A former deputy director of the General Intelligence Department of the Ministry of Public Security has just been charged with accepting bribes in connection with the case of Phan Van Anh Vu, also known as Vu “Aluminum,” according to the state-controlled media.
On August 3, the Supreme People’s Procuracy launched an indictment against Nguyen Duy Linh more than a month after the Police Investigation Department of the Ministry of Public Security issued a decision to probe and arrest the former official.
The indictment of the People’s Procuracy cited by VietNamNet said that Mr. Linh was prosecuted for accepting bribes from Mr. Vu, a former security colonel of the Ministry of Public Security and former chairman of the Board of Directors of Bac Bam 79 Construction Joint Stock Company. Mr. Linh denies the whole thing.
According to the same indictment, Mr. Vu and a person named Ho Huu Hoa were also prosecuted for giving and brokering VND5 billion ($200,000) of “bribery.”
Mr. Vu, who was arrested by Vietnamese police in Singapore while on the run in 2017, said that because he was afraid of being handled for leaking state secret documents, he passed Mr. Hoa with whom he has known relations since 2010, to ask to transfer money to Mr. Linh. According to the indictment cited by Tuoi Tre, at the time of giving bribes in mid-2017, Mr. Vu was being investigated by the Ministry of Public Security for violations in the case of intentionally disclosing state secrets and other violations related to the purchase, sale and transfer of public land in Danang city and some localities.
According to the indictment, Mr. Vu fled to Singapore after Mr. Linh informed Mr. Vu that he could be probed and detained.
“The motives and purposes of the defendants for committing the crime are consistent with the development of the incident (Mr.) Vu fled when he heard that he would be probed,” the indictment stated.
Mr. Vu, who is currently serving a decade-long prison sentence for “corruption” and “disclosure of state secrets” in various cases, testified to having “bribed” VND5 billion to Mr. Linh and, according to the indictment, Mr. Hoa acted as an intermediary to receive and give this “gift bag.”
During the investigation, Mr. Vu changed his testimony and Mr. Linh pleaded not guilty. However, according to Thanh Nien, the results of the investigation have enough grounds to confirm the criminal acts of the accused.
The Procuracy determined that the former deputy head of the General Intelligence Department should be prosecuted in the highest penalty frame because “the defendants committed crimes in particularly serious cases. The crime of accepting bribes carries the highest penalty of life imprisonment or death according to Article 279 of the 1999 Penal Code of Vietnam.
In relation to Vu “Aluminum,” Vietnam has also prosecuted and tried a number of officials, including two former deputy ministers of public security.
Police leaders along with many government officials, most notably former Politburo member and Secretary of the Ho Chi Minh City Party Committee Dinh La Thang, and many banking industry leaders have been brought before the dock or received long prison sentences in General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong’s fight against corruption, also known as “burning furnace” and likened to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s “fight tigers and flies” campaign.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
