Former Chairman of Tra Vinh City People's Committee sentenced to 10 years in prison

On February 24, defendant Diep Van Thanh - former Chairman of the People's Committee of Tra Vinh City and Mr. Tran Truong Son - former Vice Chairman, were convicted by the People's Court of Tra Vinh province of "Violating regulations on State asset management causing loss and waste".

Defendant Diep Van Thanh was sentenced to 10 years in prison; defendant Truong Son received 6 years in prison.

The defendants in court.

In this case, there are other defendants who are former heads, deputy heads and specialists of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of Tra Vinh City, including: Nguyen Van Chien (4 years in prison), Le Huu Le (5 years in prison), Ly Kien Trung (6 years in prison), Tran Thanh Son (3 years in prison), Nguyen Trong Nghia (5 years in prison).

In addition, the defendants who were "land brokers" were also sentenced to prison...

According to the People's Court, the defendants' actions were especially serious, causing large losses to the State and reducing the prestige and trust of the people in the City People's Committee.

At court, defendant Diep Van Thanh did not admit to the crime. However, according to the panel of judges, the evidence in the file and the testimony of the defendants who were subordinates of Mr. Thanh proved that the act of "Violating regulations on State asset management causing loss and waste" of the former Chairman of Tra Vinh City as prosecuted in the indictment was "the right person, the right crime, no injustice".

Former Chairman of Tra Vinh City People's Committee Diep Van Thanh at the time of his arrest. Photo: Tra Vinh Police

According to the indictment, from 2009 to August 2018, Mr. Thanh and Mr. Son, in their roles as leaders of the People's Committee of Tra Vinh City, directed their subordinates and specialized departments, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Land Registration Office, and the City Tax Department, to implement policies to support people with meritorious services to the revolution to improve their housing by changing land use purposes and exempting land use fees, contrary to Decision 118 of the Government and Circular 30 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

According to Decision 118 of the Government, Circular 30 of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, “the consideration of support for people with revolutionary contributions to improve their housing must be based on the recommendations of the People's Committee of the ward, commune or town where that person resides. Those recommendations must be verified by the People's Committee of the district or city before being submitted to the provincial or centrally-run city for decision. In addition, the application for land use purpose conversion must include a record of field verification and a record of actual land allocation".

Mr. Thanh was accused of knowing the above regulations but still signed and issued two official dispatches directing the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Land Registration Office, and the City Tax Department to ignore the recommendations of the ward, commune, and town authorities and re-verification by the district level.

Taking advantage of this directive, many "land brokers" and "land owners" come to policy families to complete procedures for transferring or donating land use rights. To let the policy family stand in their name, legalize the documents to change the land use purpose to residential land to receive exemption or reduction of land use fees from 65% to 100% by the State.

After being granted the Land Use Rights Certificate, "land brokers" and "land owners" require policy families to make a contract to transfer it back to the old owner or transfer it to another person's name, so as not to have to pay for the purpose of land use conversion and to exempt or reduce land use fees for the wrong subjects, causing damage to State assets.

The indictment alleges that from December 2009 to July 2018, Mr. Thanh and Mr. Son signed decisions allowing the change of land use purpose and exemption from land use fees for a total of 704 records.

In which, the former Chairman and Vice Chairman of Tra Vinh City People's Committee signed 313 incorrect exemption files, causing a loss to the State budget of more than 69 billion VND.