Bribe 440 million VND to raise scores because... love for children

On Sunday (May 24), the People's Court of Son La province continued to preside over the first-instance criminal trial of the exam score fraud case in Son La. On the fourth day of the trial, the People's Court reserved time for representatives of the People's Procuracy of Son La province to practice the right to prosecute and defend, participating in questioning the defendants to clarify further issues related to the case.

Responding to the People's Court, defendant Tran Xuan Yen (former Deputy Director of the Department of Education and Training of Son La province) did not admit to the crime as charged in the indictment. Defendant Yen said that the reason he gave the list of candidates to the member of the 2018 national high school graduation exam was only to "ask for the score to be checked, not to ask for the score to be raised".

The panel of judges requested a confrontation. The defendants, who were members of the exam board and former subordinates of defendant Yen, all affirmed that they were forced to increase the scores of candidates because defendant Yen directed them to do so.

According to the testimony of defendant Cam Thi Bun Son (former Deputy Head of the Political and Ideological Department, Department of Education and Training of Son La province), the exam papers after the scores were increased were carefully rearranged to avoid being detected when sent to the Ministry of Education and Training. The lawyer asked defendant Son, "Did defendant Tran Xuan Yen know that because the exam scores were changed for candidates, they had to be rearranged?"

Defendant Son replied, "Defendant Yen is the Team Leader, the person who manages the members of the Exam Scoring Team, so she must know those contents to ensure that her members work according to the regulations and on schedule."

Previously, defendant Son confessed that he had received 440 million from defendant Hoang Thi Thanh (former President of the Farmers' Association of Quynh Nhai District, Son La Province) to help raise the score of defendant Thanh's son to pass the Police University entrance exam. "Because of our friendship, when defendant Thanh asked to raise the score for his son, defendant Son agreed. The reason defendant Thanh asked defendant to raise the score was because defendant Thanh's son had failed the exam for a year," defendant Son confessed.

According to the defendant Son’s testimony, defendant Thanh called and promised to give him 440 million VND. In return, the defendant would raise the score of defendant Thanh’s child to 15 or 16 because this candidate already had 7 bonus points. During the investigation of the case, defendant Son voluntarily handed over the entire amount of money he was accused of receiving as bribes to the investigation agency. Defendant Son admitted that the indictment charging him with two crimes of “Abusing power while performing official duties” and “Receiving bribes” was correct.

The panel of judges requested a confrontation, and defendant Hoang Thi Thanh admitted that defendant Son's testimony about the two defendants agreeing to give and receive a bribe of 440 million VND to raise the candidate's score was correct. "Before deciding to spend money to raise the score for my son to pass the Police Academy, I thought a lot because I loved my son very much. And I asked defendant Son to help because we were classmates," defendant Thanh stated. The investigation results determined that defendant Thanh's son's score was raised by 13.65 points for 3 subjects.

Responding to the basis for paying the amount of 440 million VND to the defendant Son, the defendant Thanh stated that at first he only asked the defendant Son to raise the scores of 2 multiple choice subjects and he thought that paying 400 million VND was appropriate. But later, because the defendant asked the defendant Son to raise the score of the 3rd subject, the defendant Son offered to give him an additional 50 million VND. But the defendant said that he only had 40 million left and the defendant Son agreed to receive a total of 440 million VND.

“The giving and receiving of this amount of money was divided into two times, the first time was 400 million at defendant Son’s house, the second time was 40 million when the two defendants met on the street,” defendant Thanh stated. With the actions he committed, defendant Thanh was prosecuted for the crime of “Giving bribes”.

Responding to the People's Court, defendant Nguyen Minh Khoa (former Deputy Head of the Internal Political Security Department, Son La Provincial Police) stated that he only asked defendant Lo Van Huynh (former Deputy Head of the Examination and Education Quality Management Department, Son La Provincial Department of Education and Training) to check the candidates' scores and did not give 1 billion VND in gratitude. Defendant Khoa did not agree with the content of the indictment accusing him of bribery.

The indictment determined that defendant Khoa had agreed and given Lo Van Huynh 1 billion VND so that Huynh could raise the scores of two candidates, NAT and TDH. Therefore, defendant Khoa was prosecuted for the crime of "Giving bribes".

The panel of judges requested a confrontation, and defendant Huynh also stated that he did not accept money from defendant Khoa because he thought he would be thanked later. In response to the question from the representative of the Procuracy about "If he did not accept the thank you money from defendant Khoa, why did he bring his family's money to the investigation agency?", defendant Huynh explained, "At that time, my awareness was limited, so I did not know that if I confessed like that, my crime would be even more serious."

Explaining the amount of 1 billion VND that was submitted to the investigation agency, defendant Huynh said that this was the money from selling land and his family's savings to lend to his brother-in-law, Le Thanh Son, to buy land to build a house. Realizing defendant Huynh's lack of sincerity, the representative of the Procuracy quoted Huynh's testimony at the investigation agency: "On the evening of July 27, 2018, when Son came to visit, Huynh said: Please keep 1 billion VND for me to send to Mr. Khoa. But you will only do it when he calls."

At the Investigation Agency, Mr. Son stated, “The money paid to the Investigation Agency was the money Mr. Huynh gave me. This money is to pay Mr. Khoa when Mr. Huynh has an opinion. I do not know the origin of this money so I used a part, the rest I have handed over to the Investigation Agency.”

Nguyen Hung