Nguyen Van Hai, who blogs as Dieu Cay, was charged and convicted of tax fraud. A number of facts marshal against the notion that the charge was legitimate. Chief among them was the fact that Nguyen was not charged with tax fraud until five days after his arrested, as does the fact that he is a member of the democracy activism blogging group, Union of Independent Journalists.

Nguyen’s sentence comes on the heals of the equally ridiculous two-year sentence of Moroccan blogger,  Mohamed Erraji.

The newspaper Vietnam Law reported that Ho Chi Minh City police Tuesday arrested Nguyen Van Hai, who blogs under the name Dieu Cay, on charges of tax evasion. The paper said police had searched Hai’s house Monday and found evidence that he and his ex-wife had understated their monthly rent to avoid paying the full value-added tax.

Hai is a member of a group of bloggers known as the Union of Independent Journalists. Other members of the group have called for protests along the torch’s route when it is carried through Ho Chi Minh City.

Members of the group were also involved in organising demonstrations in December and January against Chinese moves to assert sovereignty over the Spratly and Paracel Islands, which Vietnam also claims.

Vietnamese democracy activists, who requested anonymity, said that Hai had actually been detained on Monday in the resort town of Dalat, 300 kilometres north-west of Ho Chi Minh City, and escorted back to Ho Chi Minh City to facilitate the search of his house.

On his blog, Hai had featured articles on protests against the torch in other cities around the world, and others critical of China’s policies in Tibet and the Spratlys and opposing the torch’s relay through Vietnam.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung held a meeting with Ho Chi Minh City officials to review their plans for preventing demonstrations during the torch relay.

I rarely put forward that I am an American, as it’s usually not germane. But I have to say: Is there no single American company that realizes open discourse is the reason they exist and that every time they help to bury it they take one step closer to their own grave? I’m freaking speechless to add another American company to the gold is better than God group.

For more information on Vietnamese dissidents and Trung, read this Boston Globe article.

Update: Here’s a radio story on this situation by Matt Steinglass on PRI’s The World.