Life sentence upheld for former traffic police captain accepting bribes

The court also recommended that the investigation agency promptly investigate and prosecute a number of businesses and individuals whose bribery in this case has been identified as involving large and very large amounts of money.

On October 20, the High-Level People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City, conducting a mobile appeal trial in Can Tho City, sentenced seven former traffic inspectors in Can Tho and two others for accepting bribes.

The defendants listened to the appellate court's verdict on October 20. Photo: NN

According to the panel of judges, the defendants were former traffic police officers of Can Tho, inspectors, but did not properly perform their assigned duties and tasks, and also took advantage of their positions and powers to receive money from businesses and individuals in the transport business to avoid inspection or to give lenient punishment. Defendants Can and An assisted other defendants in committing crimes.

Therefore, the court of first instance tried the defendants for bribery with reasonable grounds and in accordance with the law. Defendant Duy said that the amount of money he received in bribes was much less than the indictment alleged, but based on the statements of defendants in the case such as Can, Anh, Tam, An as well as the statements of businesses and individuals who paid money to the defendant through defendant Can. Specifically, defendant Can's statement was that he was the broker for customers for defendant Duy, showing that Can directly gave money to Duy. Defendant Duy's complaint was baseless and aimed at evading responsibility. Therefore, defendant Duy's appeal was not accepted.

Considering the defendant's criminal behavior is particularly serious, for a long time the defendants did not perform their assigned duties and responsibilities of inspecting and checking compliance with road traffic laws and conversely colluded with subjects outside of society to ignore or give light punishments to collect money from owners of means of transport.

The defendants' criminal acts not only violate the integrity of state agencies, negatively affect the organization of traffic police and cause outrage in society when traffic safety laws are lax. Therefore, it is necessary to punish them severely to ensure general education and prevention.

The defendants wait for the court to announce the verdict on the morning of October 20. Photo: NN

From there, the court rejected the appeals of the defendants Tam, Duy, Can, Minh, Thien, Phap, and Luu. As for the defendant Vo Hoang Anh, the court assessed that this defendant had recovered a very large amount of illegal profits (over 400 million VND) and that his father had been awarded a resistance medal, which had not been considered by the first instance court as a mitigating circumstance, so the appellate court considered and reduced part of the sentence, from 15 years in prison to 13 years in prison.

Accordingly, the appeals court sentenced defendant Duy to life in prison, Can to 20 years in prison, Hoang Anh to 13 years in prison, Tam to 10 years in prison, Minh to 9 years in prison, and defendants Phap, Thien, Luu and An each to 7 years in prison for bribery.

In addition, the court also recommended that the investigation agency promptly investigate and prosecute a number of businesses and individuals whose bribery in this case has been identified as involving large and very large amounts of money.

According to the indictment, between 2013 and 2016, seven Can Tho City Traffic Police officers colluded with a number of businesses and individuals with cars operating in the passenger and cargo transport business to not catch or catch minor traffic violations. The total amount of money the defendants received was nearly 4 billion VND.

At the first instance trial on July 11, Can Tho City People's Court sentenced Duy to life in prison, Can to 20 years in prison, Hoang Anh to 15 years in prison, Tam to 10 years in prison, Minh to 9 years in prison, and defendants Luu, Thien, Phap, and An to 7 years in prison each for bribery.

According to PLO