The surprising attitude of defendant Truong My Lan when her death sentence was upheld

After nearly a month of trial and lengthy deliberation, on December 3, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City sentenced defendant Truong My Lan and 47 accomplices.

Regarding the role of defendant Truong My Lan in the case, the Trial Panel (TP) determined that the act was particularly serious, violating the bank's monetary management policy, and causing loss of confidence of customers depositing money at SCB bank.

The defendant committed three crimes at the same time, causing negative public opinion. The court of first instance sentenced the defendant to death for embezzlement, 20 years in prison for bribery, and 20 years in prison for violating lending regulations in the operations of credit institutions, which was the right person and the right crime, without injustice.

At the appeal hearing, defendant Truong My Lan and other defendants, individuals and legal entities, paid additional compensation, and defendant Lan also voluntarily contributed many assets to compensate for the consequences. However, according to the panel of judges, these assets do not have sufficient legal basis to determine their value, and therefore there is not enough basis to determine that the defendant has compensated 3/4 of the consequences to apply a reduced sentence for the crime of embezzlement of property.

During the trial, the defendant also had a profound change in awareness, repentance and many other mitigating circumstances, so the panel of judges accepted the opinion of the Procuracy to reduce part of the defendant's sentence for the crime of violating regulations on lending in the activities of credit institutions.

Therefore, the court accepted the appeal to reduce the sentence from 20 years to 16 years in prison for this crime, but kept the sentence for the remaining two crimes. Combining the sentences, the panel of judges ordered the defendant Truong My Lan to serve the death penalty.

In addition, the court also rejected the defendant's appeal to waive more than VND 673 billion in court fees; reimburse SCB Bank VND 673,000 billion; assign SCB to coordinate with the Enforcement Agency to handle 1,121 collateral assets for 1,243 loans; continue to seize 658 asset assets owned by Van Thinh Phat Group; continue to seize real estate and yachts of defendant Lan.

Although the death sentence was upheld, defendant Lan appeared very calm. When the judge announced that she had the right to submit a petition for clemency to the President within 7 days of the sentence taking effect, and that if she actively cooperated and overcame 3/4 of the consequences, her sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment, Ms. Lan bowed her head repeatedly and thanked the panel of judges.

Truong My Lan's husband and niece had their sentences reduced by many years.

Regarding the defendant Chu Lap Co, the panel of judges said that the defendant is a foreigner and one of the first Hong Kong businessmen in Vietnam. The defendant has made great contributions in supporting the Covid-19 vaccine and creating jobs for many people...

"The sentence of 9 years in prison that the court of first instance imposed on the defendant Co is too harsh. In order to demonstrate the leniency of Vietnamese law, it is necessary to accept the defendant's appeal for a reduction in sentence," the panel of judges stated, thereby partially accepting the appeal, reducing the sentence from 9 years to 7 years.

Ms. Lan's niece, Truong Hue Van, was also found by the panel of judges to have "honestly confessed, actively overcome the consequences, and made many contributions to charity work", so the defendant's sentence was reduced from 17 years to 13 years in prison.

Recognizing that Nguyen Cao Tri has overcome all the consequences of the case, has excellent achievements during his work, and is currently in poor health, the panel of judges accepted the appeal, reducing the defendant's sentence from 8 years in prison to 6 years.

Regarding the appeal to lift the seizure of the ancient villa at 110-112 Vo Van Tan (District 1, Ho Chi Minh City), building at 19-25 Nguyen Hue, real estate at 21-21A Tran Cao Van... of defendant Truong My Lan because she believes that these assets do not belong to her and are not related to the case, the panel of judges determined that the nature of these assets belongs to the defendant, so the seizure should continue to fulfill the obligation to compensate.