Four people get life imprisonment sentence in pandemic repatriation flight scandal

Former deputy foreign minister To Anh Dung received a 16-year imprisonment sentence while four other senior officials were sentenced to life in prison on Friday for committing violations related to flights that brought Vietnamese people home from overseas during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The four people receiving life imprisonment sentences include Nguyen Huong Lan, former director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' consular department; Hoang Van Hung, former investigator of the Ministry of Public Security; Pham Trung Kien, former assistant to a deputy minister of health; and Vu Anh Tuan, former deputy head of the advisory division under the Ministry of Public Security's immigration department.

The jury stated that the death penalty proposed by the Procuracy for Pham Trung Kien was commensurate with the crime of accepting bribes. "But the defendant sincerely confessed his acts and paid VND42.2 billion ($1.78 million) to remedy the consequences, so it is not necessary to remove him from the society." Kien was therefore sentenced to life in prison.

In contrast, the court said that former deputy minister To Anh Dung and former director of consular department Nguyen Huong Lan had received an especially large amount of money, causing public outcry, so a high penalty should be applied.

The court sentenced Dung to 16 years in prison (the Procuracy suggested 12-13 years), while Lan was sentenced to life in prison (the Procuracy suggested 18-19 years) for accepting bribes.

On the same charge, defendant Nguyen Quang Linh, former assistant to Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh, was sentenced to 7 years in prison, while Chu Xuan Dung, former vice chairman of Hanoi, received a 3-year imprisonment sentence.

Tran Van Tan, former vice chairman of Quang Nam province, was sentenced to 6 years in prison; Tran Van Du, former deputy director of the immigration department 7 years; while Vu Anh Tuan, former deputy head of the advisory division under the immigration department, was sentenced to life in prison (the Procuracy suggested 19-20 years).

Former deputy director of the Hanoi Police, Nguyen Anh Tuan, was sentenced to 5 years in prison for brokering bribery. Former investigator Hoang Van Hung was sentenced to life in prison for fraudulently appropriating property. The level of punishment for Hung is higher than what the Procuracy proposed (19-20 years in prison).

The defendants who were business owners convicted of giving bribes received between a suspended 15-month imprisonment sentence and a 11-year imprisonment sentence, most of which are lighter than the penalty proposed by the Procuracy.

Another 21 defendants who received bribes had to pay a fine of VND100 million ($4,200) each.

Previously, investigators said that taking advantage of the flights to "rescue" Vietnamese citizens from abroad during the pandemic, many ministerial officials colluded with businesses to reap hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars illicitly.

After the pandemic broke out, Vietnam organized about 2,000 repatriation flights to bring home citizens from overseas, according to a spokesman from the Ministry of Public Security.

When tickets for the flights were released, many people complained they were very expensive and that thye had go through cumbersome procedures.

Cases of giving, receiving and brokering bribes and fraudulently appropriating property when organizing rescue flights have been identified at the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Public Security, Health, and Transport, Government Office, Hanoi People's Committee, and related units.

In July this year, former deputy minister To Anh Dung has admitted to receiving 37 bribes worth a total of VND21.5 billion ($908,000) in relation to 327 "rescue flights".