Trial begins for Hanoi's ex-chairman accused of abusing position and power

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - The People’s Court of Hanoi has begun the first-instance trial regarding the purchases of the water cleaning agent Redoxy 3C to purify lakes in the city, causing tens of billions of VND in damage to the State budget. 

The defendants in this case are Nguyen Duc Chung, former Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee; Nguyen Truong Giang, Director of Arktic Trading and Service Co., Ltd., and Vo Tien Hung, General Director of the Hanoi Sewerage and Sewerage One Member Limited Liability Company. They were all prosecuted for “abusing position and power while performing duties”. 

There are 11 lawyers participating in defence for the defendants. Chung has five lawyers while Giang and Hung three each. 

The court has summoned a representative of the Hanoi Sewerage Company as a civil plaintiff; a number of staff from the Hanoi Sewerage and Drainage Company, with related rights and obligations, including representatives of the Hanoi People’s Committee, representatives of the Arktic Trading and Service Co., Ltd and Nguyen Thi Truc Chi Hoa (Chung’s wife).

Chung has previously asked the court to summon all relevant people who attended a working session at Hoan Kiem Lake on the afternoon of July 31, 2016. Among them were Nguyen The Hung (then Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee), a number of office staff from the Hanoi People's Committee, and officials and technical staff of the Hanoi Sewerage Company. 

Chung also proposed to summon those involved in the proposal and negotiation of purchasing Redoxy-3C preparations. He asked his lawyer to provide the court with translations from the audiotape of the meeting between him and other leaders of the 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 Hanoi People's Committee, among other documents.

After that, lawyers of Chung asked the court to summon more representatives of the People's Committee of Truc Bach ward and the People's Committee of Thanh Cong ward, and the representative of the Office of the Hanoi City Party Committee. The lawyer said that these two wards were related to the assessment of the effectiveness of lake water cleaning in the area.

The trial panel acknowledged the requests by defendants and lawyers and said during the trial process, they would summon those who deemed to be necessary for the procedures.

According to the indictment, in 2016, the Hanoi People’s Committee directed relevant units to treat, renovate and tackle water pollution in rivers and lakes in the city by searching for suitable advanced technologies. Defendant Nguyen Duc Chung, then Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee, chose the polluted water treatment technology of Watch Water Company (Germany), organised a tour to test and ordered the production of Redoxy- 3C for use in the treatment of water pollution in Hanoi.

Chung then instructed defendant Vo Tien Hung to buy Redoxy-3C product through Arktic Company, an intermediary company where Giang acted as the Director - attempting personal profit.

Arktic is wholly invested by Chung’s wife, Nguyen Thi Truc Chi Hoa, and has their son, Nguyen Duc Hạnh, represented in the business registration certificate. Hoa asked another person to represent her family in the ownership of 40 percent of this firm’s charter capital, while Giang acted as the owner of the remaining 60 percent. Hoa repeatedly falsified papers to change contributors to this company’s capital.

The procuracy held 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./.