Former Commander of Coast Guard Region 4 asks for reduced prison sentence
Defendant Le Van Minh - Major General, former Commander of Coast Guard Region 4, appealed to reduce his 15-year prison sentence for accepting a bribe of 6.9 billion VND from a petrol smuggling boss.
Three weeks after the first instance verdict was announced, the Military Court of Military Region 7 said it had received appeals from 8 out of 14 defendants in the case of protecting the smuggling of 200 million liters of gasoline.
Accordingly, 6 people appealed for a reduced sentence and a suspended sentence, including: Le Van Minh - former Commander of Coast Guard Region 4; Nguyen Van Hung, Chief of Border Guard Station of Truong Long Hoa Port, Tra Vinh Province; Pham Ho Hai, Chief Representative of Can Tho Maritime Port Authority in Duyen Hai, Tra Vinh; Le Van Phuong, Deputy Head of Traffic Police Department of Tra Vinh Police; Nguyen Thanh Lam, Captain of Squadron 2 of Soc Trang Provincial Border Guard and Pham Van Tren, Commander of Tra Vinh Provincial Border Guard.
Six people were sentenced by the court of first instance to 3 years and 6 months to 16 years in prison for accepting bribes.
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| Defendant Le Van Minh heard the verdict on the afternoon of July 15. Photo: Court |
The two remaining people who appealed the entire first instance verdict were Colonel Nguyen The Anh, Commander of the Kien Giang Province Border Guard, and his nephew Nguyen Van An.
Mr. The Anh is the only person in the case to be prosecuted on two charges: Receiving bribes and Organizing others to illegally flee abroad, sentenced to life in prison. During the first instance trial, this defendant denied the charges from beginning to end, claiming that he was forced to confess, but could not provide any evidence.
The verdict announced on July 15 determined that from September 2019 to February 2021, at a number of units of the Border Guard and Coast Guard in the southern provinces, violations of an "especially serious" nature occurred.
Commander Le Van Minh was accused of "taking advantage of his position and power for personal gain" and directly and through his wife and children, receiving from "boss" of petroleum smuggling Phan Thanh Huu (Director of Phan Le Hoang Anh Trading Limited Company) a total amount of 6.9 billion VND.
Authorities determined that from March 2020 to February 2021, this line smuggled more than 204 million liters of gasoline, worth nearly 2,900 billion VND. Of which, more than 196 million liters were consumed, earning hundreds of billions of VND. The amount of bribes the defendants received was about 38 billion VND, of which 17.8 billion VND has been recovered so far.
In connection with the case, in early July, Mr. Huu and 72 others were also prosecuted by the People's Procuracy of Dong Nai province for smuggling.,according to Clause 4, Article 188, Penal Code - penalty from 12 to 20 years in prison.These people were suspended from investigation for Bribery because they proactively reported it before being discovered.