Colonel Huynh Tien Manh, director of the Department of Public Security of Dong Nai Province. He has been disciplined for his errors in handling criminal cases and other police affairs – PHOTO: PLO

Having deliberated over the proposal of the Party Central Committee’s Inspection Commission, the Secretariat on Tuesday concluded that the 54-year-old Manh was to be held largely accountable for the serious mistakes and shortcomings of the Standing Board of the Party unit of Dong Nai Police during the 2015-2020 tenure.

The standing board was found to have infringed on the principles of democratic centralism, Party rules and the Ministry of Public Security’s regulations on criminal investigations.

Consequently, many local police officers failed to maintain discipline, violated laws and committed human resources violations.

While serving as a deputy director of Dong Nai Police, Manh was responsible for the errors of the standing board during the 2010-2015 tenure.

At the time, he was in charge of the province’s traffic police division, but his negligence led to many violations, including those of a serious nature, and these were not addressed for many years.

The Secretariat stated that Manh’s errors were grave, leaving a negative impact on the prestige of the Party unit, the public security sector and himself, as well as raising public outrage.

As a result, the Secretariat decided to dismiss him from all Party posts, as a member of the province’s standing committee and Party secretary of Dong Nai Police, and urged the Ministry of Public Security to mete out further penalties.

Provincial top lawmaker disciplined

The Party Secretariat also dismissed Ho Van Nam, the head of the delegation of National Assembly (NA) deputies in Dong Nai Province, from his posts as a member of the standing board and the head of the internal affairs division at the provincial Party Committee.

The Secretariat also requested the NA Standing Committee to consider stripping the 58-year-old Nam of his capacity as a lawmaker in the current tenure.

He was disciplined for breaking the principles of democratic centralism and working regulations and for illegally interfering with several cases and incidents.

During his tenure as Party secretary and director of the provincial People’s Procuracy, he was held responsible for the errors of the procuracy in its handling of many court cases, against prevailing regulations.

As the head of the province’s delegation of NA deputies, he was found to have signed a number of documents in breach of the law, showing signs of interfering with the work of the competent agencies handling criminal cases.

Late last month, he tendered his resignation as a lawmaker, following the exposure of his errors while in office. He referenced his poor health and family problems as the main factors behind his decision.

New charges brought against former top cop Phan Van Vinh

Police officers escort former police leader Phan Van Vinh from a court in the northern province of Phu Tho in 2018. He has now been charged with issuing unlawful decisions in another case –

Former head of the General Police Department, under the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), Phan Van Vinh, who is serving a nine-year sentence for his cover-up of a multimillion-dollar online gambling ring, has been charged in yet another case.

The Investigative Police Agency, with the People’s Supreme Procuracy, charged the 64-year-old Vinh with issuing unlawful decisions, based on Article 371 of the 2015 Penal Code. The offense is punishable by two to seven years’ imprisonment.

Investigators found that the then-police chief Vinh, who was in charge of a timber trafficking probe in the central coastal city of Danang, had decided to put the exhibits of the case – rosewood – up for auction.

This went against prevailing regulations, causing damage to the interests of the State, infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of the concerned individuals and organizations, as well as leaving a negative impact on social security, order and safety.

The police agency said further investigation is underway to determine the violations of the concerned individuals.

In late May this year, the Investigative Police Agency, with the People’s Supreme Procuracy, launched a criminal case for the issuance of unlawful decisions by the MPS’ Investigative Police Agency, locally known as C44, where the latter was responsible for investigating the rosewood smuggling operation.

On December 2011, Ngoc Hung Co., Ltd, located in the north-central coastal province of Quang Tri, imported 614 cubic meters of rosewood from Laos through the Lao Bao Border Gate in the same province.

As the timber shipment was later being transported to Tien Sa Port in Danang to be exported to China, local authorities suspected customs violations had occurred. This case was later investigated by several agencies before C44 took charge of it.

The case had not yet gone to trial, but Vinh, who was serving as the chief of C44 on December 2013, had proposed the sale of the rosewood shipment, citing it was difficult to preserve the wood. It was later valued at VND63.8 billion (US$2.7 million).

It was not until August 2018 that the People’s Court of Danang City urged the People’s Supreme Procuracy to initiate legal proceedings based on the sale of the rosewood. The court stated that rosewood was neither easy to damage nor difficult to preserve.

The actions of C44 in selling the rosewood shipment during an investigation were unlawful and showed signs of infringing on judicial activities, according to the court.

In the timber case, the company’s deputy director, Truong Huy Lieu, 60, was given seven years in prison, while his wife, Tran Thi Dung, 58, who serves as the company’s director, received a noncustodial sentence of three years, both for smuggling, in July this year.

In October 2018, Vinh was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment for abusing his position of power while serving as the director of the General Police Department.

He and another senior police officer were found to have prevented the gambling ring, worth roughly VND10 trillion (US$428.5 million), from being discovered. SGT