The accused - including Catholics, bloggers and students - were handed sentences ranging from three to 13 years, defence lawyer Ha Huy Son told AFP.
Another
defendant received a three-year suspended sentence, which in Vietnam equates to
house arrest. Many of the accused have been held in pre-trial detention for
extended periods.
The court in
north-central Nghe An province ruled that all of the accused had links to the
US-based Viet Tan opposition group, which the communist country considers a
terrorist organisation.
The US embassy
said it was "deeply troubled" by the sentences, which follow the
recent detention of prominent Catholic dissident lawyer Le Quoc Quan as well as
the upholding of long jail terms for three high-profile bloggers.
The latest
convictions "are part of a disturbing human rights trend in Vietnam,"
it said in a statement released after the verdict.
"We call
on the government to release these individuals and all other prisoners of
conscience immediately," the US statement added.
Critics say
charges of spreading anti-state propaganda and attempting to overthrow the
regime are routinely laid against peaceful dissidents in a country where the
Communist Party forbids political debate.
"The court
did not have objective evidence to find them guilty of the charge," lawyer
Son said.
Viet Tan, which
says it is a peaceful pro-democracy group, condemned what it described as the
"arbitrary conviction of 14 human rights defenders," and said it
would continue to lobby for their release.
Family members
expressed dismay at the ruling.
"There was
no evidence to charge them. The verdict was illogical," said Dinh Thi
Oanh, whose husband Nguyen Xuan Anh was given a three-year sentence.
Rights
campaigners say dozens of peaceful political activists have been jailed since
Vietnam, a one-party state, began a new crackdown on free expression in late
2009.
"The
conviction of yet more peaceful activists is another example of a government
that is increasingly afraid of the opinions of its own people," said Brad
Adams, Asia director at New York-based Human Rights Watch.
Last month
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung ordered a new crackdown on online dissent,
telling authorities to fight against anyone using the internet to "defame
and spread propaganda against the party and state".
In another in a
string of convictions, a court in southern Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday
sentenced a 36-year-old woman to three and a half years in jail for
"anti-state propaganda".
(bangkokpost.com)