The year 2014 has passed with many serious cases brought to court in Vietnam and myriad heavy sentences handed down, including one death penalty for ex-leader of Vinalines Duong Chi Dung in a corruption crackdown and the 30-year jail term for ex-banking tycoon Nguyen Duc Kien. Let us have a look again at six of the most attention-grabbing cases reported during the past year on Tuoi Tre News.Court upholds death for former shipping officials The Supreme People’s Court in Hanoi on May 7 upheld the death sentences for Duong Chi Dung, ex-chairman of the Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines), and Mai Van Phuc, former CEO of the state-owned corporation, for their serious corruption offenses. The hearing was opened by the court on April 22 for Dung, 57, and eight others who appealed the sentences handed down on them at the first instance trial in December 2013.

Dung and his accomplices were found guilty of causing a loss of over VND366 billion (US$17.4 million then) to the state budget as of May 2012, through Vinalines’ purchase of an old floating dock at $9 million from Russia in 2008. Dung and Phuc were proved to receive VND10 billion ($474,000 then) each extracted from the $1.666 million kickback given by a Singaporean broker, AP Company, through which Vinalines bought the old dock. Both Dung, who is the former head of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, and Phuc, who is the ex-head of the Transport Department under the Ministry of Transport, were eventually convicted of “intentionally violating state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences” and “embezzlement.”   

Duong Chi Dung, ex-chairman of Vinalines, is seen at his appeal trial in Hanoi on April 29, 2014. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Ex-banking tycoon gets 30-year jail term The Supreme People’s Court in Hanoi on December 15 upheld the 30-year sentence for a former banking tycoon for his key role in a multi-million-dollar financial scandal, for which he was tried in June 2014 on four charges, along with his five accessories.   Nguyen Duc Kien, 50, ex-deputy chairman of the Board of Management of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), was convicted in the June trial of illegal trading, tax evasion, fraud, and “deliberately acting against the State’s regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences,” the court said.

He appealed his 30-year sentence, claiming to be innocent. The five other defendants, who are ex-top bankers at ACB, also appealed their verdicts. After a ten-day appeal hearing for them, the supreme court turned down Kien’s appeal, affirming that he was guilty of the four charges, as previously convicted by the first instance court.

The appeal court also ordered Kien to pay a fine of VND75.1 billion ($3.5 million).  

Nguyen Duc Kien, ex-deputy chairman of the Board of Management of Asia Commercial Bank, is shown standing at his appeal trial in Hanoi on December 15, 2014. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Doctor jailed for dumping customer’s body into river The Hanoi People’s Court on December 5 sentenced a cosmetic surgeon to 19 years in prison for throwing the body of a female patient into a river after she died during a botched surgery at his private beauty salon in Hanoi in October 2013. Dr. Nguyen Manh Tuong, 42, the owner of the Cat Tuong beauty salon in Hai Ba Trung District of the capital city, received the sentence on two charges: violating regulations on giving diagnoses and treatment and prescribing medicine; and mistreating dead bodies. Tuong was also ruled to pay over VND585 million ($28,125) in compensation to the family of the victim, Le Thi Thanh Huyen, who died at 38. Meanwhile, Dao Quang Khanh, a former security guard at the beauty salon, was sentenced to 33 months in jail for helping the surgeon dump the body into the river and for stealing a cellphone from the victim. Tuong’s violations caused particularly severe consequences for society and the family of the victim and stirred up anger among the community, according to the court. On October 19, 2013, Tuong, who was then working for the state-owned Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi, performed a breast implant operation on a female client, Le Thi Thanh Huyen, at his private beauty salon. After the surgery, Huyen had breathing problems and started foaming at the mouth. Tuong gave her oxygen and other emergency treatment but failed to save her life. Tuong and Khanh then carried her body in a car to the Thanh Tri Bridge and threw it into the Hong (Red) River.  

Plastic surgeon Nguyen Manh Tuong (L) and Dao Quang Khanh at the Hanoi People's Court on December 5, 2014. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Nursemaids get 3 years each for abusing preschoolers

On January 20, 2014 the People’s Court of Thu Duc District in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced two nursemaids to three years each in prison for physically abusing children at a local preschool one month before. Le Thi Dong Phuong, 32, the manager of unlicensed Phuong Anh Private Preschool located in the district’s Hiep Binh Phuoc Ward, and Nguyen Le Thien Ly, a 20-year-old nursemaid, were given the sentences on charges of “ill-treating other persons” pursuant to Article 110 of the Penal Code. The two were arrested on December 17, 2013 after they were accused of ill-treating preschoolers. The jury also ordered Phuong to pay VND20 million ($960) in damages each to N.T.H and L.T.K, two of the four abused children. Before the jury announced the verdicts, the prosecutor had proposed that Phuong and Ly be sentenced to 2-3 years in prison.

Four abused preschoolers, from one to three years of age, were present at the hearing and represented by their parents, most of whom demanded compensation for the abuse. Police verification of the preschool’s profile showed that the facility had operated without a license since October 2012.  

Le Thi Dong Phuong (R) and Nguyen Le Thien Ly are pictured at their trial on January 20, 2014. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Man arrested for killing woman, cutting body into pieces

Police in Ho Chi Minh City on October 1 detained Dang Van Tuan, 44, for killing a woman and cut her body into pieces to destroy traces of his crime.

The killer was arrested in District 1 and pleaded guilty to killing Bui My Hanh, a 40-year-old woman. The victim had lived in the same house with Tuan and his younger brother, Dang Van Thanh, 37, before parts of her body were found in two sacks left in front of an alley on Vo Van Kiet Avenue in Cau Kho Ward, District 1. After receiving a tip-off from locals, police officers went to Tuan’s house and asked him to go to their office for questioning, but he locked himself inside the house and threatened to burn it down and cut his wrists.

When police forced the door open, they found Tuan lying on the floor, bleeding from one wrist. He was taken to a hospital and recovered after being treated.

Tuan told police that after finishing a seven-year sentence on drug charges in late 2013, he lived in the house with Thanh and Hanh, who were married.

Tuan said he and Hanh were addicted to methamphetamine, a synthetic drug.

Arguments broke out among the three people right before the murder, and Hanh told Tuan that she would hire an underground gang to slash him, the man told police officers.

Therefore, Tuan said, he used a pestle to strike Hanh in the head and then strangled her to death before dismembering her body on September 28.  

Dang Van Tuan, who killed a woman in District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, on September 28, 2014, is seen in a police car on October 1 the same year. Photo: Tuoi Tre

Young masseur arrested for killing 4 in 4 months

Police in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau on December 20 arrested Tran Van Diem, 28, for stabbing a man to death and robbing him. Diem pleaded guilty to the murder of 39-year-old Nguyen Hoang Ngan, who ran a vegetarian food shop in Vung Tau City – the provincial capital – and robbing him of his Wave motorbike on December 15. Diem, who hailed from the northern province of Hai Duong and worked as a roaming masseur under several pseudonyms, told police the details of the killing. As Ngan was lying on his abdomen so that Diem could apply ointment on his body before massaging him, he took out a knife he was carrying with him and stabbed two or three times at the victim’s neck area. The victim managed to roll out of his mattress, but was soon strangled to death by the killer with his bare hands. Diem then washed his hands and rummaged for Ngan’s valuables but could not find anything. Diem also admitted to killing three others in three separate earlier robberies in the northern province of Hai Phong, the central province of Quang Ngai, and Ho Chi Minh City from August to September 2014.  

Tran Van Diem is seen during an interrogation at the Ba Ria-Vung Tau police station in southern Vietnam. Photo: Tuoi Tre

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