Group of village officials sold the whole cultural house for billions of dong

Mr. Cham and village officials in suburban districts of Hanoi issued resolutions and sold thousands of square meters of public land.

On October 30, the Hanoi People's Court opened an appeal hearing to consider the appeal of a group of officials from Trat Cau village, Tien Phong commune, Thuong Tin district for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties".

Group of village officials at the appeal hearing.

According to the first instance verdict, from 2010 to 2011, Mr. Do Duy Cham, as Secretary of Party Cell 8, organized many Party cell meetings, then proposed to establish a construction committee, and reported to the People's Committee of Tien Phong commune to liquidate the old cultural house. The reason Mr. Cham gave was that he needed money to build infrastructure for the village.

Based on the policy of the Party cell, head of residential cluster No. 8 Do Duy Khang and some people organized a meeting to collect people's opinions to liquidate the old cultural house and lease long-term land with some land areas along the Nhue River.

Afterwards, Mr. Le Van Mo (head of the construction board of residential area No. 8) signed a contract, handing over the entire area of ​​the cultural house (370 m2) to a local resident. The contract was signed in the form of a long-term lease and the tenant had to pay nearly 1.6 billion VND to residential area No. 8.

In addition to the above lease, at the end of January 2011, Mr. Mo and some village officials continued to organize a bidding process for long-term use of four plots of land along the Nhue River (over 400 m2) and earned more than three billion VND. Nearly a month later, this group of officials continued to lease nearly 700 m2 for a long-term lease, earning more than four billion VND.

According to the indictment, the defendants signed a long-term land lease contract in form, but in reality and in essence, they illegally sold public land. The defendants' actions violated the law on land, causing losses to the State and complicating the land management situation in the locality.

In April, the People's Court of Thuong Tin district sentenced Do Duy Cham to 4 years in prison, Mr. Khang, Mo and three other village officials received sentences ranging from 3 years to 3 years and 6 months in prison.

At the appeal hearing, all six defendants argued that they were wrongly convicted because they did not belong to a group with positions of authority. On the other hand, the money collected would be used to build local infrastructure and none of the defendants pocketed it personally.

The Court of Appeal held that the defendants were not wronged. However, the court found the first instance sentence to be somewhat harsh and therefore reduced the sentences for the defendants.

The court sentenced Mr. Cham to 3 years in prison, the remaining 5 defendants received from 20 months to 30 months in prison.

According to VNE