Mr. Dinh La Thang appeared in court of appeal after being sentenced to 13 years in prison in the PVC case.
Defendant Dinh La Thang was sentenced to 13 years in prison by the court of first instance in the case related to the Thai Binh 2 Thermal Power Plant project. Today, Mr. Thang appeared in the appeal court.
Today (May 7), the High-Level People's Court in Hanoi opened an appeal hearing for the case involving the Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group (PVN) and the Vietnam Oil and Gas Construction Corporation (PVC) related to the Thai Binh 2 Thermal Power Plant Project, according to the defendants' appeal.
The trial is scheduled to last 10 days. The chairman of the appeal hearing is Mr. Nguyen Van Son. Former Chairman of the Board of Directors of PVN Dinh La Thang appealed, saying that the first instance judgment did not fully, comprehensively, objectively consider and limit the scope of the defendant's responsibility and requested the Court of Appeal to reconsider the crime, punishment and level of joint compensation for civil liability against him.
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Defendant Dinh La Thang was sentenced by the court of first instance to 13 and 18 years in prison respectively in two cases related to Thai Binh 2 Thermal Power Plant and capital contribution to Oceanbank. |
Defendant Trinh Xuan Thanh appealed, claiming that he did not participate in the acts of "Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences" and "Embezzlement of property" as stated in the first instance judgment (January 22). The defendant requested the Court of Appeal to reconsider both of the above charges and to reconsider all of his criminal and civil responsibilities.
Other defendants filed an appeal requesting the Court of Appeal to resolve the case according to the appellate procedure to reduce the prison sentence, reduce the amount of civil compensation, and consider applying additional mitigating circumstances.
Previously, at the first instance trial, the Hanoi People's Court sentenced defendant Dinh La Thang to 13 years in prison for "Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences". Defendant Trinh Xuan Thanh was sentenced to 14 years in prison for "Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences", and life in prison for "Embezzlement of property". The combined sentence for both crimes is life in prison.
Other defendants in the case received sentences ranging from three years in prison, suspended, to 22 years in prison.
Regarding civil liability, the defendants in the group of crimes "Intentionally violating State regulations on economic management causing serious consequences" are forced to compensate PVN for damages of more than 119 billion VND, in which defendants Dinh La Thang and Trinh Xuan Thanh each compensated 30 billion VND.
The defendants who committed the crime of "Embezzlement of property" must jointly compensate PVC with more than 11.8 billion VND, of which Trinh Xuan Thanh compensated nearly 4.4 billion VND...
The prosecution agency determined that during the implementation of the Thai Binh 2 Thermal Power Plant Project, defendant Dinh La Thang, former Chairman of the Board of Directors of PVN, played a key role in proposing policies and assigning PVC to implement the EPC package, directing PVPower to sign EPC contract No. 33 with PVC in violation of regulations, then directing subordinates at PVN and the Project Management Board to use this contract to advance more than 6.6 million USD, over 1,312 billion VND to PVC so that defendant Trinh Xuan Thanh and his accomplices could use more than 1,115 billion VND for the wrong purpose and not put it into the Thai Binh 2 Thermal Power Plant project, causing a loss to the State of nearly 120 billion VND.
In addition, defendant Trinh Xuan Thanh proposed a policy with a number of other defendants to create fake documents, withdraw 13 billion VND from the Management Board of the Vung Ang-Quang Trach project to share for personal use, of which Trinh Xuan Thanh received 4 billion VND and was responsible with a number of defendants for the common use of 1.5 billion VND.
The case that occurred at PVN and PVC was assessed by the first-instance panel as an especially serious economic and corruption case, which received special attention from the public. Most of the defendants were key officials, assigned by the State and the people to manage national resources and implement key construction projects. However, taking advantage of the position, characteristics and privileges of the oil and gas group, for different motives, the defendants committed a series of violations, causing damage to the State and leaving many consequences./.
In the case related to PVN's capital contribution of VND800 billion to Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Oceanbank), defendant Dinh La Thang was sentenced to 18 years in prison for intentionally violating State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences. Regarding civil liability, the court ordered defendant Dinh La Thang and 6 accomplices to jointly compensate PVN VND800 billion. Of which, Mr. Dinh La Thang is responsible for compensating VND600 billion because he is the main responsible person.
