The HCM City People’s Court on Wednesday sentenced 15 defendants to between five years and 16 years in prison for terrorism. — VNA/VNS Photo Thành Chung

HCM CITY — The HCM City People’s Court on Wednesday sentenced 15 defendants to between five years and 16 years in prison for terrorism.

Đặng Hoàng Thiện, 25, residing in District 3, HCM City, got 16 years behind bars for his main role in making and planting petrol bombs at Tân Sơn Nhất International Airport on April 22 this year, and his involvement in setting fire to a warehouse of the Biên Hóa City Police in the southern province of Đồng Nai on April 8. 

The instigator of the April 8 arson attack, Nguyễn Đức Sinh, 32, originally from Quảng Ngãi Province, was given a 10-year sentence. He and his accomplices were also ordered to pay VNĐ1.2 billion (US$53,300) in compensation to the Biên Hòa Police.  

Thirteen other accomplices were sentenced to between five and 14 years in prison for “conducting terrorism against the people’s administration”. 

Thiện’s 21-year-old girlfriend, Lê Thị Thu Phương, received a suspended sentence of one year and six months for not denouncing the crime, with three years on probation. 

The court concluded that the defendants were enticed by subversive forces abroad to engage in activities against the administration and the people, such as spreading false and distorted information on social networks, participating in demonstrations, recruiting members for reactionary organisations and making weapons. 

Their acts posed serious danger to society, threatening national security and violate the people’s assets and health, the court declared. 

According to the verdict, the convicted acted under the instruction of Đào Minh Quân and Phạm Lisa, who lead an overseas reactionary terrorist group, which used social networks to entice many people in Việt Nam to set up terrorist groups planning to conduct terrorist acts and sabotage in the country. 

The Ministry of Public Security has issued a wanted notice for Quân and Lisa. — VNS