Pham Trung Kien secretary of a Deputy Minister of Health; Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, former director of the Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Vu Anh Tuan, former officer at the Immigration Department under the Ministry of Public Security, were sentenced to life imprisonment during the first instance trial. Kien, Lan and Tuan were accused of taking VND42.6 billion, VND25 billion, and VND27 billion to get repatriation flights done.

The High People’s Court of Hanoi on December 27 rejected their appeals, saying the three defendants had received exceptionally large bribes. Though they had returned either all or part of the money, their behaviour cause public outrage and needs to be punished to ensure the strictness of the law, according to the ruling.

The court also decided to reduce prison sentences for several defendants, including former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung (from 16 to 14 years), former Deputy Director of the Consular Department under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (from 12 to 10 years), and former investigation officer Hoang Van Hung at the Ministry of Public Security (from life imprisonment to 20 years).

Several other defendants also got their sentences commuted during the trial.

A total of 21 defendants involved in the repatriation flight scandal stood trial at the appeal court from December 26-27. They filed for appeal after the first court of instance gave the verdict in July 2023.

In April 2020 the government decided to conduct flights to repatriate Vietnamese expatriates from overseas during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic globally. Businesses wishing to conduct such flights were required to ask for permission from the municipal/provincial administration and the dossiers were then sent to the Consular Department to consult with five ministries in charge of foreign affairs, public security, health, transport, and national defense.

As many as 372 combo flights had been operated from early 2020 to mid-2021. To have the flights approved, 20 businesses had to give bribes and then raise ticket prices to make up for the so-called ‘lubricant fees’ and get profits.

The case is considered extremely serious with the involvement of multiple public officers in various ministries and state departments, who are accused of abusing their positions to intentionally hamper the approval of repatriation flights, leading to bribery.

Source: VOV