Former Director of SENA Institute gets 5 years in prison

Defendant Lo was sentenced to 3 years in prison for “Abusing democratic freedoms to infringe upon the interests of the State, the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals” and 2 years in prison for “Abusing position and power while performing official duties”. Combining the sentences for both crimes, defendant Lo must serve a total sentence of 5 years in prison.

According to the first instance verdict, defendant Lo was once the Director of the SENA Institute for Technology Research and Development (SENA Institute for short). The SENA Institute is responsible for researching, developing and implementing programs and projects in the fields of economics, science and technology, education and training, environment, researching, proposing management measures and development policies in the economic fields...

In the name of the Director of SENA Institute, defendant Lo compiled, edited, and distributed many documents; drafted the content, designed the cover pages of the documents on a personal computer, then emailed them to a number of SENA Institute employees for printing. Then Nguyen Son Lo directed SENA Institute employees to have the documents printed and sent to hundreds of people by post. The list of recipients was provided by defendant Lo. In addition, the defendant also sent documents via email to many other individuals and organizations.

The Judicial Expertise Council of the Ministry of Information and Communications determined that the six documents all contained content that infringed upon the interests of the State; the legitimate rights and interests of organizations and individuals, posed a danger to society, and negatively affected security, order and social safety. At the trial, the defendant Lo admitted his crime.

The investigation also clarified that from November 2020 to July 2022, defendant Lo illegally leased part of the SENA Institute's headquarters, earning a profit of more than VND 2.3 billion. This action is contrary to the SENA Institute's operating regulations and the provisions of the Law on Management and Use of Public Assets. House No. 35 Dien Bien Phu (Hanoi) is owned by the State, and SENA Institute rented it from the State to use as its headquarters. However, since 2005, SENA Institute has not paid rent, has not declared the real estate it is managing and using, and has arbitrarily leased part of the area to foreign organizations.

The Trial Panel assessed that the defendant's illegal act of leasing headquarters violated the State's administrative management order of real estate, hindered the right to manage, arrange, and lease, caused loss of State rental revenue, caused public outrage, and complicated security and order.

For illegally renting out the house, defendant Lo was convicted of “Abusing position and power while performing official duties”. Regarding some employees of the SENA Institute who followed the instructions of defendant Lo, the prosecution agency found that they did not participate in compiling, editing, or providing comments, and did not know that the documents assigned for printing contained illegal content, so criminal responsibility for these people was not considered.