Defendants listen to the verdict on May 12 (Photo: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi-basedHigh-level People’s Court on May 12 announced the verdict of an appeal trialfor a case in which two former top leaders of Da Nang and their accomplices werelinked with the illegal acquisition of State-owned housing and land in the centralcity.
The jury rejected the appeals lodgedby Tran Van Minh (Chairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee in the 2006-2011period) and Phan Van Anh Vu (also known as Vu “nhom”, former Chairman of theBoard of Directors at the Bac Nam 79 Construction JSC) while reducing thepunishments for Van Huu Chien (Chairman of the Da Nang People’s Committee inthe 2011-2016 period) and some other defendants.
Accordingly, the prison sentence of17 years for Tran Van Minh was upheld, consisting of 12 years in prison for breaching regulations on the management and use of Stateassets that caused losses and wastefulness, and another five years for violatingland management rules.
The court also upheld the 25-year jail termfor Phan Van Anh Vu, including 17 years for breaching regulations on themanagement and use of State assets that caused losses and wastefulness, and eightyears for violating land management rules. Added with his punishments in othercases, Vu has to spend a total of 30 years behind bars.
Meanwhile, Van Huu Chien will be imprisonedfor seven years for the former offence (down two years from the penalty in thefirst-instance trial’s verdict) and an additional three years for the latteroffence. The total punishment for him is 10 years in prison.
Former Vice Chairman of the Da Nang People’s CommitteeNguyen Ngoc Tuan also had his jail sentences cut down by 18 months for theformer offence and by six months for the latter to 18 months each. The totalpenalty is three years in prison.
The jail sentences for Tran Phi (formerGeneral Director of the Da Nang Export-Import JSC) and Nguyen Dinh Thong (formerDirector of the Da Nang Land Management and Exploitation Company) were also cutdown by 12 months and six months to 12 months and 18 months, respectively.
While three defendants were granted suspendedsentences, the jury upheld the jail terms of between 18 months and six yearsfor the 11 others./.
VNA
