HANOI - A COURT in communist Vietnam on Wednesday sentenced a journalist to two years in prison for his coverage of a major state corruption scandal and also jailed his police source for one year.

'The People's Court of Hanoi finds Nguyen Viet Chien guilty of abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the state,' said presiding Judge Tran Van Vy. 'The sentence is two years in prison.'

Two more defendants, another journalist and a high-ranking police official, were released.

Chien, 56, of the Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper, had defended his professionalism in reporting on the case, in which state officials pilfered foreign aid funds, much of it to gamble on football matches.

The second reporter, Nguyen Van Hai, 33, of the Tuoi Tre (Youth) daily, who had admitted to some unintentional mistakes in his reporting, was sentenced to a two-year non-custodial reeducation sentence and allowed to walk free.

Police General Pham Xuan Quac, 62, who led the corruption investigation and was accused of leaking secrets to the media, received an official warning.

A second senior police official, Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Van Huynh, 50, was sentenced to one year in prison after admitting to passing on some information about the case to the media.

The prison terms of Chien and Huynh include the time they have already served behind bars since their arrests in May. -- AFP