"Rescue Flight" Case: Four Defendants Sentenced to Life in Prison

The defendants were prosecuted by the Supreme People's Procuracy for the crimes of "Giving bribes", "Receiving bribes", "Brokering bribes", "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Abusing position and power while performing official duties".

The defendants listened to the jury's verdict.

The Court sentenced the three defendants to life imprisonment for the crime of "Accepting bribes": Nguyen Thi Huong Lan (former Director of the Consular Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs), Pham Trung Kien (former Secretary of the Deputy Minister of Health) and Vu Anh Tuan (former officer of the Immigration Department, Ministry of Public Security). The defendant Hoang Van Hung (former Head of Department 5, Security Investigation Agency, Ministry of Public Security) was also sentenced to life imprisonment for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

Also convicted of the crime of “Accepting bribes”, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung was sentenced to 16 years in prison; Do Hoang Tung (former Deputy Director of the Consular Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to 12 years in prison; Nguyen Quang Linh (former Assistant to the Deputy Prime Minister) and Tran Van Du (former Deputy Director of the Immigration Department, Ministry of Public Security) were both sentenced to 7 years in prison; Tran Van Tan (former Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam province) and Nguyen Thanh Hai (former Director of the Department of International Relations, Government Office) were both sentenced to 6 years in prison; Chu Xuan Dung (former Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Hanoi) to 3 years in prison...

Among the group of defendants tried for the crime of “Giving bribes”, Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang (Deputy General Director of Blue Sky Company) was sentenced to 11 years in prison, Le Hong Son (General Director of Blue Sky Company) to 10 years in prison, Hoang Dieu Mo (General Director of An Binh Aviation Service and Tourism Trading Company Limited) and Nguyen Tien Manh (Deputy Director of Lu Hanh Viet Tourism Trading Joint Stock Company) were each sentenced to 7 years in prison…

Former Deputy Director of Hanoi City Police Nguyen Anh Tuan was sentenced to 5 years in prison for "bribery brokerage".

Judge, Chairman of the trial Vu Quang Huy announced the first instance verdict for 54 defendants in the case "Rescue Flight"

According to the first instance judgment, in the face of the complicated outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic, the Government has directed the organization of flights to bring citizens abroad back to the country. The Government assigned the Government Office to gather staff and propose to the Government leaders to approve the plan to organize flights as proposed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (through the Consular Department) is responsible for developing and proposing a plan to organize combo flights; presiding over and seeking opinions, discussing and reaching consensus with the ministries in the Working Group and reporting, submitting to the Government leaders for approval, decision and notification of the implementation of the flights. The remaining four ministries, including the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of National Defense, and the Ministry of Public Security, according to their functions and tasks in epidemic prevention and control, will give their opinions on the approval to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the People's Committees of some provinces and cities assigned to the local isolation policy.

The licensing process for combo flights is as follows: Businesses in need apply for a local quarantine policy and submit a dossier to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Consular Department). Based on this dossier, the Consular Department will consult the Working Group of Ministries and branches and submit it to the Government for approval, then notify the business to organize the flight.

In order to implement the above policy, during the process of licensing flights, approving local quarantine and resolving cases, from September 2020 to December 2022, a number of individuals from ministries and branches assigned to license flights, local quarantine and a number of individuals representing enterprises, along with a number of other subjects committed violations of the law. Of these, 25 defendants took advantage of their assigned positions, powers and tasks to receive bribes totaling nearly 165 billion VND and took advantage of their positions and powers while performing official duties, causing losses of more than 10 billion VND. 23 individuals representing enterprises gave bribes of more than 226 billion VND, 4 individuals brokered bribes of more than 74 billion VND and defrauded and appropriated nearly 25 billion VND.

Specifically, the Trial Panel determined: Defendant Pham Trung Kien received a bribe of more than 42.6 billion VND, Vu Anh Tuan received 27.3 billion VND, Nguyen Thi Huong Lan received 25 billion VND, To Anh Dung received a bribe of 21.5 billion VND... Defendants Nguyen Thi Thanh Hang and Le Hong Son together gave a bribe of 100 billion VND, Hoang Dieu Mo gave 34.6 billion VND, Nguyen Tien Manh gave a bribe of 27.8 billion VND, Vu Thuy Duong gave 24 billion VND...

Regarding the group of defendants who received bribes, the Trial Panel determined that these defendants were people in positions of authority, did not fully implement public discipline, committed crimes by harassing, creating a mechanism of asking for favors to cause difficulties for businesses when licensing flights. Among the defendants who received bribes, there were people in high positions, and defendants who were subordinates directly performing licensing procedures and documents. The criminal methods of this group of defendants were shown in two main forms: Offering bargain prices for each flight; causing difficulties, improperly performing, not fully performing their duties, forcing businesses to pay bribes. The behavior of the group of defendants who received bribes has negatively affected the reputation of state agencies, created bad public opinion among the people... so there must be strict punishment, commensurate with the level and behavior of the crime.

According to VNA