Bank employee cleared after 5 years in trouble

Hanoi police came to Vu Ngoc Duong's house and handed him a decision to suspend the investigation, even though both levels of trial determined that he was guilty of the crime of abuse of trust and appropriation of property.

On the morning of August 22, in a house on Kham Thien Street (Hanoi), the father of Vu Ngoc Duong (29 years old) - who was sentenced to 30 months in prison for abusing trust to appropriate property, happily announced that Hanoi Police had come to his house to hand over the decision to suspend the investigation of the accused to Duong.

The family is working with a lawyer to calculate the amount of compensation for wrongful conviction under the Law on State Compensation Liability as well as requesting a public apology. Duong is going to school to soon find a job and stabilize his life.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van is re-enacting the act of forging documents before the Investigation Agency. Photo provided by the Investigation Agency.

On November 21, 2012, at the first instance trial held at the Hanoi People's Court, Duong was accused of using his position as a volunteer at the Dong Anh Vocational Training and Humanitarian Guidance Center in 2011 to embezzle 100 million VND in funding from two companies. In addition, Duong also borrowed nearly 200 million VND from his aunt and did not repay.

Determining that Duong was guilty of the crime of abuse of trust to appropriate property, the court of first instance sentenced him to 30 months in prison. One year later, the appellate court upheld the original sentence. Throughout the investigation and trial, Duong continuously claimed his innocence and, together with his family, sent petitions for help to many agencies. He was detained for a total of 4 months and 15 days.

In early November 2014, the Supreme People's Procuracy's Investigation Agency sent a dispatch to the court and Hanoi police requesting a temporary suspension of Duong's sentence. Since then, Duong's injustice has gradually been clarified.

During the investigation, the Supreme People's Procuracy's investigation agency determined that Duong had been accused by Ms. Duong Dieu Thu (Duong's aunt) and Ms. Nguyen Thi Thanh Van of forging documents accusing him of receiving sponsorship money as a volunteer but not paying it into the fund. The complaint was sent to the Director of the Dong Anh Vocational Training and Humanitarian Guidance Center, who then sent it to the authorities.

According to the verification of the Supreme People's Procuracy, the forgery of the documents was successful because Duong had borrowed money from Mr. Nguyen Van Hien (Ms. Thu's husband), so she had the signature of her nephew. Ms. Thu provided 2 papers that Duong wrote and signed to borrow money from Mr. Hien for Ms. Van. Then, Ms. Van used them to forge an application to join the Hanoi Red Cross Society under the name of Vu Ngoc Duong; a decision to recognize Vu Ngoc Duong as a member of the Dong Anh Vocational Training and Humanitarian Guidance Center; 2 payment slips for Duong from 2 LLCs, each for 50 million VND...

Working with the authorities, the two company directors confirmed that they did not provide any funding for the center; the company did not issue any payment vouchers, and there was no money transfer to Duong. Mr. Hien, Ms. Thu and Van admitted that their previous statements to the investigation agency, at the first instance and appeal trials, were not true.

The Supreme People's Procuracy also determined that Duong did not appropriate 100 million VND, nor did he borrow nearly 200 million VND from Ms. Van and her husband. During Duong's detention, his father had to hand over 100 million VND to the above center through the authorities, along with nearly 200 million VND to help his son pay off his debt.

The Supreme People's Procuracy also said that the wrongful conviction caused Duong to lose his job and his father to have nearly 300 million VND appropriated.

According to Vnexpress