Nguyen Duc Chung, former Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee (Photo: VNA) The defendantsin this case are Nguyen Duc Chung, former Chairman of the Hanoi People’sCommittee; Nguyen Truong Giang, Director of Arktic Trading and Service Co.,Ltd., and Vo Tien Hung, General Director of the Hanoi Sewerage and Sewerage OneMember Limited Liability Company. They were all prosecuted for “abusingposition and power while performing duties”.
There are 11lawyers participating in defence for the defendants. Chung has five lawyerswhile Giang and Hung three each.
The court hassummoned a representative of the Hanoi Sewerage Company as a civil plaintiff; anumber of staff from the Hanoi Sewerage and Drainage Company, with relatedrights and obligations, including representatives of the Hanoi People’sCommittee, representatives of the Arktic Trading and Service Co., Ltd andNguyen Thi Truc Chi Hoa (Chung’s wife).
Chung haspreviously asked the court to summon all relevant people who attended a workingsession at Hoan Kiem Lake on the afternoon of July 31, 2016. Among them wereNguyen The Hung (then Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee), a numberof office staff from the Hanoi People's Committee, and officials and technicalstaff of the Hanoi Sewerage Company.
Chung alsoproposed to summon those involved in the proposal and negotiation of purchasingRedoxy-3C preparations. He asked his lawyer to provide the court withtranslations from the audiotape of the meeting between him and other leaders ofthe Hanoi People's Committee and the General Director of Watch Water Company(Germany) on the afternoon of June 25, 2016, at the headquarters of the HanoiPeople's Committee, among other documents.
After that,lawyers of Chung asked the court to summon more representatives of the People'sCommittee of Truc Bach ward and the People's Committee of Thanh Cong ward, andthe representative of the Office of the Hanoi City Party Committee. The lawyersaid that these two wards were related to the assessment of the effectivenessof lake water cleaning in the area.
The trialpanel acknowledged the requests by defendants and lawyers and said duringthe trial process, they would summon those who deemed to be necessary for theprocedures.
According tothe indictment, in 2016, the Hanoi People’s Committee directed relevant unitsto treat, renovate and tackle water pollution in rivers and lakes in the cityby searching for suitable advanced technologies. Defendant Nguyen Duc Chung,then Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, chose the polluted watertreatment technology of Watch Water Company (Germany), organised a tour to testand ordered the production of Redoxy- 3C for use in the treatment of waterpollution in Hanoi.
Chung theninstructed defendant Vo Tien Hung to buy Redoxy-3C product through ArkticCompany, an intermediary company where Giang acted as the Director - attemptingpersonal profit.
Arktic iswholly invested by Chung’s wife, Nguyen Thi Truc Chi Hoa, and has their son,Nguyen Duc Hạnh, represented in the business registration certificate. Hoaasked another person to represent her family in the ownership of 40 percent ofthis firm’s charter capital, while Giang acted as the owner of the remaining 60percent. Hoa repeatedly falsified papers to change contributors to thiscompany’s capital.
The procuracyheld that the actions by Chung and the others have caused “serious losses”,totalling over 36 billion VND (nearly 1.6 million USD), to the State./.
VNA
