Bui Manh Dong

Dong was detained on September 1, 2018 by the police of Thot Not District, Can Tho city. He was originally charged under Article 288 of the 2015 Criminal Code for  “illegal provision or use of information on computer networks or telecommunications networks.”

Dong was tried on September 27, 2018 and sentenced to 2.5 years in prison under Art. 331 of the 2015 Criminal Code. According to the indictment of the People’s Procuracy, Dong was accused of creating many documents with distorted contents during the period from 2017 to July of 2018, which were meant to defame the Party, state, and other leaders, such as Former President Ho Chi Minh or Former President Ton Duc Thang. Dong was accused of using two Facebook accounts, namely “Ăn cướp Công an” and “Kiều Thanh”, to post his documents. The Investigation Agency checked his laptop and two Facebook accounts and found more than 50 pages of documents containing information that they claimed harmful to the national political security and the social order. He was said to admit to and regret his alleged wrongdoings at trial.

Bui Manh Dong was the fourth Facebooker in Can Tho City convicted under the accusation of “abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State” in  September 2018. Three others were Nguyen Hong Nguyen, Truong Dinh Khang, and Doan Khanh Vinh Quang. The trials of these Facebookers were held within only one week.