Proposed sentence for Mr. Dinh La Thang to 14-15 years in prison, Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh to life in prison

Defendant Dinh La Thang at the trial on January 11. Photo: VNA

After 4 days of trial, at 2:30 p.m. this afternoon, January 11, the representative of the Hanoi People's Procuracy holding the right to prosecute at the trial presented his views and proposed sentences for the defendants Dinh La Thang - former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Oil and Gas Group PVN, Trinh Xuan Thanh - former General Director of the Oil and Gas Construction Corporation (PVC) and 20 accomplices.

Accordingly, the Procuracy proposed to sentence defendant Dinh La Thang to 14-15 years in prison for intentionally violating the law.

Defendant Trinh Xuan Thanh was sentenced to 14-14 years in prison for intentional wrongdoing, life in prison for embezzlement, the combined sentence with the defendant is life in prison.

Previously, during the interrogation, the jury, the representative of the People's Procuracy and the lawyers asked many questions to the defendants, witnesses, people with related rights and obligations, and the civil plaintiff to clarify the violations and damages caused by illegal acts.

Mr. Dinh La Thang: Admitting haste, accepting responsibility

Mr. Dinh La Thang was identified as the person who played an important and decisive role in the violations at the Vietnam Oil and Gas Group.

During the implementation of the Thai Binh 2 thermal power plant project, Mr. Dinh La Thang played a key role in proposing the policy and assigning PVC to carry out the EPC package, directing PVPower to sign EPC contract No. 33 with PVC against regulations, then directing subordinates at PVN and the project management board to provide an advance payment of 6.6 million USD and more than 1,312 billion VND to PVC based on this contract.

From the above advance payment, Trinh Xuan Thanh and his accomplices used nearly 1,116 billion VND for the wrong purpose, not putting it into the Thai Binh 2 thermal power plant project, causing a loss to the State of nearly 120 billion VND.

The above behavior of Mr. Dinh La Thang violates the crime of "Intentionally violating state regulations on economic management causing serious consequences".

During the trial, Mr. Dinh La Thang accepted responsibility for the damage caused at PVN, admitting that during the implementation of the projects, the defendant was "impatient and aggressively pressed for progress" while the capacity of the subsidiaries did not meet the requirements, leading to mistakes.

However, Mr. Thang said: "The defendant himself was also under pressure from the head of PVN in implementing major projects related to the country's energy security, so there were still mistakes. The defendant asked the panel of judges to re-evaluate the entire case to consider the responsibility of the defendant and the defendants under him."

Mr. Thang also requested to review and recalculate the extent of damage in the case to consider the responsibility of the defendants.

Trinh Xuan Thanh pleaded not guilty to embezzlement.

Defendant Trinh Xuan Thanh at the trial. Photo: VNA

During the implementation of the Thai Binh 2 thermal power plant project, as Chairman of the Board of Directors of PVC, the indictment determined that Trinh Xuan Thanh directed Vu Duc Thuan to sign EPC contract No. 33 so that PVC could receive an advance payment of 6.6 million USD and more than 1,312 billion VND.

Mr. Thanh then used nearly 1,116 billion VND of this advance payment for other purposes, not for the Thai Binh 2 thermal power plant project, causing a loss to the state of nearly 119 billion VND.

Regarding the crime of "Intentional Violation", Trinh Xuan Thanh affirmed that at that time PVC was facing financial difficulties after receiving 5 more subsidiaries. Under the pressure of having to pay the debts of these companies, the defendant used the advanced money for the wrong purpose.

Regarding the crime of "Embezzlement of property", the records and evidence collected by the prosecution agency stated that Trinh Xuan Thanh proposed the policy with Vu Duc Thuan to direct Nguyen Anh Minh and Luong Van Hoa to create fake records, withdrawing more than 13 billion VND from the management board of the Vung Ang - Quang Trach project to divide and use for personal use.

Of which, Trinh Xuan Thanh received 4 billion VND and was responsible with defendants Vu Duc Thuan, Nguyen Anh Minh and Bui Manh Hien for the common use of 1.5 billion VND.

During the interrogation in court, Mr. Thanh said that he did not embezzle 4 billion VND and there was no evidence that he received 4 billion VND. On the day the incident of receiving 4 billion VND occurred, Mr. Thanh was in Ho Chi Minh City for work and the witness's statement about giving money, according to Mr. Thanh, was incorrect.

Therefore, at the trial, Trinh Xuan Thanh requested the panel of judges to consider the defendant. Up to now, defendant Thanh's family has remedied the consequences with the amount of 2.4 billion VND.

The defendants' statements are contradictory.

The defendants tried for the crime of "Intentional Violation" all admitted their responsibility for the violations. However, there were contradictions in the statements between the groups of defendants.

Specifically, defendant Vo Hong Chuong stated that the group of defendants, former leaders of PVN, all knew about the violations in Contract 33 but still forced the parties to sign the contract, leading to errors. Defendant Dinh La Thang still asserted that he did not know about Contract 33.

At the same time, the representative of the civil plaintiff PVN has not yet determined the damage and has not yet made a request for compensation. The civil plaintiff PVC claims that there has been damage due to the defendants' embezzlement of property and the amount of damage is 13 billion VND.

However, PVC requested the panel of judges to consider sentencing because the defendants had paid compensation.