For a long time, Vietnamese public opinion has asked the question why so many officials and businessmen, when prosecuted and imprisoned in major corruption cases, suddenly become “mentally ill.” This is a problem that has been going on for decades.
Tien Phong newspaper on June 28 reported: “Minister of Public Security: Expand investigation into the case of fabricating psychiatric assessment results.” The news said that on June 28, Minister of Public Security Senior Lieutenant General Luong Tam Quang issued a letter of commendation to the Police Department investigating crimes related to social order (C02). Accordingly, C02 was praised for its achievements in fighting and destroying the case, arresting subjects with the acts of “Giving bribes, accepting bribes, brokering bribes” to investigate mental health records, the mental assessment conclusion was factually incorrect, for the criminals in order to deal with the authorities, affecting the work of ensuring security and order.
Through research, it is known that the Bien Hoa Central Institute of Forensic Psychiatry has had a number of scandals in assessing and certifying psychiatric results for a number of individuals involved in “big crimes” to evading legal punishment.
A typical example is the case of former Director of Royal Gold Land Company Tran Thi My Hien, accused of appropriating more than VND816 billion ($40.5 million) in one case. But unexpectedly, Ms. Hien had a “Certificate of psychiatric assessment results” from the Bien Hoa Central Institute of Forensic Psychiatry. The conclusion was that Ms. Hien had “lost the ability to perceive and control behavior.” After that, Ms. Hien fled and is wanted.
Similarly, Tuoi Tre newspaper cited the case of Ms. Tong Thi Bach Lan, who was tried by the People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City in first instance in 2020 and sentenced to death, for the crime of “Illegal transportation of narcotics.” This institute certified for Ms. Lan:
“At the time of committing the crime, the litigant had limited ability to perceive and control behavior. Currently, the litigant has lost the ability to perceive and control behavior.”
Thanks to that, Ms. Lan was sent for “compulsory” medical treatment and fled.
C02 said that as of the afternoon of Sunday June 16, 13 people from the Bien Hoa Central Institute of Forensic Psychiatry had been arrested and summoned, including 11 officials and 2 retired officials. Among the people of this Institute arrested, there are its Director Le Van Hung, Deputy Director Doctor Nguyen Thanh Cong, former Director Bui The Hung, Head of the Department of Compulsory Treatment of Substance Addiction Group Doctor Nguyen Van Trong, and many other doctors and nurses.
It is known that the Bien Hoa Central Institute of Forensic Psychiatry is under the Ministry of Health, established in 2015. The institute’s functions are forensic psychiatric assessment, management and treatment of people with mental disorders, according to the decision, apply measures of compulsory medical treatment by the prosecuting agencies.
For a long time, public opinion has had information about suspicions related to a number of healthy people who do not suffer from mental illness, but when being investigated, they are certified by this Institute to be sick so they were able to avoid being criminally prosecuted.
For a long time, collusion between leaders in the judiciary and leaders, doctors, and medical staff has taken advantage of Article 447 of the 2015 Criminal Code, according to which:
“A person who commits an act dangerous to society while suffering from a mental illness or another illness that causes him or her to lose cognitive ability or the ability to control his or her behavior is not criminally responsible.”
According to observers, with such regulations, circumventing the law and “evading sentences” with mental evaluation to avoid criminal responsibility has been common in recent times in Vietnam. Therefore, there are many people who commit serious crimes and take advantage of loopholes to escape crime by using money to buy psychiatric assessment results. At the same time, many doctors involved in this field were convicted of accepting bribes in falsifying forensic medical examination conclusions.
According to Tuoi Tre newspaper in 2016, former Chief Criminal Judge of the Supreme People’s Court Dinh Van Que, in a Conference of the court sector, asked: “Why do corrupt officials and businessmen suffer from mental illness so much?”
Public opinion believes that the phrase “using money to get certificates for illness” should be added after the phrases: bribering for promotion, favorable judgment, transferring to other positions, etc. In which “bribering for sick certificates” is easier than for other things, because no one can check the authenticity of medical records and forensic assessments, in mental illness treatment records, at most it is just a request for re-examination./.
Tra My – Thoibao.de
