Appeals court upholds three life sentences in pandemic repatriation scandal

The Hanoi court of appeals has upheld life sentences for three people found guilty of receiving the largest bribes in repatriating Vietnamese citizens from foreign countries during the Covid-19 pandemic.

In its ruling Wednesday, the court rejected appeals for reduced sentences from Pham Trung Kien, former secretary to deputy health minister; Vu Anh Tuan, former deputy head of the advisory division under the Ministry of Public Security's immigration department; and Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, former director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' consular department.

The judges said the three defendants had received "exceptionally large bribes," with Kien taking VND42.6 billion ($1.75 million), Tuan VND27 billion and Lan VND25 billion.

While Kien and Tuan returned all the money and Lan returned VND6.2 billion ($254,860), their crimes had caused public outrage and had to be strictly dealt with, they added.

The court commuted the sentence for Hoang Van Hung, former investigator with the Ministry of Public Security, from life imprisonment to 20 years. Hung had recorded achievements in his work and two of his uncles were war martyrs, the judges noted.

The sentence for former Deputy Foreign Minister To Anh Dung for receiving bribes was reduced from 16 to 14 years in prison.

Do Hoang Tung, former deputy head of the consular department, had his sentence reduced from 12 to 10 years in jail.

The court ruled that Dung and Tung had returned all the bribe money they had taken, which was VND21.5 billion ($880,400) for Dung and VND12 billion for Tung.

The last of six people found guilty of taking bribes in the case, Tran Van Tan, former vice chairman of Quang Nam province, got his sentence reduced from six to five years.

Two former Vietnamese embassy officials in Malaysia, Nguyen Hoang Linh and Dang Minh Phuong, had their respective prison sentences of 30 months and 18 months commuted probation for the same periods.

The judges said they had committed abuse of position and power under the direction of their superiors, playing a secondary role. Furthermore, during the investigation and trial, both had honestly admitted their faults and “fixed the consequences.”

The court’s judgment stressed that this was a particularly serious case involving many ministries, agencies and localities, including the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Public Security, Health and Transport; the Government Office; the Hanoi People's Committee; and the People’s Committee of Quang Nam province.

A total of 54 people were taken to court of first instance, accused of several crimes, including bribery and abuse of power. The 18-day trial ended in July 2023 with 21 defendants found guilty of receiving bribes, 23 of giving bribes, four of abusing positions, two of fraud and misappropriation of assets and four of brokering bribes.

Twenty-one people convicted by the court of first instance appealed their sentences.

A total of 372 combo flights were organized from several foreign countries from early 2020 to mid-2021 to bring Vietnamese citizens home. Investigators found that 20 businesses paid bribes totalling $6.8 million on 515 occasions to get the flights approved. As a result, people who wanted to take the repatriation flights were charged abnormally high prices.