Former Hanoi mayor gets prison sentence reduced by one year

The Hanoi appeals court reduced the prison sentence for former municipal chairman Nguyen Duc Chung from three years to two in consideration of his contributions to society.

The former mayor had submitted 85 certificates of merits and medals that he had earned in his career.

The reduction in sentence was given after three days of deliberation. The three-year sentence had been handed down by the court of first instance after finding Chung guilty of "abusing position and power in the performance of duties."

The judges said Chung had taken advantage of his position to illegally interfere in bidding activities, adversely affecting contractor selection and causing anger in the society.

Combined with the two previously effective sentences, Chung will have to serve a total of 12 years in prison, starting from the date of his arrest on August 28, 2020.

At the appellate session, the former Hanoi chairman admitted his personal responsibility and the court noted that he had “testified sincerely” and had submitted evidence of his contributions to society. It also noted that he was suffering from rectal cancer with lung metastases.

According to the indictment, from 2016 to 2018, the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment was the investor of two bidding packages to digitize business registration documents in the city.

When the department was preparing to invite tenders for the package in 2016, Chung directed the department, at the suggestion of Bui Quang Huy, director of the Nhat Cuong Company, to suspend the process at the last minute.

Later, the Nhat Cuong Company arranged other puppet bidders to join the bidding and won both packages in 2016 and 2017. It sold them later to the Dong Kinh Company, making nearly VND20 billion ($855,000) in profit.

The panel of judges noted that only 45% of business registration documents were uploaded on to the National Information Portal for Business Registration for digitalization, but the Department of Planning and Investment paid for 100%. This caused a loss of more than VND26 billion to the state budget.