Former Vietnamese diplomatic officials in Malaysia were found to have collected unreasonable fees from nearly 1,900 Vietnamese people who finished serving their jail sentences in Malaysia and returned to their homeland on repatriation flights during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tran Viet Thai, former Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia, declared at a trial on Friday that the superfluous fee revenue was later divided to ex-officials of the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia depending on their positions.

The Hanoi People’s Court on Tuesday opened the first-instance trial of 54 defendants who committed law violations during Vietnam’s arrangement of flights to repatriate Vietnamese citizens stranded overseas amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

The trial is set to drag on for one month.

Thai was named Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia in May 2020 and took main responsibility for arranging repatriation flights for Vietnamese citizens in Malaysia during the pandemic.

The Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia held a total of 21 repatriation flights, including eight flights for nearly 1,900 people finishing their prison terms in Malaysia.

Thai said he had asked Nguyen Hoang Linh and Le Ngoc Anh, ex-officials at the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia, to visit prisons, draw up repatriation plans, and propose fees.

In January 2021, Malaysia declared a nationwide state of emergency to curb the spread of COVID-19 and required foreign embassies to take home their countries’ citizens who had finished their jail terms, Thai added.

These citizens included those illegally catching fish in Malaysia’s waters, illegal laborers, among others, the ex-diplomatic official noted.

Thai said he assigned the ex-officials to formulate a plan to take these citizens home after hearing news that many brokers charged these citizens VND40-80 million (US$1,691-3,383) each.

The embassy collected the repatriation fees from employers or families of these citizens. If they refused to pay the fees, the embassy would pay the fees.

After a survey, the embassy collected VND20.3 million ($858) from each citizen. Those without passports were subject to a fee of VND25 million ($1,057) each, and those on islands who had to fly to Kuala Lumpur to join repatriation flights had to pay VND30-35 million ($1,268-1,480) each.

As for the passport issuance fees, Thai and his accomplices collected over VND4.6 million ($194) each citizen but submitted VND1.6 million ($67) per passport to the state budget.

With nearly 1,900 Vietnamese people finishing their jail sentences in Malaysia, Thai and his subordinates collected VND44.6 billion ($1.9 million) but spent VND33 billion ($1.4 million) on repatriation flights.

Thai later decided to divide part of the remaining amount to officials at the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia at a ratio of 1.5:1.2:1 based on their positions, with Thai receiving VND580 million ($24,531) and other ex-officials VND220-480 million ($9,305-20,300) each.

The remaining amount was kept at the embassy.

At the court, Thai admitted to wrongly spending the unused amount, adding that the embassy could not refund it due to the complicated pandemic situation.

“We repatriated citizens home but the collected amount was superfluous. I did not direct the fee collection for sharing.

“We later decided to share the [superfluous] amount with officials as they admitted risks while performing duties amid the pandemic,” Thai explained.

He added that he had submitted the superfluous amount.

In January 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic broke out in China and developed complicatedly in the world. In March 2020, the government arranged a flight to bring 30 Vietnamese citizens home from Wuhan, China.

In April 2020, several repatriation flights were operated, and the passengers had to pay ticket fares, the Vietnam News Agency reported, citing the indictment announced by the Supreme People’s Procuracy.

In November 2020, due to the high demands of returning home among Vietnamese citizens abroad and limited resources, the government piloted the operations of 10 repatriation flights for which passengers had to pay all the fees, and assigned the task to a working group gathering officials from five ministries.

Vietnam organized nearly 2,000 flights during the COVID-19 pandemic to repatriate more than 200,000 Vietnamese nationals from 60 countries and territories, as commercial flights were not available during the period, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

During the process of licensing the lights and approving the quarantine plans in localities from September 2020 to December 2022, a number of officials from ministries and sectors as well as individuals from businesses, along with other people, committed law violations.

Of the 54 defendants standing trial, 21 are accused of taking bribes, while 23 are charged with giving bribes, four are charged with brokering bribes, and four others are accused of abusing positions and powers while on duty, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

One defendant is prosecuted for the charge of committing fraud for property appropriation, and another is accused of committing fraud for property appropriation and giving bribes.

The most high-ranking officials facing charges are former deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung and Vu Hong Nam.

Nguyen Quang Linh, assistant to former Standing Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, has also faced the same fate.

The total amount of bribery money in this case reached $9.5 million, according to Thanh Nien.

Like us on Facebook or  follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!