Vietnam sentences 22 activists to jail "At the trial, most of the defendants admitted their crime of aiming to overthrow the people's administration," said the lawyer, who was appointed by the court to defend the accused at the trial, which lasted just over a week. The 22 - convicted by a court in the central province of Phu Yen - were accused of links to a little-known "reactionary" group called Hoi Dong Cong Luat Cong An Bia Son in Vietnamese. The group's name translates as Council for the Laws and Public Affairs of Bia Son, but there is scant information about its aims beyond Vietnamese police accounts, which depict it as a terrorist group. Bia Son is a mountain in Phu Yen province. The group was run "non-violently" by its 65-year-old leader Phan Van Thu between 2003 and his arrest in February last year, state media has previously reported. Dozens of political activists have been jailed since Vietnam, a one-party state, began a new crackdown on free expression in late 2009. In another mass trial last month, Vietnam jailed 13 activists - including Catholics, bloggers and students - in move criticised by the United States as part of a "disturbing" trend in the authoritarian state.