Imprisonment for bribe payment to reporter after corruption article
In Vietnam, a reporter has been sent to prison for paying bribes as part of his award-winning investigative reporting on corruption. A court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced Hoang Khuong to four years in prison on Friday.
His defense lawyer Phan Trung Hoai had pleaded in vain for acquittal. Khuong works for the largest newspaper, Tuoi Tre. He told the court that he had posed as a traffic offender last year and sent a police officer 15 million dong (around 680 francs) to get a confiscated moped back.
According to his lawyer, he had wanted to help the police fight corruption with his article. Khuong acted on behalf of the newspaper and did not benefit personally, the newspaper's editor-in-chief said before the trial. (sda)
