Hoa Binh (VNA) – The Hanoi High-level People’sCourt has reduced the sentence given by the Hoa Binh People’s Court to DaoQuang Thuc for conducting “activities aimed at overthrowing the people’sadministration” under Clause 1, Article 79 of the 1999 Penal Code.

At an appeal trial held on January 17 with Thuc’s plea for commuted penalty, the defendantand his lawyer presented mitigating factors to the judge.

Considering thatThuc had made significant achivements while working as a primary school teacher and that his family hadcontributed to the country’s revolutionary movement, the court decided tomitigate the 14-year prison sentence down to 13 years.  

Earlier, the HoaBinh People’s Court sentenced Thuc to 14 years in prison and a five-year surveillance at the locality after finishing his prisonterm.

According to the indictment, Thuc, born in 1960 and residingin Toan Son commune of Da Bac district, is a former teacher at Trieu Phuc Lich Primary School in Da Bacdistrict. He has committedmany violations of the law over time and often undermined solidarity at hisplace of work and within the local community, forcing local authorities to takeaction.

After that, he became discontented and conducted sabotage activities aimed atoverthrowing the people’s administration. Thuc used his two Facebook accountsand email to contact domestic and overseas reactionary forces. He also postedand shared many articles and comments with anti-State content.

Thuc joined the “Chinh phu Quoc Gia Viet Nam lam thoi”(Provisional National Government of Vietnam) group, a reactionary and terroristorganisation that aims to eradicate the leadership of the Communist Party ofVietnam and the State of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam via armed riots. Hecarried out many activities and wrote many articles with anti-State content tosend to this organisation.

State agencies warned Thuc about those activities manytimes, and he also pledged to stop such actions and not take part inreactionary organisations. However, Thuc still continued anti-State activitiesand even colluded with others to plan terror attacks targeted at seniorofficials of Thanh Hoa and Hoa Binh provinces, the indictment said.

Searching Thuc’s house, police seized many pieces of evidencerelating to his anti-State activities. On July 11 last year, the Hoa Binh People’s Procuracy prosecuted him for conducting“activities aimed at overthrowing the people’s administration”.   

At the first-instance trial, the defendantadmitted all of his violations. –VNA