HANOI — A court in northern Vietnam sentenced a dissident to 13 years in prison on Tuesday after finding him guilty of attempting to overthrow the government. He was the seventh activist to be jailed in the past week as Communist authorities step up a crackdown on dissent.
The official Vietnam News Agency said Nguyen Van Tuc, 54, was convicted of affiliating with an outlawed group named Brotherhood for Democracy in a half-day trial at the People’s Court in Thai Binh province.
VNA said Tuc was the group’s vice president. The group was a ‘‘reactionary organization that operated illegally aimed at attempting to abolish the leading role of the Communist Party of Vietnam and overthrow the people’s administration,’’ it said.