JavaScript is off. Please enable to view full site.

Probe requested for ex-Vinalines leader’s striking confession

Probe requested for ex-Vinalines leader’s striking confession

Wednesday, January 08, 2014, 13:34 GMT+7

The Hanoi People’s Procuracy has demanded that an investigation be made on the latest testimony of Duong Chi Dung, the ex-Vinalines chairman who was sentenced to death for corruption last month.

>> Vice police minister is the mole: shocking court testimony >> Ex-colonel tried for helping former Vinalines boss flee abroad >> Dung mute on mole who tipped him off on arrest >> Two ex-leaders of Vinalines face death penalty Appearing at the Tuesday hearing for his brother, Duong Tu Trong, 52, who led a group that helped Dung flee from Vietnam to avoid arrest in May 2012, Dung told the court that the incumbent Deputy Minister of Public Security Pham Quy Ngo phoned him on May 17, 2012, informing him that he had been indicted and advised him to hide for a while. Dung, 56, also told the court that he had offered bribes to many high-ranking officials from the Ministry of Public Security to avoid being investigated over the purchase of the old floating dock from Russia at an unusually high price in 2008. He approved a plan to buy the dock, which was built in 1965, for US$9 million through a Singaporean broking company, while the dock’s owner offered to sell it for only $5 million. Dung told the court that he visited Ngo’s family in Tuan Chau, Quang Ninh Province on April 29, 2012, and told Ngo about the purchase of the dock and asked him for help. Ngo said he would help Dung and then later gave the former an envelope containing US$10,000, Dung testified. He also said he arrived in Ngo’s house on May 2, 2012 and offered Ngo US$500,000 contained in a bag. In addition, Dung also confessed that he received from $1 million from Mrs. Truong My Lan, director of HCMC-based Van Thinh Phat, to hand to Ngo. This amount was related to a project at the Saigon Port, Dung said. Dung affirmed with the jury that all his above testimonies are true.Accusation letter According to Duong Chi Dung, after he was sentenced to death on 17 Dec, he wrote an accusation letter to the Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, President Truong Tan Sang, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, and Nguyen Ba Thanh, head of the Party Central Committee's Commission for Internal Affairs. In the letter, he said that he did not receive any money from the US$1.666 million that was a kickback from Singapore-based AP Company, the broker in the purchase of the old floating dock. “I was unjustly indicted for receiving a sum [VND10 billion ($480,000) according to the indictment]. This issue originated from Ngo. The investigation has not been conducted objectively, aiming to imposing a death sentence on me.”Deliberately disclosing work secrets Based on Dung’s confession as well as the testimonies of Vu Tien Son, ex-deputy head of the Social Crime Investigation Police Department under the Hai Phong Police, a case of “deliberately disclosing work secrets” existed, said the prosecutor at the Tuesday trial session. Therefore, the Hanoi People’s Procurary proposed that the court request concerned agencies to commence criminal proceedings for the case. Also in yesterday’s trial session, the prosecutor’s office proposed that Dung’s brother, Duong Tu Trong, be sentenced to 18-20 years in jail. For Trong’s six accomplices, the prosecutor at court proposed sentences of 5 to 18 years to them all. In related developments, Judge Vuong Van Nghia, at the HCMC Criminal Court, said that Dung’s latest testimonies have provided signs of the offense of “deliberately disclosing work secrets” according to Article 286 of the Penal Code. Meanwhile, Nguyen Sy Cuong, a member of the National Assembly’s Law Committee, said that he believed that Dung’s confession have provided a part of the truth. Investigators should launch an investigation into the case at the request of the Hanoi People’s Procuracy soon, Cuong added.  

Article 286 of the Penal Code: Deliberately disclosing work secrets; appropriating, trading in or destroying documents containing work secrets

1. Those who deliberately disclose work secrets or appropriate, trade in or destroy documents containing work secrets in cases other than those stipulated in Articles 80 and 263 of this Code, shall be sentenced to non-custodial reform for up to three years or between three months and three years of imprisonment.

2. Committing the crime and causing serious consequences, the offenders shall be sentenced to between two years and seven years of imprisonment.

3. The offenders shall also be banned from holding certain posts, practicing certain occupations or doing certain jobs for one to five years.

Tuoitrenews

More

Read more

;

Photos

VIDEOS

‘Taste of Australia’ gala dinner held in Ho Chi Minh City after 2-year hiatus

Taste of Australia Gala Reception has returned to the Park Hyatt Hotel in Ho Chi Minh City's District 1 after a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Vietnamese woman gives unconditional love to hundreds of adopted children

Despite her own immense hardship, she has taken in and cared for hundreds of orphans over the past three decades.

Vietnam’s Mekong Delta celebrates spring with ‘hat boi’ performances

The art form is so popular that it attracts people from all ages in the Mekong Delta

Vietnamese youngster travels back in time with clay miniatures

Each work is a scene caught by Dung and kept in his memories through his journeys across Vietnam

Latest news