After a trial lasting just a few hours and amid intense security, Nguyen Van Hai, whose case was raised by President Obama in May, was given a 12 year sentence. Ta Phong Tan, whose mother died in July after setting herself on fire in protest at police harassment of her family, received ten years, while Phan Thanh Hai was sentenced to four years.
The jailing of the three bloggers comes two weeks after Vietnam's Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered a crackdown on political blogs.
With the official press muzzled by the ruling communist party, online dissent has mushroomed in Vietnam in the last two years, as resentment of official corruption and nepotism has intensified.
Hundreds of police surrounded the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City Monday morning to prevent supporters of the trio from approaching the court. Fellow dissident bloggers said that seven people were arrested immediately before the trial, while mobile phone signals were cut inside the court compound.
No one has ever been acquitted of the charges the three bloggers faced. On Sunday, Mr Nguyen's ex-wife Duong Thi Tan expressed her fears that they would not receive a fair trial. "In this country, the law is never enforced as it is enshrined," she said.
Mr Nguyen, who blogs under the name Dieu Cay, has been in prison since April 2008, while Mr Phan and Mrs Ta were arrested in 2010 and 2011 respectively. Their plight has attracted worldwide condemnation, with human rights groups calling for their immediate release. On May 3rd, during a speech to mark World Press Freedom Day, President Obama singled out Mr Nguyen's case as an example of the "mass crackdown on citizen journalism in Vietnam".
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