At a two-hour trial at the Hanoi People's Court, Judge Ngo Tu Hoc said on Wednesday that Pham Viet Dao was guilty of "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe the interests of the state'' by posting dozens of articles that "distorted, vilified and smeared the senior leaders".
Dao, 61, confessed to the court and apologised for the "erroneous" details in some of his posts, but said he did not do that on purpose.
"I don't think that my articles have had bad impact on society,'' said Dao, who refused a lawyer and defended himself at the trial.
A reminder that Vietnam is still a Communist state and they can stage a good show trial when they want to.
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