On the afternoon of July 14, the Hanoi People's Court continued to hear the case of the "rescue flight". The representative of the prosecutor's office questioned the defendant Pham Trung Kien, former secretary of the Deputy Minister of Health, about the bribes that the defendant returned to the enterprise.
Defendant Pham Trung Kien, former secretary of the Deputy Minister of Health
Received bribes 253 times, returned them when the case was prosecuted
According to the Supreme People's Procuracy's accusation, Mr. Kien was the person who received the most bribes in the case, up to 253 times, with a total of 42.6 billion VND. After the "rescue flight" case was prosecuted, Mr. Kien returned more than 12 billion VND to the business representatives.
Defendant Pham Trung Kien: He wanted to die when he knew he could be sentenced to life in prison or death.
One of the people whose money was returned by the former deputy minister of Health was Ms. Nguyen Thi Tuong Vy, Director of ATA Company.
In court, Ms. Vy said that on January 27, 2022, Mr. Kien transferred 2.4 billion VND to her, with the transfer content stating "repaying debt". Before paying, Mr. Kien did not discuss anything; upon receiving the money, Ms. Vy asked Mr. Kien and was told "you pay me back".
The director of ATA Company confirmed that this was in fact money previously given as a bribe to Mr. Kien, and that in reality there was no loan between the two parties.
The prosecutor asked if that was the case, why was there the content of "paying debt". Ms. Vy said that before that, she and Mr. Kien had signed a debt acknowledgement.
"Why is there this paper?", the prosecutor asked. Ms. Vy explained that, when she saw the progress of the proceedings against some defendants in the case, Mr. Kien asked her to make a debt acknowledgement paper, and she agreed. When she signed it, she did not think that Mr. Kien would return the money.
"How does the defendant understand the debt receipt, when the two of them have absolutely no borrowing relationship, what is the purpose of writing this document, why do you have to do it like that?", the prosecutor asked. Ms. Vy explained that because Mr. Kien was an acquaintance, had helped her a lot, so when asked, she agreed to do it.
Prosecutor's representative in the "rescue flight" case
Director of the 'rescue flight' case accuses Mr. Pham Trung Kien of forcing bribes
The defendant concealed his crime?
The prosecutor then questioned the defendant Pham Trung Kien. Before asking the question, the prosecutor cited the bank account statement of the former secretary of the Deputy Minister of Health, showing that most of the money that the defendant returned to the business was recorded as "debt repayment".
"Do you owe any debt to these people?", the prosecutor asked. Without answering the question directly, Mr. Kien admitted that the money he received from the business was a bribe, as the indictment alleged.
At the time of returning the money, according to the former secretary of the Deputy Minister of Health, the defendant had many illnesses and suffered from psychological trauma, so he wrote inappropriate transfer details. "In fact, the defendant was aware of his wrongdoings and wanted to return the money to the company, not intentionally doing anything wrong," Mr. Kien explained.
"The defendant proactively asked defendant Tuong Vy to write a loan note, considering it a civil transaction and not a bribe, so is that a cover-up for his criminal act?", the representative of the prosecutor's office continued to question. The former deputy secretary of the Ministry of Health recalled that at that time he was infected with Covid-19 so he was not aware of this and apologized to the jury. "After that, the defendant realized his actions, so he confessed honestly and remedied the consequences," Mr. Kien stated.
Previously, during the trial of the "rescue flight" case, defendant Pham Trung Kien also answered many times about how he used the bribe money of 42.6 billion VND.
The defendant said that in addition to the more than 12 billion VND returned to the businesses, he used about 2 billion VND for personal expenses, lent about 10 billion VND to a relative, and about 20 billion VND to repair the house and buy land in Mui Ne (Binh Thuan), Ba Vi and Hoai Duc districts (Hanoi).
Director of the 'rescue flight' case stated 3 reasons for paying money to Mr. Pham Trung Kien
I wanted to die to escape the pressure.
In another notable development, the defense attorney for defendant Pham Trung Kien mentioned his client's medical records, related to the diagnosis of suicidal behavior with multiple asymptomatic mental disorders after being infected with Covid-19.
Responding to this content, defendant Kien said that he had been seriously infected with Covid-19 and had to be hospitalized at Hanoi Medical University Hospital for emergency treatment. After being discharged from the hospital, plus the information that the investigation agency had initiated a case to investigate violations in the flights bringing citizens back to the country, the defendant was under a lot of psychological pressure.
After being discharged from the hospital, Mr. Kien also had to work regularly with the investigation agency; then he learned about the legal regulations related to the crime of bribery, and found that the penalties were very severe, from 20 years, life imprisonment to death penalty.
"The defendant was haunted by the death penalty, so he was very scared and had symptoms of wanting to die to escape the pressure. Therefore, the defendant had to receive psychiatric treatment at Bach Mai Hospital for a period of time," said the former deputy secretary of the Ministry of Health.
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