Vietnam Jails Pastor Of Banned Mennonite Church

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — State media in Vietnam say a court has sentenced the pastor of an outlawed Mennonite church to 11 years in prison for sowing division between the government and citizens of this communist nation.

The People’s Army newspaper says Nguyen Cong Chinh, 43, was convicted of undermining the government policy of unity at the one-day trial Monday.

The news report said Tuesday that Chinh was convicted of authoring and disseminating documents with distorted information that slandered authorities.

Court officials were not available for comment Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch has slammed the conviction of the pastor.

Vietnam’s communist government has tight control over society and all churches must get government approval to operate.