Police on November 3 announced that they had arrested Nguyen Phuong Uyen, a 20-year-old student, and Dinh Nguyen Kha, 24, a computer repairman, for distributing leaflets slandering the Party and State and other anti-State acts.

They made the announcement at a press conference jointly held by the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Information and Communication, the city police and the Long An provincial police.

Colonel Nguyen Sau, deputy police chief of Long An Province, said that on October 19, police issued a 4-month arrest warrant and indicted Nguyen Phuong Uyen, a third-year student of the Ho Chi Minh City University of Food Industry, on charges of “propaganda against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” under article 88 of the Criminal Code.

Also indicted and arrested was Dinh Nguyen Kha of Long An Province’s Tan An City.

Police are expanding the investigation into “terrorism” activities.

According to Long An provincial police, the arrest and indictment of the two were carried out in line with procedures of the law.

According to an initial investigation, Uyen and Kha were lured by Nguyen Thien Thanh (currently wanted; hiding in Thailand) to join him in a group called “Tuoi tre yeu nuoc” (Patriotic Youth) and carry out acts against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.

In July, Uyen befriended Thanh via the Internet and was asked to join the said group.

In early October, Thanh chatted with Uyen and Kha on the Internet, telling them to make a box with a timing device that could automatically distribute anti-state leaflets.

After receiving instructions, Kha built the leaflet box. Kha gave Uyen VND2.5 million (US$120) to be exchanged into smaller denominations of VND5,000, VND10,000 and VND20,000. The smaller notes were then attached to the leaflets to lure passers-by to pick them up.

On October 9, Kha and Uyen pretended to be a couple and hung the box containing the leaflets at the An Suong Flyover on National Highway No 1 in Ho Chi Minh City.

At 7:15 am on October 10, 2012, the box – triggered by the timing device – automatically opened and spread leaflets on the road.

The leaflets fabricated information, slandering the Government’s policy on religion and land in addition to containing perverted opinions on Truong Sa – Hoang Sa (the Spratly and Paracel Islands), and the Vietnam-China border, wrongly accusing the Communist Party of depravity, calling on the public to demonstrate and stand up against the Party and the State.

While the box was dropping the leaflets, Uyen stood nearby taking photos and videos, after which she wrote insulting words targeting the officials who collected the leaflets. Her insults, videos and photos were sent to Thanh to be posted on “Tuoi tre yeu nuoc's” website.

Plot to blow up President Ho Chi Minh’s statue

Ho Chi Minh City police detained Uyen and have since transferred her to Long An provincial police.

Police have obtained evidence including 723 leaflets, the home-made carton box with the timer, flags of the former Saigon regime, 2.5kg of chemicals and materials to be made into explosives, and a computer CPU…

At the police station, Uyen and Kha admitted to having followed Thanh’s instructions to make flags of the former Saigon regime in August and hung them at a number of locations, along with anti-Party slogans. They later photographed these spots and sent the photos to Thanh so he could post them on the website.

Kha even admitted to having bought, on Thanh’s orders, chemicals in an attempt to create explosives with the aim of destroying the statue of President Ho Chi Minh in Can Tho City. Kha has successfully made the explosives but was arrested before the plan could progress any further.

Classmates did not write to President

Also at the press conference, representatives of the University of Food Industry where Uyen is a student denied the information that many students have lodged complaints to state President Truong Tan Sang, asking for Uyen's release.

According to the university representatives, many students whose names appeared in an alleged letter to the President asserted that they did not sign anything nor write anything to the President. Some even said they did not know of Uyen’s arrest.