Pham Viet Dao: Sentenced to 15 Months in Prison

On March 19, 2014, the Hanoi Municipal People’s Court sentenced prominent writer and blogger Pham Viet Dao, 62,  to 15 months in prison on charges of “abusing democratic freedoms” under article 258 of the Penal Code.  Pham’s indictment states that from February to June 2013 he posted 91 articles on his blog with “defamatory content” to “distort, denigrate and attack the Party and State”. Arrested June 13, 2013, Pham is a former official in the Ministry of Culture and a member of the Vietnam Writers’ Association.