The High-Level People’s Court in Hanoi began to hear the appeals of Dinh La Thang and his accomplices in the case involving the National Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam)’s contribution of 800 billion VND to the Ocean Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OceanBank).

Nguyen Xuan Son, former Deputy General Director of PetroVietnam at the court 

All seven defendants in the case appealed against the judgment issued by the Hanoi People’s Court at the first-instance trial in March this year.

They are Dinh La Thang, former Chairman of the PetroVietnam’s Member Council; Nguyen Xuan Son, former Deputy General Director of PetroVietnam; Vu Khanh Truong, Nguyen Thanh Liem, Phan Dinh Duc and Nguyen Xuan Thang, who are former members of the PetroVietnam Member Council; and Ninh Van Quynh, former chief accountant and former head of the department of finance, accounting and auditing of PetroVietnam.

At the beginning of the appeal hearing, Nguyen Xuan Son withdrew his appeal against all criminal and civil judgments and only kept an appeal against the judgment on his rights and obligations related to the case, under which he asked the appeal court to exempt him from paying 15 billion VND in compensation to PetroVietnam. Son also asked the court to make Ninh Van Quynh bear responsibility for the 180 billion VND that Son had transferred to Quynh to pay for customer care. 

Representatives of the People’s Procuracy held that although Son cancelled his appeal, the appeals of other defendants are directly related to him, thus the court should define Son as a defendant. The chair of the court agreed with the People’s Procuracy’s viewpoint.

Meanwhile, Dinh La Thang appealed to the High-Level People’s Court to review all the charges, punishments and civil obligations against him.

Defendant Phan Dinh Duc also asked for a review of the entire judgments given to him in the first instance trial, while Ninh Van Quynh called on the court to review the case and reduce the punishment for him.

Vu Khanh Truong and Nguyen Thanh Liem appealed for review of their sentences including compensation to PetroVietnam.

Earlier, in the first-instance trial of the case from March 19-29, the People’s Court of Hanoi sentenced Dinh La Thang to 18 years in prison, Nguyen Xuan Son to 30 months in prison, Vu Khanh Truong to 5 years in jail, Nguyen Xuan Thang 22 months in jail, and Nguyen Thanh Liem and Phan Dinh Duc to non-custodial re-education periods of 20 months and 15 months, respectively, on the charge of “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences.”

Ninh Van Quynh received a total of 23 years in prison for “deliberately violating State regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences,” and “abusing position and power to arrogate property.”

Along with imprisonment sentences, Dinh La Thang was ordered to pay 600 billion VND in compensation to PetroVietnam, while Quynh must compensate 100 billion VND and Truong 40 billion VND. The rest four defendants were requested to compensate 15 billion VND each.

The appeal trial will last until June 25.-VNA