HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam convicted four democracy activists of subversion on Wednesday and sentenced them to up to 16 years in prison for trying to overthrow the communist government.
The most well known of the defendants, human rights attorney Le Cong Dinh, received a relatively light five-year sentence after admitting that he had broken the law by trying to promote a multiparty democracy.
Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, an internet entrepreneur, received an 16-year sentence, the stiffest handed down by the judges at the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court after a one-day trial. Thuc testified that he had broken no laws and had only sought ways to rid Vietnam of corruption and improve its political system.
Dinh, Thuc and a third defendant could have been sentenced to death.
