# Vietnam adds 11 years to dissident Trinh Ba Phuong's prison sentence
*Event date: 2025-09-26*
A Vietnamese court has given dissident Trinh Ba Phuong another 11 years in prison after convicting him of speaking out against the Communist Party while already behind bars. The AP report says the People's Court of Da Nang reached its verdict on Friday and that the new sentence was imposed on a man who was already serving 10 years for spreading anti-state propaganda.
The case revolves around a piece of paper found in Phuong's cell. According to The 88 Project, the paper carried the words "down with the Communist Party of Vietnam for violating human rights, down with the Communist court for wrongfully convicting me". Opposition media outside Vietnam reported that Phuong denied writing it. State-run media did not cover the case, and the Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment, which leaves the court's handling of the evidence hard to assess from inside the country's official system.
Human rights groups quickly seized on the conviction as proof that Vietnam does not tolerate dissent. Elaine Pearson of Human Rights Watch said the verdict showed zero tolerance for opposition and urged governments engaged with Hanoi to press for the release of activists jailed for peaceful expression. The 88 Project said the prosecution appeared to be the first time a Vietnamese political prisoner had been prosecuted for speech delivered while already imprisoned.
Phuong is not a random prisoner. The AP report describes him as a human rights, land rights and environmental campaigner whose parents were imprisoned in 2014 after taking part in protests. He also drew attention for a report on a January 2020 police raid in which an elderly farmer and three officers were killed during an attempt to move farmers off their land. Phuong was arrested later that year and convicted in 2021 for anti-state propaganda.
The new sentence arrives as Vietnam seeks closer economic ties with Europe, a detail that rights groups regard as important because the crackdown is unfolding at the same time as diplomatic outreach. The AP report says the case highlights the state's use of vague criminal code provisions to silence critics, journalists and bloggers. In practical terms, it means one of Vietnam's best-known dissidents will remain in prison for many more years, now punished not just for his original conviction but for words allegedly written from within his cell.
