Bay, also known as Tran Bao Viet, was arrested after police raided his house and confiscated his computers and copies of his published articles, according to news reports. On August 22, 2011, he was sentenced by a court in southern Kien Giang province to four years in prison and three years of house arrest on charges of “conducting propaganda against the state,” an anti-state offense under Article 88 of the penal code.
The court’s judgment cited 16 articles Bay posted from early 2010 until his arrest on websites hosted overseas-including Dam Chin Viet (Vietnamese Birds), Do Thoa (Dialogue), and To Quoc (Fatherland)-that were critical of Vietnam’s one-party system and called for multi-party democracy, according to media reports.
Bay had also been detained in January 2008 and interrogated in connection with eight articles he was accused of writing under pseudonyms and contributing to the overseas Voice of Freedom website. He was released at the time on the condition that he stop writing, according to state media reports.
He was being held at northern Kien Giang province’s An Bien prison camp, according to the Vietnam Human Rights Network, an exile-run human rights group.