Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung was sentenced to 5 years in prison.
Former Hanoi Chairman Nguyen Duc Chung, 53, along with three former police officers, have been convicted of misappropriating confidential documents related to the Nhat Cuong case.
On the morning of December 11th, after a four-hour closed-door trial, the Hanoi People's Court sentenced the defendant Chung to five years in prison for the crime of misappropriating state secret documents.According to Article 337 of the 2015 Penal Code.
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| Mr. Chung is seated in the front row. Photo: VNA |
For the same crime, Pham Quang Dung (former officer of the Department of Investigation of Economic Crimes, Corruption, and Smuggling - C03, Ministry of Public Security) received a 4-year and 6-month prison sentence; Nguyen Hoang Trung (Mr. Chung's driver) was sentenced to 2 years in prison; and Nguyen Anh Ngoc (46 years old, former officer of the Hanoi People's Committee Office) received an 18-month prison sentence.
Trung is a former Hanoi police officer; Ngoc is a former Deputy Chief of Police of Cau Giay District, both were seconded to work at the Hanoi People's Committee Office.
The verdict did not specify the civil aspects or additional penalties, said lawyer Ngo Kim Lan, who defended the defendant Dung.
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| Mr. Chung speaks with the judge before returning to prison. Photo: Pham Du |
Lawyer Giang Hong Thanh, defending defendant Trung, stated at the trial that all four defendants admitted their wrongdoing. Chung and his three accomplices were granted the mitigating circumstance of honest confession, and this was one of the grounds for the court to sentence them below the maximum penalty for the charges.
Due to poor health, Mr. Chung was allowed to sit while answering questions. The former Chairman of Hanoi confessed to being the mastermind, as alleged in the indictment. "In his final statement, Mr. Chung apologized to the Party, the State, and the voters for having lost their trust," lawyer Thanh said.
According to the indictment, Mr. Chung and his wife are parties with rights and obligations related to the case that occurred atNhat Cuong Company- This major case is under the monitoring and direction of the Central Steering Committee on Anti-Corruption. Knowing that Dung had been seconded to investigate this case, he asked him to gather and "understand information about the direction of the investigation."
In five instances of misappropriating nine confidential documents, Dung transferred six documents to Mr. Chung on two separate occasions. Trung and Anh Ngoc were accused of participating once in printing and editing three confidential documents for Mr. Chung.