Chairman of the Board of Directors of Viet A Technologies JSC Phan Quoc Viet has been sentenced to a total of 25 years in prison on charges of "abusing position and power while on duty" and “violating bidding regulations, causing serious damages”, in the COVID-19 test kit case at the Viet A Technologies JSC and the Vietnam Military Medical University (VMMU).

The military court of Hanoi capital announced the verdict on December 29, following a three-day trial and deliberation.

Ho Anh Son, former Deputy Director of the Military Medical Academy’s Institute of Biomedicine and Pharmacy, received a 12-year prison sentence while former Director of the Department of Science and Technology for Economic-Technical Sectors under the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) Trinh Thang Hung was sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Four other defendants, charged with "violating bidding regulations, causing serious damages", faced jail sentences of between 4-7 years.

According to the indictment, amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, the Board of Directors of the VMMU sent a document to the MoST, proposing the task of developing COVID-19 test kits.

The accused managed to engage the Viet A Technologies JSC into the test kit development project worth nearly 19 billion VND (over 781,400 USD) and helped it get a licence to illegally produce the test kits.

Their wrongdoings caused an economic loss of nearly 18.5 billion VND (762,260 USD)./.VNA