Today (January 22), the High People's Court in Hanoi opened an appeal hearing to consider the appeal of Mr. Tran Hung, former Deputy Director of the Market Management Department, former Head of Group 304, now Group 1444 (General Department of Market Management).
At the first instance trial held in July 2023, Mr. Tran Hung was sentenced by the Hanoi People's Court to 9 years in prison for the crime of Receiving bribes under Point c, Clause 2, Article 354 of the Penal Code. Mr. Hung was also fined an additional 80 million VND.
During the investigation, as well as at the first instance trial, Mr. Tran Hung did not admit to the accusation of accepting bribes.
But according to the Hanoi People's Court, based on the documents in the case, the defendants' statements, the content of the phone calls... it shows that Tran Hung received bribes.
Police escort defendant Tran Hung to the appeal hearing at the end of December 2023 (Photo: Minh Tuyen).
After the first instance trial, Mr. Hung filed an appeal claiming his innocence. In addition, 17 other people in this case also appealed for a lighter sentence or a suspended sentence.
By the end of December 2023, the appeal trial of Mr. Tran Hung was postponed due to the absence of some lawyers and requests for postponement.
According to the accusation, in 2020, Phu Hung Phat Company was inspected by Market Management Team No. 17, Hanoi Market Management Department, and a large number of textbooks were seized.
The inspection results discovered and seized 27,360 textbooks without invoices or documents proving their origin.
Market Management Team No. 17 has drawn up a record and temporarily detained the above books for further verification and clarification.
Cao Thi Minh Thuan (Director of Phu Hung Phat Company) knew that Mr. Tran Hung was the person directly in charge of the inspection, so she contacted him to ask for help to get lenient punishment.
After that, Mr. Hung temporarily agreed to release him but asked Thuan to point out some illegal printing facilities.
Thuan then connected with Nguyen Duy Hai (freelance worker) to meet Mr. Hung directly, offering to pay 400 million VND.
After talking with Hai, Mr. Hung instructed to change the statement about the origin of the confiscated books, saying that the books were brought by someone else for deposit.
Receiving Mr. Tran Hung's opinion, Hai communicated with Ms. Thuan through another person.
On July 14, 2020, Nguyen Duy Hai met Mr. Hung to discuss the matter of Cao Thi Minh Thuan sending Mr. Hung and working group 304 the amount of 400 million VND, asking to ignore the violation of Phu Hung Phat Company.
A day later, Hai took 300 million VND in a black bag and gave it to Tran Hung.
First instance sentence for 36 defendants in the fake books case involving former Deputy Director Tran Hung (Graphic: Thuy Tien).
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