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 sentence of 15 years in prison 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 to 3 years and 6 months to 16 years in prison by the court of first instance for accepting bribes.
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| Defendant Le Van Minh listens to the verdict on the afternoon of July 15. Photo: Court |
The two remaining people who claimed innocence and appealed the entire first instance verdict were Colonel Nguyen The Anh, Commander of the Kien Giang Provincial Border Guard, and his nephew Nguyen Van An.
Mr. The Anh is the only person in the case to be prosecuted for two crimes: Receiving bribes and Organizing others to illegally flee abroad, sentenced to life in prison. During the first instance trial, this defendant denied the accusations from beginning to end, claiming that he was forced to confess, but could not provide evidence.
The verdict issued on July 15 determined that from September 2019 to February 2021, violations of an "especially serious" nature occurred at a number of units of the Border Guard and Coast Guard in the southern provinces.
Commander Le Van Minh was accused of "using his position and power for personal gain" and directly and through his wife and children, receiving from the "boss" of oil smuggling Phan Thanh Huu (Director of Phan Le Hoang Anh Trading Company Limited) a total 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 VND2,900 billion. Of which, more than 196 million liters were consumed, earning hundreds of billions of VND. The amount of money the defendants received in bribes was about VND38 billion, of which VND17.8 billion 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 the crime of 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.