The charges would be filed against Dinh today and forwarded to the Supreme People’s Procuracy, Vietnam’s highest prosecution agency, for ratification, said Major-general Hoang Kong Tu, deputy head of the Security General Department under the Ministry of Public Security.

Dinh is being charged under the Penal Code's Article 88, which bans "propaganda" against the state, Tu said. Article 88 of the Penal Code stipulates that those convicted of spreading propaganda against the state could be jailed for three to 20 years depending on the seriousness of the crime.

Tu, who also heads the ministry’s investigation agency, said at a press briefing Thursday that Dinh had confessed to several subversive activities after his arrest.

In February, Dinh had participated in a non-violent struggle training course held in Pattaya in Thailand by Viet Tan (Vietnam Reform) Party, a US-based antigovernment group busted in Vietnam in 2007, investigation documents reveal.

The documents say Dinh admitted he had been aware that Viet Tan was a terrorist group when undergoing training under two Serbian experts.

Dinh also took membership in the US-based Vietnam Democratic Party led by Nguyen Sy Binh. Dinh, Binh, and Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, another group member, were plotting to set up Labor and Social parties aiming to replace Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party.

In March, Dinh went to Phuket in Thailand to meet with Binh and Thuc to plan the overthrow of the Vietnamese government in 2010 when they expected there would be a political upheaval.

Dinh had also written different establishment of parties set up by his accomplices through several blogs and websites, the police said.

Dinh had written in his statement on Wednesday that he recognized his actions had violated the Vietnamese laws.

“I feel very repentant for my wrongdoings. I am looking forward to clemency from the state,” he wrote.

Another alleged subversive nabbed

Major-general Hoang Kong Tu also said the police had arrested in Le Thang Long for hatching reactionary plots against the state.

Long had connived with Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, who was arrested on May 24 for spreading propaganda against the state, to entice people to participate in their “To make Vietnam prosper” club, a subversive organization, the investigative documents say.

In April, Long also collaborated with monk Thich Minh Tam, whose real name is Nguyen Thieu Van, to launch the Australia-based website www.chanhungnuocviet.info for the same reactionary purpose, Major-general Tu said.

The police said they would probe further the role of monk Thich Minh Tam in this case.

Major-general Tu also said Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, former general director of the HCMC-based One Connection Internet (OCI) Joint Stock Company, had written many entries on several blogs to convey distorted information about the policies, laws, and directions of the Vietnamese government.

Tu said Le Cong Dinh, Tran Huynh Duy Thuc, and Le Thang Long are facing charges of “spreading propaganda against the state”. Further investigations would confirm if the charges would be changed to “plotting to overthrow the people’s administration” under Article 79 of the Penal Code, he added.

Reported by Le Nga – Phan Tung