Binh Thuan (VNA) – The People’s Court of thecentral province of Binh Thuan upheld the first instance trial sentences ofbetween two and three years imposed on 13 defendants charged with disturbanceof public order at the provincial People’s Committee headquarters in June 2018.

Accordingly, at the appeals court on March 25, thedefendants were unable to provide new evidence and as such, the court could notaccept their appeals due to insubstantial mitigating factors.

The defendants are Le Nhut Ban, Truong Gia Quoc Huy, NguyenThi Nham, Do Van Tai, Tran Thi Mai Huong, Do Van Co, Dong Kim Hung, Nguyen HuuThai, Nguyen Dinh Dong, Pham Minh Tung, Dang Ngoc Hoa, Nguyen Sinh, and Doan ThiHanh Thuong.

They were convicted of “causing public disorder” inaccordance with Clause 2, Article 318 of the 2015 Penal Code. The jury at thefirst-instance trial found the actions of the defendants extremely serious,disrupting public safety and affecting the locality’s political security andsocial order.

Their prison sentences, which were given by the People’sCourt of Phan Thiet city in Binh Thuan, were kept at three years for Ban; two anda half years for Huy, Nham, Tai, and Huong; and two years and three months toCo, Hung, Dong and Thai. A two-year jail term was upheld for the remainingdefendants.

According to the indictment, the disturbance they were involvedin began in Phan Thiet city at 4:30 pm on June 10 last year, when a group ofpeople gathered and moved from Phan Thiet market to the provincial People’sCommittee headquarters to protest a draft law on specialadministrative-economic units.

They shouted and jostled police and guards of the buildingand incited bystanders to attack police with bricks and stones.

Some even attacked police with homemade petrol bombs, stones,and other tools, going on to destroy the fence and burn the sentry box andseveral rooms of the sentry force. They also damaged the fence around someother provincial agencies.

Traffic near the administration’s headquarters wasdisrupted, while several facilities were damaged. Police were sent to the siteand the crowd only began to dissolve at midnight the same day.

Police statistics claimed that at the provincial Departmentof Planning and Investment, three automobiles, 17 motorbikes, and one waterpump were burnt down; while 15 computers were destroyed and two laptops stolen.The protesters also damaged the assets of some provincial agencies and wounded severalpolice officers. –VNA