Four more defendants detained in the case of "6 railway officials abusing their positions and powers"

The Hanoi People's Court has just ordered the temporary detention of four more defendants in the case of "six railway officials abusing their positions and powers while performing official duties" that occurred at the Railway Project Management Unit (RPMU) under the Vietnam Railway Corporation.

Accordingly, all 6 defendants who must appear in court in this case are being detained to ensure the organization of the trial that will open on October 26.

Specifically, the Hanoi People's Court ordered the temporary detention of 4 defendants, including: Tran Van Luc (born in 1958, former Director of the Railway Project Management Unit (RPMU) under the Vietnam Railway Corporation), Tran Quoc Dong (born in 1964, former Deputy General Director of the Vietnam Railway Corporation, former Director of RPMU), Nguyen Van Hieu (born in 1962, former Director of RPMU), Pham Quang Duy (born in 1975, former Deputy Director of RPMU). These four defendants, along with 2 other defendants: Pham Hai Bang (born in 1969, former Deputy Director of RPMU) and Nguyen Nam Thai (born in 1977, former Head of Project Implementation Department 3 under RPMU), were all prosecuted by the Supreme People's Procuracy for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties" as prescribed in Article 281, Clause 3 - Penal Code.

The subjects' actions have caused particularly serious consequences, causing the project "Construction of urban railway line No. 1 (phase 1)" to be suspended. (Source: hanoimoi.com.vn)

The trial was chaired by Judge Truong Viet Toan (Deputy Chief Justice of the Criminal Court, Hanoi People's Court). 8 lawyers participated in protecting the legal rights and interests of the defendants before the Court.

According to the indictment, from September 2009 to February 2014, Pham Hai Bang (Deputy Director of RPMU), Project Manager of “Hanoi Urban Railway Construction (Line 01), Phase 1” directly negotiated with the representative of the contractor JTC (Japan Transport Consulting Company) to have the contractor support the funds for RPMU to use for purposes related to project implementation and the contractor JTC agreed to support. The total amount of money transferred by the employees of the contractor JTC to Bang, Thai and Duy during the above period was about 11 billion VND. All of this money was used by the defendants for the cost of the contract signing ceremony, receptions, meetings, travel, holidays, overtime work... for the benefit of the collective, including personal interests.

The defendants: Luc, Dong, Hieu, and Duy knew that Bang and Thai received money from the contractor JTC, but agreed to let the crime take place over a long period of time at RPMU.

The trial is scheduled to take place on October 26 and 27./.

According to VNA