Vietnamese blogger facing ten years in jail

A Vietnamese blogger was sentenced to ten years in prison after being found guilty of distorting government policies and defaming the Communist regime. Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Quynh, also known as “Mother Mushroom”, was sentenced at the end of a one-day trial in the southcentral province of Khanh Hoa, her lawyer Vo An Don said.

The conviction related to the content of 18 articles on her Facebook page and interviews with foreign news outlets including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia, Don said.

Quynh, 37, co-founded a network of bloggers and is very popular in Vietnam.

She has written about human rights, civilian deaths in police custody and the release of toxic chemicals by a Taiwaneseowned factory that killed thousands of fish in one of Vietnam’s worst environmental disasters.

Quynh, the single mother of two young children, maintained her innocence throughout the trial, her lawyer said.