Defendant who received billions to raise exam scores in Son La faces death penalty

For this case, the indictment has just been completed by the People's Procuracy of Son La province, adding 2 more charges of "Giving bribes", "Receiving bribes" and 4 defendants.

The case was tried in October 2019, but the People's Court of Son La province returned the case file, requesting clarification of two additional acts in addition to the charge of "Abusing position and power in performing official duties".

Defendant Nguyen Thi Hong Nga.

Of the 12 defendants, 8 were prosecuted for the crime of "Abusing positions and powers in performing official duties", including: Tran Xuan Yen (former Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training), Do Khac Hung (former Lieutenant Colonel, officer of the Internal Political Security Department, Son La Provincial Police), Lo Van Huynh (former Deputy Head of the Examination and Education Quality Management Department), Cam Thi Bun Son (former Deputy Head of the Political and Ideological Department), Nguyen Thanh Nhan (former Deputy Head of the Examination and Education Quality Management Department), Dinh Hai Son (former Major, former Deputy Head of the Education Team, Internal Political Security Department, Provincial Police), Nguyen Thi Hong Nga (specialist of the Examination and Quality Management Department), Dang Huu Thuy (Vice Principal of To Hieu High School).

The four people prosecuted for the crime of "Giving bribes" are Nguyen Minh Khoa (former provincial police officer), Hoang Thi Thanh (official of the Farmers' Association of Quynh Nhai district), Tran Van Dien (teacher), and Lo Thi Truong (freelance).

While performing her duties, Ms. Nga received 1.04 billion VND from Mr. Dien to raise the scores of 4 candidates. Furthermore, while grading the exams, she also received information from other people about 16 candidates to directly correct and raise their scores.

After each intervention, Ms. Nga and defendant Thuy deleted, re-scanned the test, and changed the system time on the computer to match the time the original test photo was previously scanned.

Ms. Nga is accused of actively agreeing with her accomplices on the time to go to the location to collect the exam papers and directly preparing the equipment to serve the correction. When the incident was discovered, she deleted the data on the computer to conceal her actions.

Mr. Huynh agreed to receive 1.3 billion VND from the School and the Faculty to increase the scores of 3 candidates. The actions of Ms. Nga and Huynh were accused of the crime of "Accepting bribes".

Because the amount is over 1 billion VND, the penalty for the 2 people is up to the death penalty, according to Clause 4, Article 354 of the 2015 Penal Code.

Defendant Tran Xuan Yen.

Before grading the exam, Ms. Son directly negotiated and agreed to raise the score for Ms. Thanh's son for 440 million VND.

The indictment determined that former Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training Tran Xuan Yen took advantage of his position to receive personal information of 13 candidates to send to Ms. Nga to correct the test papers and raise the scores. Mr. Yen also allowed members of the multiple-choice test processing team to correct the test papers of many other candidates.

When he learned that the Ministry of Education and Training was inspecting Son La, Mr. Yen was afraid of being discovered, so he directed Ms. Nga to back up the data to a CD and find software online to delete the original scanned test results on the computer. Mr. Yen destroyed the evidence and concealed his wrongdoings.

Son La Provincial People's Court plans to hold a first-instance trial of 12 defendants in the opening session on May 21. Judge Quan Huu Chien will preside.