During the COVID-19 lockdowns in Vietnam last year, blogger Bui Van Thuan took to Facebook to criticise a government plan to use soldiers to deliver groceries to people confined to their homes in Ho Chi Minh City.
Days later, he was arrested.
Mr Thuan, 41, a former teacher in the country’s northern province of Hoa Binh, was last month sentenced to eight years in prison for propaganda, and a further five years of probation.
Vietnamese authorities charged Mr Thuan with “making, storing, disseminating or propagandising information, materials and products that aim to oppose” the nation.
The charge is increasingly applied to online content as the state exerts greater control over the internet, according to human rights groups.
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