Revealing the "special" trial of Dinh La Thang and accomplices

Mr. Dinh La Thang was prosecuted for intentionally violating state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences, with a penalty of 10 to 20 years in prison. Meanwhile, Mr. Thang's accomplice, Trinh Xuan Thanh, in addition to the above crime, was also prosecuted for another crime of embezzlement, with a penalty of 20 years in prison, life imprisonment or death.

The courtroom where the trial will take place on January 8.

The court clerk's seat.

The trial panel consists of five members, including the presiding judge Nguyen Ngoc Huan, judge Truong Viet Toan (Deputy Chief Justice of the Criminal Court) and three people's assessors. In addition, the Hanoi Court also arranged one judge and two alternate people's assessors.

In particular, the trial had three prosecutors exercising the right to prosecute and supervise the trial at the trial, including Deputy Chief Prosecutor of Hanoi People's Procuracy Dao Thinh Cuong and two senior prosecutors Nguyen Minh Dong and Nguyen Manh Thuong. Hanoi People's Procuracy also arranged two alternate prosecutors to participate in the trial.

The trial is expected to have more than 40 lawyers attending. Among them, Mr. Dinh La Thang invited 3 lawyers, including lawyers Phan Trung Hoai, Nguyen Huy Thiep and Dao Huu Dang.

Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh invited 9 defense lawyers, however, by the afternoon of January 5, two lawyers from Vien An Law Firm had notified the Hanoi court that they would stop defending and protecting Mr. Thanh’s legal rights and interests in this case. The lawyer said the reason for his withdrawal was that he did not have enough time to collect and study documents, so he could not best defend Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh, and Mr. Thanh agreed.

The case brought to trial has two civil plaintiffs (victims), PVN and PVC. The court plans to summon seven people with related rights and obligations, more than 31 witnesses and six people to participate in the assessment.

The defendants' seats.

Notably, the trial will apply new regulations on courtroom arrangement according to Circular 01 of the Supreme People's Court (effective from January 1, 2018). Accordingly, lawyers will be seated on the same level as the representative of the People's Procuracy. Defendants will have their own seats, below the defense lawyer and the representative of the People's Procuracy. According to the new regulations, the courtroom will no longer have a bar, when answering questions, defendants will stand in front of the witness stand or table.

In another notable development, on January 5, Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh's family proactively went to the Hanoi Department of Natural Resources and Environment to voluntarily pay two billion VND to remedy the consequences.

In addition, the families of two other defendants in the case, Nguyen Quoc Khanh (former Deputy General Director of PVN) and Nguyen Anh Minh (former Deputy General Director of PVC), also came to pay 2 billion VND and 1.3 billion VND. The total amount of money that the families of the three defendants voluntarily paid to the Hanoi Department of Civil Judgment Enforcement was 5.3 billion VND.

In this case, Mr. Dinh La Thang and 13 accomplices were accused of causing damage to PVN totaling nearly 120 billion VND. Trinh Xuan Thanh and 9 other defendants were accused of appropriating over 13 billion VND under the management of PVC, of ​​which Trinh Xuan Thanh appropriated 4 billion VND and was jointly responsible for 1.5 billion VND shared with 3 other defendants.

This is a special trial that has attracted public attention, as it is the first time a former Politburo member has had to appear in court. The list of reporters who registered to attend the trial was very large, however, each newspaper was only given one card (for one reporter) to attend and report.

Defendants in the case:

The group of defendants committed the crime of intentionally violating:

1.Dinh La Thang(Former Chairman of the Board of Members of PVN)

2.Trinh Xuan Thanh(Former Chairman of the Board of Directors, General Director of Vietnam Oil and Gas Construction Joint Stock Corporation (PVC).

3.Phung Dinh Thuc(Former General Director of PVN).

4.Nguyen Quoc Khanh(Former Deputy General Director of PVN).

5.Nguyen Xuan Son(Former Deputy General Director of PVN)

6.Vu Duc Thuan(former General Director of PVC).

7.Ninh Van Quynh(former Chief Accountant and Head of Finance, Accounting and Auditing Department of PVN).

8.Le Dinh Mau(former Deputy Head of Accounting and Auditing Department of PVN)

9.Vu Hong Chuong(former Head of Thai Binh 2 Oil and Gas Power Project Management Board).

10.Tran Van Nguyen(former Chief Accountant of Thai Binh 2 Oil and Gas Power Project Management Board).

11.Nguyen Ngoc Quy(former Vice Chairman of PVC Board of Directors).

12.Nguyen Manh Tien(former Deputy General Director of PVC).

13.Pham Tien Dat(former Chief Accountant of PVC).

14.Truong Quoc Dung(Former Deputy General Director of PVC).

The group of defendants committed the crime of embezzlement.

15.Nguyen Anh Minh(former Deputy General Director of PVC).

16.Bui Manh Hien(former Chief of Office of PVC).

17.Luong Van Hoa(former Director of the Vung Ang - Quang Trach Project Management Board of Vietnam Oil and Gas Construction Joint Stock Corporation (PVC).

18.Nguyen Thanh Quynh(Technical Director, Central Corporation - Joint Stock Company (Da Nang).

19.Le Thi Anh Hoa(Director of Quynh Hoa LLC)

Husband: Nguyen Thanh Quynh (also a defendant in the case).

20.Nguyen Duc Hung(Former Head of Finance and Accounting Department, Executive Board of Vung Ang - Quang Trach)

21.Le Xuan Khanh(Former Head of Economic Planning Department, Vung Ang - Quang Trach Project Management Board)

22.Nguyen Ly Hai(Former Head of Technical Department, Vung Ang - Quang Trach Project Management Board).

Two defendants aloneTrinh Xuan Thanh, Vu Duc Thuanwas prosecuted for both crimes.

Duc Minh