The Hanoi People’s Court on July 30 sentenced Phan Van Anh Vu nine years in prison for “deliberately disclosing state secrets” under Article 337 of the 2015 Penal Code.
Phan Van Anh Vu at the court
The defendant, also known as Vu nhom, is a 43-year-old resident in Hai Chau district, the central city of Da Nang. He was put on a close trial with two other defendants, both prosecuted under the same charges. They were Phan Huu Tuan (born in 1955, former deputy general director of the Ministry of Public Security’s General Department of Intelligence, residing in Tay Ho district, Hanoi), and Nguyen Huu Bach (born in 1963, a former officer of the Ministry of Public Security, residing in Hoang Mai district, Hanoi).
Tuan received seven years of imprisonment and Bach got six years of jail time.
Phan Van Anh Vu was prosecuted on the charge of “deliberately disclosing state secrets” in December 2017. He fled to Singapore, where he was deported for violating the Immigration Act of Singapore.
The Ministry of Public Security’s Security Investigation Agency received and arrested fugitive Phan Van Anh Vu on January 4 after he was deported from Singapore.
Vu was also prosecuted on several other charges.
Meanwhile, criminal proceedings against Phan Huu Tuan and Nguyen Huu Bach on the charge of “deliberately disclosing state secrets” started on April 17 this year.
Earlier the same day, President Tran Dai Quang signed a decision to strip Phan Huu Tuan of the title “People’s Public Security Officer”. Minister of Public Security To Lam also signed a decision to strip Nguyen Huu Bach of his same title. –VNA