The formal indictment against journalist Pham Doan Trang made available for public, reports The Vietnamese Magazine

Main points:

• According to the indictment, the investigation was done between September 22, 2016 and October 7, 2020, which was also the day that the authorities arrested Doan Trang.

• Doan Trang refused to provide the police with her laptop password and so the police could not access its data. She also refused to acknowledge her possession of the Facebook account named “Pham Doan Trang,” and therefore the investigative unit could not charge her in connection with the information posted via that account on social media.

• Doan Trang acknowledged that she was one of the authors of the “Report Assessment of the 2016 Law on Belief and Religion in Relation to the Exercise of Freedom of Religion and Belief in Vietnam” in both English and Vietnamese. This report was published on the website of Luat Khoa Magazine.

• As of the conclusion of the investigation into Doan Trang’s case on August 26, 2021, the authorities had not yet found any evidence to reduce her punishment.

• The indictment stated that both the 1999 Penal Code and the 2015 Penal Code (which took effect on January 1, 2018) could be used to prosecute Doan Trang since she continued her unlawful conduct from 2017 to 2019. However, the government dropped charges under Article 117 and only prosecuted Doan Trang under Article 88 because it stated that Doan Trang did not provide any statement during her interrogations.

• The 1999 Penal Code would be more beneficial to the defendant since Article 88 of that penal code starts the sentence at 3 years imprisonment versus 5 years imprisonment under Article 117 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Evidence and final indictment: