Trinh Xuan Thanh surrenders: Waiting for declaration of responsibility of related people

Lawyer Nguyen Van Hau - Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association said that "many people are shaking" over the incident of Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh surrendering to the police. Meanwhile, economic expert Pham Chi Lan affirmed that the public is very interested in how much property will be recovered through this case.

Minister Vu Huy Hoang presented the decision to appoint Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh as Director of the Department of Enterprise Innovation under the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Talking to reportersDan TriOn the morning of August 1, Lieutenant General Nguyen Quoc Thuoc - former Commander of Military Region 4, former National Assembly delegate of the 8th, 9th, and 10th terms - said that the surrender of Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh - former Chairman of the Board of Directors of Vietnam Oil and Gas Construction Joint Stock Corporation (PVC) will help the authorities speed up the process of investigation, prosecution, and strict trial of those responsible in the two cases that occurred at PVC and the Thanh Ha - Cienco 5 Land project.

“If Trinh Xuan Thanh truly sees his mistake, he will honestly declare the responsibility of those involved, those who have not yet been brought to light. If he is not honest, the crime will be even more serious,” said Mr. Thuoc.

Mr. Thuoc is particularly interested in recovering assets in the two cases above, because the more recovered, the more "damage to the country and the people" will be reduced.

Agreeing, economic expert Pham Chi Lan affirmed that asset recovery in major cases is an extremely important issue that needs to be addressed today.

“Corrupt officials cannot be disciplined, even imprisoned, but their seized assets remain untouched. That will give rise to other corrupt people, continuing to have the mentality of “sacrificing the father to strengthen the son’s life”, trying to exploit and accumulate assets to the maximum, only to be disciplined, criticized, and learn from profound experience.

I think the State must be responsible for recovering the maximum amount of assets in cases like this. The press has already reported that Trinh Xuan Thanh disposed of assets before being prosecuted and fled abroad, which is not good,” Ms. Lan stated.

Economist Pham Chi Lan.

The economic expert suggested that the investigation agency must clarify where Trinh Xuan Thanh and his accomplices hid and dispersed the assets in order to freeze, seize and recover them for the state.

“If we do not recover the lost state assets, but only aim at criminally prosecuting individuals and finding out the relevant connections and roots to deal with them, society will have feelings about this and that, and will not achieve the ultimate goal of fighting corruption. The ultimate goal of fighting corruption is to both punish corrupt people appropriately and legally, but also to recover as much of the lost assets as possible to return them to the people,” Ms. Lan analyzed.

Another issue that Ms. Pham Chi Lan is particularly concerned about is clarifying the responsibilities of individuals who helped Trinh Xuan Thanh rise rapidly after leading PVC to cause a loss of up to 3,300 billion VND. Revisiting all the documents on the process of proposing, approving, and appointing Mr. Trinh Xuan Thanh to a series of positions at the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Hau Giang province, and being elected to the National Assembly is not difficult.

“I have said it before, corruption of power is the biggest corruption. It is not natural to get such positions. That is why those who participate in it must take responsibility, they cannot be innocent,” Ms. Lan expressed.

Citing the story of the very low rate of recovery of corrupt assets in recent times, which has caused public outrage, lawyer Nguyen Van Hau - Vice President of the Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association affirmed that the amount of money lost in the case related to Trinh Xuan Thanh is so large that it is necessary to track down and prevent its dissipation.

“Trinh Xuan Thanh’s surrender has left many people trembling. This will help untie many knots in the process of solving the case and continue to clarify the responsibilities of related individuals who have not been prosecuted, because Trinh Xuan Thanh is both a central figure and just a link, because before that, many high-ranking officials involved were disciplined and prosecuted by the Party,” Mr. Hau said.

Previously, talking with PVDan Tri, Dr. Duong Thanh Bieu - former Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Procuracy affirmed that the investigation agency will clarify why Trinh Xuan Thanh was able to flee abroad right before being prosecuted and what "umbrellas" helped and covered up his rapid promotion.

“The Trinh Xuan Thanh incident can be considered a weakness in the work of planning cadres. The building of cadre planning has been regulated very specifically and carried out in a strict, careful and thorough order, but why did this happen? I think that the specific agencies and individuals responsible for appointing Thanh need to be clarified by the competent authorities and, in my opinion, must also be strictly handled,” said Mr. Bieu.

According to Dan Tri