BANGKOK — A well-known Vietnamese dissident has been convicted of speaking out inside prison against the ruling Communist Party and sentenced to another 11 years, in a move rights activists said Tuesday highlights the country's strict suppression of any opposition.
Trinh Ba Phuong, who was already serving a 10-year sentence on charges of spreading anti-state propaganda, was convicted Friday by the People's Court of Da Nang for writing “down with the Communist Party of Vietnam for violating human rights, down with the Communist court for wrongfully convicting me” on a piece of paper found in his cell, according to The 88 Project, a group focusing on human rights abuses in Vietnam.
The conviction was reported by opposition media based outside of Vietnam, which said Phuong had denied writin