In the list of the Politburo and the Secretariat of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in the 13th term announced on January 31, 2021, Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court Nguyen Hoa Binh was given a seat to the Politburo, the most powerful body of the party.
This is the judge who presided over the cassation session of the death row inmate Ho Duy Hai in May last year, the case that the family had to complain about for 12 years.
At the cassation session, Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh rejected the request to turn over the Duy Hai file, saying that there were no false circumstances in the investigation and trial of this case although the lawyers pointed out many serious errors committed by police during the investigation.
On January 12, 2021, when reporting on the work of the Courts to the National Assembly, Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court Nguyen Hoa Binh also affirmed “During the term, there were no legal miscarriages” and that “The trial of criminal cases ensures the right person, the right crime and the right law, not to let any case of unjust conviction of a person who did not commit the crime.”
At that time, a lawyer in Ho Chi Minh City, Mr. Pham Cong Ut, said that saying there was no injustice was saying in the subjective style of the Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court:
“If I say that the last term of Mr. Chief Justice Nguyen Hoa Binh, I see that there are Mr. Nguyen Van Vo and Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuong in Tuy Duc district, both of them were unjustly convicted. The judiciary was forced to apologize, and have recently had to pay compensation in advance, and are in the process of assessing damages, negotiating compensation, that is what I know and have directly involved in the compensation of this legal miscarriage.”
“So saying no injustice is not correct, because the vindication of Mr. Vo and Mrs. Thuong was 2 years ago. Two years ago, it fell during the term of Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh. So this is a statement which is reportable but dishonest.”
The fact that Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh was elected to the Politburo after the 13th Party Congress made many concerned people feel dissatisfied. For Dr. Mac Van Trang, who often has articles on political and social issues in Vietnam, the Ho Duy Hai case has been criticized by the public, even by the Chief Procurator of the Supreme People’s Procuracy and even the head of the Judiciary Committee of the National Assembly has to speak up, but the highest accepting person denied it and now being a Politburo member is difficult to understand:
“I was amazed and I really didn’t understand, because this represents something out of favor, as opposed to the National Assembly’s Judiciary Committee as well as the Supreme People’s Procuracy. Judge Nguyen Hoa Binh used to play the role of a police officer, then to the Procuracy and finally to the Court, the Ho Duy Hai case in his hands has many incomprehensible mysteries.”
“But whatever the Party’s will be, it is the arrangement of the Central Commission for Organization and internal relationship that we cannot understand. As authorities have not opened open up, so ordinary people do not know. How the public can understand those mysteries!”
Talking by email with RFA, journalist Kha Luong Ngai, former deputy editor-in-chief of the Saigon Liberation newspaper under the Communist Party of Ho Chi Minh, currently a member of the Le Hieu Dang Club, commented because Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong was determined to stay at the highest position in spite of the Party’s Charter, so he had to choose Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh as an entrenched subordinate like him. This is the dark spot for Vietnam’s judiciary in the coming days:
“Stemming from the fact that Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong disregards the Party’s Charter, the Party’s law, to gain the right to be General Secretary for another term, the thing that I and many people are very surprised about is Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh, Chief Justice of the Supreme People’s Court, who has the authority to direct the hearing of two cases in Dong Tam and Ho Duy Hai with too many scandals of proceedings, investigation and adjudication, was elected to the Politburo and will assume the role of Head of the Central Internal Affairs Commission.”
“The surprising thing is answered by ‘The Party’s law’ was violated by the Party’s leader, Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong, so ‘Law of the people, by the people, for the people” is the law only to rule the people, so it depends on the interests of the regime. So in the near future, the unrighteous verdict about Ho Duy Hai and the villagers of Dong Tam will probably be upheld and will be executed, while Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong and Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh are still automatically sitting on fame.”
The Dong Tam case was mentioned in relation to a land dispute and the Hanoi government, leading to the police attack on Dong Tam earlier last year, killing four people. As many as 29 villagers were sentenced to life imprisonment and death by the court on charges of murder and resisting on-duty state officials. The case was condemned internationally because of many obscurities.
Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh was criticized by the public about the Ho Duy Hai case, but it was the opinion of civil society organizations considered by the Communist Party hostile forces, as the comment of Professor Nguyen Dinh Cong, a former member of the Communist Party of Vietnam:
“So they won’t listen! Although Mr. Binh was questioned at the National Assembly, he resisted and the National Assembly temporarily passed it. In addition, Mr. Binh’s work was encouraged by Mr. Trong. Basically, Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh’s election to the Politburo was chosen by Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong because they are in the same faction.”
“The Communists, and especially Mr. Trong, boasted that it was necessary to choose people with merit and virtue, but in essence, they mainly chose people from the same side and divided power among interest groups. Their ways of selecting cadres have many anti-democratic, anti-progressive, and anti-scientific things, so it is difficult to choose talented, honest, and incorruptible ones. Mr. Trong wants to rely on the police and the courts to suppress and bring down dissidents with noble qualities, so it is necessary to use those who dare to trample justice, dare to defy public opinions.”
Because he stepped on the Party Charter like Mr. Nguyen Phu Trong, selecting officials who have been criticized by the public to join the Politburo is not a precaution, but it signals that the misfortunes are approaching, is the conclusion of Professor Nguyen Dinh Cong.
Often monitoring the situation in the country, reporter Le Trung Khoa from Berlin, Germany, said that Hanoi often identifies itself as the Rule of Law with full executive, legislative, and judiciary, but choose an irresponsible judge to the new Politburo is a tough message for anyone who dares to oppose a government-led court order or ruling:
“Such a person is not capable of morality as well as awareness of the rule of law State. There is no way the people can complain or be tried in a fair manner because the party directly directs key cases to eliminate opposition and remove disagreements or disadvantage of the party.”
“It means that the Communist Party of Vietnam needs people like him, continues to use the lawlessness, continues to suppress, remove disagreements, disadvantages or things that the party does not want to have in the future.”
The Party’s election of senior officials is based on their own criteria and people have no right to complaining is the explanation of the blogger and doctor who quit the party, Dinh Duc Long. Selected cadres not only meet the party’s requirements but also other factors:
“I would like to repeat a quote from Mr. Ho Chi Minh. In 1946, the young government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was born, including King Bao Dai. Many officials, many ministers of the government Tran Trong Kim also participated in Ho Chi Minh’s government. The communist cadres then wondered why such people could hold high positions in the government. Mr. Ho Chi Minh said ‘If manure is dirty, can you use it as fertilizer for your field?’”
“It’s the same thing about Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh, maybe he offends the people, offends some people in the People’s Procuracy, for example, but he is beneficial for a certain faction.”
From this point, Dr. Dinh Duc Long gives an example of the retention of two officials during the 12th term, namely Mr. Dinh La Thang and Mr. Vu Huy Hoang:
“Everyone knows that Mr. Dinh La Thang and Mr. Vu Huy Hoang are the people of then, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung. But then step by step others eliminated both. Back in Ho Chi Minh’s coalition government, when he took over as president, chairman of the party, and even the foreign minister, he gradually eliminated ones and brought his men in.”
Mr. Dinh La Thang and Vu Huy Hoang were former members of the Politburo and the Central Committee of the Party but were disciplined and sentenced to prison afterward for management mistakes.
It is the politics of a communist country like Vietnam up to now, blogger Dinh Duc Long continues, so considering that letting Mr. Nguyen Hoa Binh into the Politburo may more or less reflect the untransparent criterion for selecting officials of the communist regime.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
