Two officials responsible for Nguyen Thanh Chan’s wrongful 10-year prison term will spend eight and 12 months behind bars for their negligence in the case.

Delivering its conviction after a two-day trial yesterday, Bac Giang Province People’s Court found that Dang The Vinh, former head of the Bac Giang People’s Procuracy Division 10, and Tran Nhat Luat, former police chief of the Viet Yen District, acted “short of responsibility causing serious consequences”.

Luat, who investigated a murder in Viet Yen’s Me Village on April 15, 2003 in which Chan was the main suspect and was later wrongfully convicted of the crime, received a 12-month sentence while Vinh got eight months.

According to testimonies from police officers from Bac Giang police’s Criminalistics Division, they found footprints from the alleged murderer that did not match Chan’s, informed the investigation team, and verbally informed Luat in person.

Luat did not seek an official reassessment of the forensic results and was charged with “not fulfilling his responsibility in collecting evidences” to prove Chan guilty or not.

Luat, however, denied being informed of the forensic results.

Vinh, meanwhile, was said to have left two interrogation documents out of the case file in which Chan claimed his innocence and denounced investigators for extortion and torture, according to the court.

The wrongful murder case of Nguyen Thanh Chan was brought to light in 2014, only after he had served 10 years out of the life sentence he received in 2004.

The Hanoi Supreme People’s Court had to issue a formal apology to the man who was later compensated a record amount of VNĐ7.2 billion (US$320,000) for the decade-long miscarriage of justice. 

VNS