Miss Phuong Nga's trial: Many new details

On the morning of June 22, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City reopened the first-instance trial of defendants Truong Ho Phuong Nga (30 years old, won the title of Miss Vietnam in Russia in 2007) and Nguyen Duc Thuy Dung (30 years old, residing in Ho Chi Minh City), who were prosecuted by the People's Procuracy for the crime of "fraudulent appropriation of property".

The trial was presided over by Judge Vu Thanh Lam, Deputy Chief Justice of the Criminal Court. In the same outfit she wore at the previous trial, Miss Phuong Nga looked a bit paler this time.

Miss Phuong Nga was defended by 6 lawyers (one of whom was absent). Notably, among them was lawyer Pham Cong Hung (former judge of the Supreme People's Court (now the High Court) in Ho Chi Minh City). Defendant Nguyen Duc Thuy Dung also had 2 lawyers defending her.

The two defendants are hearing the indictment.

The jury.

Two defendants before the trial.

Miss Phuong Nga's mother (in pink) came to court to watch the trial.

The lawyers attended the trial.

The victim, Mr. Cao Toan My (40 years old, living in Ho Chi Minh City) also has 3 lawyers participating in protecting his legal rights in court.

During the procedure, lawyer Pham Cong Hung provided 4 pieces of evidence, including evidence provided by Ms. Ho Mai Phuong (Phuong Nga's mother), and requested the panel of judges to consider Ms. Phuong's status as a witness in this case.

Evidence includes: USB recording the testimony of witness Ms. Nguyen Mai Phuong (absent) and defendant Phuong Nga who have a close relationship (This is the character at the previous trial, Phuong Nga stated that she listened to this person's instigation to make receipts to legalize the story of buying a house).

The audio excerpt was taken from the audio file and the person providing evidence was the defendant's mother (Ms. Ho Mai Phuong). Email transactions between the victim and the defendant related to the case and the minutes of the lawyer's testimony with defendant Phuong Nga at the investigation agency.

However, the lawyer's request was not accepted by the panel of judges on the grounds that this evidence was not new evidence, had been clarified during the additional investigation, and any remaining conflicts would be clarified by the panel of judges at the trial.

Also in the procedural part, with the reason of missing many important witnesses in the case such as Mr. Lu Minh Nghia (Dung's lover), Ms. Nguyen Mai Phuong... defendant Dung's lawyer requested to postpone the trial because these people needed to testify in court.

After deliberation, the panel of judges concluded that these people had already given statements during the investigation, so there was no need for them to appear in court. If there were more circumstances that required these people to confront each other during the trial, the panel of judges would summon them later. Therefore, the trial continued.

After the procedural part, the People's Procuracy began to announce the indictment. Accordingly, after more than 4 months of re-investigation, the People's Procuracy still maintained its view of prosecuting the two defendants Nga and Dung for defrauding Mr. Cao Toan My of 16.5 billion VND.

At 10:00 this morning, the panel of judges began questioning the defendants. During the questioning, while questioning defendant Dung, the panel of judges isolated defendant Nga. The trial is still ongoing. The trial is expected to last one day.

According to CAND