its duration.
Thy could have faced a prison sentence of up to seven years. A jury handed down his sentence after five days of deliberations.
The Vietnam Law and Legal Forum notes that non-custodial reform “is the most severe penalty among the non-imprisonment penalties.”
“Unlike termed imprisonment, non-custodial reform does not require the condemned to be isolated from their respective living and working environment, but to be placed under the supervision and education by their agencies, organizations, army units, education and training institutions or People’s Committees of communes or wards where they reside and their families in order to educate them in the sense of observance of law and social rules,” the organization states.
Thy, the regional bureau chief of the state-owned magazine Giao Duc va Thoi Dai (“Age and Education”), was sentenced on April 7. He was first arrested on February 5, 2021 for making several Facebook posts that detailed corruption cases involving Nguyen Van Hung, the country’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Vo Van Hung. the president of Quang Tri province.
On February 10, 2021, Thy was formally charged with violating article 331 of Vietnam’s penal code, which penalizes journalists “who abuse their press freedom.” Thy and his associate, Le Anh Dung, were accused of maintaining Facebook pages such as “Quang Tri 357,” which documented financial malfeasance on the part of Quang Tri provincial leaders. The posts, many of them published between April 2020 and February 2021, were said to have impugned the “reputation, honor and dignity” of provincial leaders.
