Vu Hong Nam, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to Japan, and Chu Xuan Dung, vice chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi City, have been detained for allegedly involving in Vietnam’s repatriation flights during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lieutenant General To An Xo, chief of the office and spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security, on Thursday said the ministry’s Investigative Police Agency had issued decisions to file charges against Nam and Dung for allegedly receiving bribes.

Investigators from the Ministry of Public Security also arrested Pham Bich Hang, director of Vina Michi JSC, on alleged charges of giving bribes.

Nam, born in 1963 in northern Nam Dinh Province, was picked as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and head of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese in 2014.

In August 2018, he was named Vietnamese ambassador to Japan.

Dung, 49, a native of Hanoi, held the post of vice chairman of the People’s Committee of the capital city from 2020 after serving as deputy director and director of the municipal Department of Education and Training.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Dung was the deputy head and then head of the Hanoi steering committee for COVID-19 prevention and control.

In related news, the Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission, at its 24th session held in Hanoi on Tuesday and Wednesday, asked the Politburo and the Party Central Committee’s Secretariat to weigh disciplinary measures against incumbent Minister of Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son.

The Party Civil Affairs Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the 2016-21 and 2021-26 tenures faced the same fate.

According to the Inspection Commission, the Party Civil Affairs Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs infringed working regulations and showed a lack of responsibility and slack leadership, letting the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and many organizations, officials, and Party members violate the Party’s regulations and the State’s laws on proposing and arranging repatriation flights during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some officials’ and Party members’ political ideology and ethics degraded. They violated the don’ts for Party members, failed to become examples for others, received bribes, and were prosecuted and detained.

Vu Hong Nam, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and ambassador to Japan.

Their violations caused serious consequences and sparked public concern, went against the policies of the Party and the State, and damaged the prestige of Party and diplomatic organizations.

At the session, the Inspection Commission reprimanded the standing board of the Party Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; former Vietnamese ambassador to India Pham Sanh Chau; Vu Binh, Vietnamese Consul General in Fukuoka, Japan; and Pham Nhu Y, an official of the Vietnamese Embassy in India.

Meanwhile, the Party Committee of the Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Nguyen Hoang Linh, an employee of the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia, received warnings.

In addition, Vietnamese Consul General in Osaka, Japan Nguyen Hong Ha; Ly Tien Hung, an ex-official of the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia; Nguyen Le Ngoc Anh, an official of the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia; and Vu Ngoc Minh, a former official of the Vietnamese Embassy in Angola, were expelled from the Party.

Furthermore, Tran Viet Thai, Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia, was stripped of all his Party posts in the 2020-25 tenure.

The Inspection Commission required the Party Civil Affairs Committee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to coordinate with the Party Committee of the ministry to direct the correction of violations and shortcomings, review the responsibility of and discipline relevant individuals and organizations, and report the results to the Inspection Commission.

The sanctions against these above individuals and organizations were part of an investigation in which many officials were accused of taking bribes from Vietnamese citizens abroad who wanted to return to the country when commercial flights were not available during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since the Ministry of Public Security launched an investigation into the case in late January, more than 30 people have been prosecuted and detained, including many officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Transport, and former leaders and officials of the Immigration Department under the Ministry of public Security.

Earlier, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung, 58, and Nguyen Quang Linh, assistant to the permanent deputy prime minister, were also apprehended for the same charge as Nam and Chu Xuan Dung.

Early this month, Vu Ngoc Minh, a former official at the Vietnamese Embassy in Angola; Ly Tien Hung, a former official at the Vietnamese Embassy in Russia and an official of the Science, Technology and Environment Department under the Ministry of Education and Training; and Vu Hong Quang, deputy head of the air transport division under the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam, were prosecuted for allegedly taking bribes.

During a press conference in late June, the Investigative Police Agency stated that the bribes were worth tens of billions of Vietnam dong. (VND10 billion = US$421,679). 

Vietnam organized nearly 2,000 repatriation flights during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

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