HANOI, Sept 10, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - A journalist and prominent critic of the Vietnamese government who wrote about issues including corruption, land rights and the environment will face trial on Tuesday in Hanoi on propaganda charges.

Nguyen Vu Binh -- a political activist who served almost five years in jail in the early 2000s -- is accused of producing propaganda against the state.

If convicted at the Hanoi People's Court, he faces up to 12 years in prison under article 117 of the criminal code.

Analysts say authorities in communist Vietnam have escalated a crackdown on dissent in recent years.

"Nguyen Vu Binh has tirelessly campaigned for human rights and democracy in Vietnam," said Patricia Gossman, associate Asia director at Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"His peaceful expression of political dissent is not a crime," Gossman added, calling for Binh's immediate release.

Binh, 55, was arrested in late February on the same day as Nguyen Chi Tuyen, an influential YouTuber and campaigner who spoke out on pollution and land rights.

Last month, Tuyen was found guilty of "making, storing and disseminating information, documents and materials against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam" and jailed for five years.

Binh had spent a decade as a journalist at the official Communist Party of Vietnam's journal.
 
He resigned in late 2000 and attempted to form an independent political party.

He was imprisoned between late 2003 and June 2007 for espionage.

After his release, Binh blogged for Radio Free Asia, writing about corruption, land rights, the environment and Vietnam's relations with China and the United States.

Binh twice received a prestigious Hellman/Hammett grant, given to victims of political persecution, in 2002 and 2007.

In August and September, Vietnamese authorities convicted and sentenced at least seven human rights campaigners on similar grounds, according to HRW.

There are currently 175 activists in jail in the country, according to The 88 Project, a Vietnam-focused human rights organisation.