Vietnamese media lawyer Le Cong Dinh was sentenced to five years' imprisonment for subversion by a Hanoi court on 20 January 2009.

Dinh had been earlier charged with violation of Article 88 which covers the "crime of spreading lies against the government". This charge, which provides for a 20-year jail time, was later replaced with subversion, which carries the death penalty.

In a day-long trial that many critics have described as "a sham", the court also found  three other pro-democracy activists guilty of subversion and meted out corresponding sentences. Le Thang Long, Nguyen Tien Trung and Tran Huynh Duy Thuc were sentenced to five, seven and 16 years in prison, respectively.

Aside from this, Dinh, Long and Trung were also sentenced to three years of house arrest on completing their jail terms, while Thuc was given five years of house arrest.

Dinh is well known for defending human rights lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan when they appealed their prison sentences for spreading anti-government propaganda in 1997, according to SEAPA's sources inside Vietnam.

He also defended in court the famous blogger Dieu Cay for his right to free speech. Dieu Cay, aka Nguyen Hoang Hai, has been recently adopted as PEN Canada's honorary member.