Nguyen Nhu Phuong

On October 3, 2021, the Facebook account “Hoang Dung” uploaded a sound recording lasting more than six minutes with the content of a discussion on COVID-19 prevention in An Giang, in which one person was believed to be the Major General  Dinh Van Noi - the police chief of An Giang province at that time - and the other person was a former leader of An Giang province.

Facebooker “Nguyen Phuong” was believed to be one of the three Facebookers uploading and disseminating recordings and other information, documents, images, and videos with contents that distorted guidelines and policies of the ruling party and state of Vietnam and affected negatively the COVID-19 prevention of An Giang province and the country.

On October 9, 2021, the An Giang Security Investigation Agency issued a decision on filing a criminal lawsuit related to the above recording, but it still has not issued the decision on filing charges against any suspects.

On January 25, 2022, the An Giang Department of Information and Communications assessed 53 pages of documents from the Facebook account “Nguyen Phuong” and concluded that it had "anti-state propaganda content."

On August 30, 2022, Phuong traveled from Japan back to Ba Ria - Vung Tau and went to a friend's wedding. On the evening of August 30, 2022, Phuong and a group of four friends were allegedly caught using narcotic substances. Phuong was then temporarily detained at the detention center of Ba Ria Police under the accusation of “illegal storage of narcotic substances” and “facilitation of illegal use of narcotic substances."

On September 15, 2022, the An Giang Department of Information and Communications continued to conclude that 87 pages of documents extracted from Facebook account “Nguyen Phuong” had "anti-state propaganda content."

On September 29, 2022, the An Giang Security Investigation Agency issued a decision on filing charges against Nguyen Nhu Phuong.

On December 26, 2022, at the first-instance trial, Phuong was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of probation according to Article 117 of Criminal Code.

It is uncelar whether he will be prosecuted for the original narcotic charge.

March 2023:

At Nguyen Nhu Phuong’s trial on March 20, 2023, the court added an extra 15 months to his sentence for a “drug possession” charge on top of the “anti-state propaganda” charge, making his total prison sentence six years and three months. Phuong’s lawyer Nguyen Van Mieng reported on his Facebook page that Phuong said: “I am innocent. I would accept any decision by the court; however, I ask for leniency for my friends.”