The two bloggers were convicted earlier this year for "abusing democratic freedoms" with their posts. An appeals court in Hanoi on Thursday will hear the appeal of a blogger who was earlier sentenced to five years in prison for posting anti-government content, according to local media. Blogger Nguyen Huu Vinh was charged for “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state” and was sentenced in March this year, the Voice of Vietnam news site reported on Wednesday. His assistant Nguyen Thi Minh Thuy also made the same appeal against a three-year sentence. Vinh, better known by his pen name Anh Ba Sam, established a blog, titled “Ba Sam” in 2009. He reportedly posted his own comments as well as links to other articles on political, social and economic topics. In 2013 and 2014, Vinh set up two similar sites, according to the Voice of Vietnam. The blogger then assigned Thuy as the administrator of the two sites. In September 2014, the … [Read more...]
Vietnam’s appeals court upholds death sentences in murder of 6 family members
The story of a man who brutally murdered his ex-girlfriend's family last year is reaching its final chapter. An appellate court in Ho Chi Minh City on Monday rejected all appeals by two men found guilty in the grisly murder of six members of a wealthy family in the southern province of Binh Phuoc in July 2015. The case has since grabbed headlines and rocked the country. In a trial held last December, the court convicted Nguyen Hai Duong, 24, the ex-boyfriend of one of the victims, of orchestrating the murders, and Vu Van Tien, Duong’s 24-year-old friend, of acting as his accomplice. Both men were sentenced to death for the murders. Tran Dinh Thoai, Duong’s 27-year-old friend, was sentenced to 16 years for buying a knife for Duong and harboring the murder. While Duong has accepted his sentence, Tien and Thoai requested appeals. The HCMC appeals court, in a one-day hearing, denied all of their requests and upheld their death sentences. The court’s verdict stated … [Read more...]
Cambodian appeals court upholds sentence against opposition lawmaker
Hanoi (VNA) – Cambodia’s appeals court on December 23 upheld the conviction against opposition lawmaker Um Sam An for incitement to commit crimes causing turmoil for social security and incitement to cause racial discrimination. After a half-day trial, Appeals Court judge Seng Sivutha announced that the court decided to uphold the Phnom Penh Municipal Court's verdict on October 10 that sentenced Sam An to two and a half years in prison and a fine of 4 million riel. Sam An, 40, lawmaker of the main opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party, was arrested midnight on April 10 this year after returning from months in exile in the United States. He was charged with incitement to cause social security turmoil and faking and using false documents relating to the border with Vietnam.-VNA … [Read more...]
US appeals court refuses to restore Trump travel ban
"The government has pointed to no evidence that any alien from any of the countries named in the order has perpetrated a terrorist attack in the United States," the court said. A U.S. court on Thursday slapped down Donald Trump's effort to bar refugees and nationals from seven Muslim-majority countries from U.S. soil, dealing the new president and his controversial law-and-order agenda a major defeat. The ruling from the federal appeals court in San Francisco on Trump's executive order, issued on January 27 with no prior warning and suspended a week later, capped a turbulent first three weeks of the Republican's presidency. "We hold that the government has not shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its appeal, nor has it shown that failure to enter a stay would cause irreparable injury," the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously. Trump's decree summarily denied entry to all refugees for 120 days, and travelers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and … [Read more...]
Appeal court upholds life sentence on ex-banker in fraud case
The appeal court upheld the life imprisonment sentence for Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, former deputy chief of the Risk Management Department of the Ho Chi Minh City branch of the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank), on January 7. Nhu, born in 1978, was convicted of “swindling to appropriate assets” and “counterfeiting seals and materials of agencies and organisations” at the first instance trial in January last year. The appeal court also kept the order for Nhu to pay compensation to victims, including 45.4 billion VND (2.1 million USD) to Zen Plaza company, 200 billion VND to the Nam Viet Bank (Navibank), 135 billion VND to the Vietnam International Bank (VIB), over 668 billion VND to the Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), among others. However, the court annulled part of the original sentence regarding the defendant’s swindling to appropriate assets to five companies, including the Phuong Dong and Saigon Bank … [Read more...]
