HANOI, Jan 9, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A prominent former lawyer went on trial in Vietnam on Thursday over Facebook posts in which he criticised high court officials, as rights groups decried another attack on freedom of expression in the communist country.

Tran Dinh Trien, former deputy head of the Hanoi Bar Association, is the latest high-profile lawyer to be targeted by authorities over what they have written online.

Charged with "abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon state interests", the 65-year-old faces up to seven years in jail if found guilty by the court in Hanoi.

He was defended by 12 lawyers on Thursday as prosecutors accused him of posting Facebook articles "without verified evidence... undermining the prestige of the court", state-run Tuoi Tre newspaper said.

Rights campaigners say authorities in Vietnam, a one-party state, have in recent years stepped up a crackdown on civil society and weaponised the law to silence government critics.

Human Rights Watch said Article 331 -- the charge of infringing state interests -- has been used to convict and sentence at least 24 people in 2024 alone.

Trien, head of the Vi Dan "For the People" legal firm in Hanoi, was arrested in June. His legal licence was suspended last week.

Deputy chair of the Hanoi Bar Association from 2013-2018, Trien has defended activists and 
represented defendants on sensitive issues such as land confiscation.

The three Facebook posts over which he is charged were uploaded in April and May this year.
 
In them, he criticised the chief justice of the supreme court, who he said prevented defendants' family members from attending trials and journalists and lawyers from recording video during open trials, according to Human Rights Watch.

According to one of his lawyers, Mai Dinh, some of his posts also praised Vietnam's late party leader Nguyen Phu Trong, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and Hanoi police for their work "for the people".

The 88 Project, which advocates for freedom of expression in Vietnam, said the charges against Trien were a violation of international law. 

"If convicted, Trien's prosecution will set a dangerous precedent for other lawyers in Vietnam," The 88 Project said in a statement, warning of "a chilling effect on the general population, who will be less likely to voice criticism of their unelected leaders and government officials on social media."

Vietnam has strict curbs on freedom of expression, and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks it 174th out of 180 countries for press freedom, describing it as one of the world's worst jailers of journalists.