Vo Thi Thu Thuy, 50, was sentenced to five years in prison while Nguyen Van Thanh, 28, was jailed for three years by the court in central Nghe An province, according to the Communist Party's daily mouthpiece, Nhan Dan.

According to the indictment, Thuy made contact with Roman Catholic priest Father Nguyen Van Ly after attending a 2009 protest over a land dispute at the site of a church bombed during the Vietnam War in central Quang Binh province.

Ly, in his 60s, was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2007 for propaganda against the state, after he helped to found 'Bloc 8406", considered one of the communist state's first organised pro-democracy coalitions.

Agence France Presse - March 7, 2012