Appeal Court upholds convictions in Haiphong land eviction case
The Appeal Court of the Supreme People’s Court heard an appeal filed by defendants convicted in the coercive land reclamation case in Haiphong, upholding the sentences of four out of six defendants. The defedants at the Appeal Court on July 30 The defendants were charged for violently resisting on-duty officers last year, injuring seven. The defendants were Doan Van Vuon, 50 years old of the district’s Vinh Quang commune, and his accomplices are Doan Van Quy, 47 (Vuon’s brother), Doan Van Sinh, 56, and Doan Van Ve, 39, Nguyen Thi Thuong, 43 (Vuon’s wife), and Pham Thi Bau, 31 (Quy’s wife). The court rejected the remission petition of Doan Van Vuon, Doan Van Quy, Nguyen Thi Thuong and Pham Thi Bau, maintaining the judgments handed down during the first trial on April 5, 2013. Both Vuon and Quy were sentenced to five years in prison. Pham Thi Bau was … [Read more...]
Appeals court convicts South Korea ferry captain of murder
A South Korean appeals court on Tuesday found the captain of the Sewol ferry that sank a year ago guilty of murdering the 304 people who died in the disaster and upped his sentence to life imprisonment. Judges sit to preside over verdicts of the sunken Sewol ferry's crew members The ruling in the southern city of Gwangju overturned a lower court decision which had acquitted Lee Jun-Seok of homicide charges in November, convicting him instead of gross negligence and sentencing him to 36 years. Most of the victims were high school students on an organised trip and their families had been outraged by the homicide acquittal. During the appeal hearing, prosecutors had asked the court to reconsider the most serious charge of murder through wilful negligence. They also insisted that Lee, 69, deserved execution, arguing that he had abandoned his passengers in the clear knowledge that they would die. "Captain Lee's irresponsible activity led to the … [Read more...]
Appeals court hears plea in insurance theft case
At the first hearing held in October 2013, the Quang Ninh Court of First Instance had sentenced Bui Thi Thu Hang to life in prison. — Photo baoquangninh QUANG NINH (VNS) — An appeals court yesterday began hearing leniency pleas made by a former insurance advisor and 13 accomplices found guilty in a huge swindling case. At the first hearing held in October 2013, the Quang Ninh Court of First Instance had sentenced Bui Thi Thu Hang to life in prison, while her accomplices received jail terms ranging from three to 13 years. They were found guilty of stealing VND 230 billion (US$10.9 million). Hang was ordered to return VND211 billion (more than 10.04 million) that she had taken from clients. According to the indictment, Hang created false receipts and applications for various types of VIP insurance packages to sell to customers. A representative from the Prudential Life Insurance Company Viet Nam told the court that Hang and her accomplices misused the company's title … [Read more...]
Appeal court upholds prison terms on saboteurs
The trial was held in Hà Nội on January 18-19 in response to appeals filed by the three convicts with terms ranging from three to four years' imprisonment. Trần Đức Thạch, 58, from the central province of Nghệ An and Vũ Văn Hùng, 44, and Phạm Văn Trội, 38, both from Hà Nội, were found guilty of hanging slogans, airing into the internet articles, granting interviews and spreading documents that distorted the Party and State's policies. The contents of those documents also marred the national victories in the two past wars of resistance and the current socio-economic development, according to the appeal court's conviction. The jury board accused that the defendants' activities all were aimed at disturbing social stability and stirring up bad public opinion against the Party and State, that might have reduced public confidence and led to a coup d'etat. The defendants, in the presence of their attorneys, finally pleaded guilty, and had their original sentences upheld. Trội … [Read more...]
Appeal court rejects plea by ex-journalist
HCM CITY (VNS)— The HCM City People's Court yesterday rejected an appeal on behalf of Hoang Khuong, former journalist of the newspaper Tuoi Tre (Youth), and five other defendants. Khuong and his fellow defendants were arrested in June for bribing a traffic policeman in the city's Binh Thanh District. Khuong and his lawyers argue that the journalist paid the VND15 million (US$714) bribe as part of a strategy to gather evidence for an investigative article about corruption. But the appeals court disagreed, stating that the bribe was nevertheless a crime and sentencing him to one year in prison. — VNS … [Read more...]