Sentencing of 254 defendants in major vehicle inspection case will be on August 23

On the afternoon of August 17, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court issued a notice on changing the time of sentencing for the trial of 254 defendants in the major vehicle inspection case that occurred at the Vietnam Register, 11 vehicle inspection centers in Ho Chi Minh City and 3 vehicle inspection centers in Long An, Ben Tre, and Soc Trang.

Previously, on the morning of the same day, the Trial Panel (HDXX) said that the verdict would be announced at 8:00 a.m. on August 27. However, due to changes, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court notified the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy, Chi Hoa Detention Center (T30), the defendant, the lawyer and the litigants that the trial would be announced at 8:00 a.m. on August 23.

The trial of the major vehicle inspection case was scheduled to last for 3 months (from July 18 to October 18). However, through interrogation and debate, most of the defendants admitted their crimes, so the trial ended earlier than expected.

In his final statement this morning, defendant Tran Ky Hinh (former Director of the Vietnam Register) admitted all his crimes and expressed his remorse. Defendant Hinh apologized to the Party, the Government and all officers of the Register, and apologized to his wife of more than 40 years. Defendant Hinh is very remorseful and hopes to receive forgiveness.

Tran Ky Hinh shared that the defendant had 37 years and 7 months in the Transport sector and worked day and night, regardless of his position, he always completed well the tasks assigned by his superiors. However, in the years before retirement, the defendant could not control himself and committed a crime.

"The defendant is 64 years old, in his twilight years, the defendant has to pay the price with his days in prison, from now until the end of his life he does not know if he will have enough health to wait for his prison term to end. The defendant is extremely remorseful for what he has done, the court's sentence is severe but the sentence of conscience is even heavier and will follow the defendant for the rest of his life," Tran Ky Hinh said, asking the People's Court to consider reducing the sentence for the defendants who were former officers of the Department of Registration.

Defendant Dang Viet Ha (former Director of the Vietnam Register) admitted his mistake, expressed remorse and has remedied all the damage. Mr. Ha apologized to the Party, the State, the people, the leaders of the Ministry of Transport and the officers and employees of the Register, and at the same time believed in the impartial verdict of the panel of judges.

The remaining defendants expressed remorse and hoped the panel of judges would consider reducing their sentences so they could return to their families.

According to the indictment, during his tenure as Director of the Vietnam Register, Mr. Dang Viet Ha directed all activities of the unit and managed the registration work nationwide. However, he was lax in management and lacked supervision, allowing the departments under the Vietnam Register, the Registration Center, and the Registration Sub-Departments nationwide to commit systematic violations and negativity for a long time.

When discovering violations and negativity, Mr. Ha did not correct or handle them because of personal interests and continued to issue policies and direct officers of the Motor Vehicle Inspection Department and the Registration Centers to receive bribes and divide the benefits according to the principle of ensuring that Ha's interests were the highest.

The prosecution agency determined that former Director Ha must bear criminal responsibility for the total bribe amount of more than 40 billion VND; of which the units of the Motor Vehicle Inspection Department (from August 2021 to September 2022) are more than 31 billion VND; 4 inspection centers (Block V, under the Department in Ho Chi Minh City from April 1 to November 2022) are more than 7.6 billion VND.

5 inspection centers of Block V in Hanoi received 780 million VND, bribes from the directors of Inspection Centers of Block D were 680 million VND. Mr. Ha was accused of benefiting nearly 8.8 billion VND and 13,000 USD.

Also committing similar violations to Mr. Ha, Mr. Tran Ky Hinh was accused of receiving bribes from businesses and inspection units for personal gain, ignoring violations in granting licenses to operate inspection centers, and violations in the vehicle inspection process.

Authorities determined that Mr. Hinh received bribes totaling more than 6.5 billion VND and 23,000 USD.

In addition, defendant Hinh also took advantage of his position and authority to violate regulations, approving and granting full capacity to facilities that did not meet the prescribed conditions, creating conditions for shipbuilding facilities to operate illegally, affecting the normal operations of inspection branches and the Vietnam Register.

Second in line to the leadership of the Vietnam Register are the defendants from the group of leaders and officials at the Vehicle Inspection Department (VAR), which is responsible for evaluating vehicle modification design documents. 22 individuals, including the head, deputy head, and staff of this specialized department, were accused of a series of violations; among them, Tran Anh Quan (acting Head of VAR) is the most powerful figure.

Since taking over as department head in March 2019, Quan has outlined a policy of ignoring errors in design documents to issue vehicle modification certificates to employees of companies.

Quan discussed and agreed on the policy of receiving and dividing bribes with 12 VAR inspectors, so he must be responsible for the total amount of bribes the inspectors received, which is more than 60 billion VND.

In addition, during the process of reviewing documents and checking and evaluating the eligibility of Tran Buu Tung's 50-19D Vehicle Inspection Center, Quan also received a bribe of 9,500 USD. The prosecution agency determined that defendant Tran Anh Quan benefited 11.5 billion VND and 9,500 USD.