Viet A Trial Diary: Viet A's Boss's Argument and the "Slap" of the Procuracy

After 2 days of trial, the Viet A first instance trial at the Capital Military Court entered the deliberation period. The verdict is expected to be announced on the afternoon of December 29.

During the debates, the defendants and the prosecution seemed to share the same view that those who were brought to trial were not wrongly convicted. However, the defendants, especially Phan Quoc Viet (General Director of Viet A Company) and Ho Anh Son (former Deputy Director of the Military Medical Research Institute, Military Medical Academy) all said that they were forced to violate the law due to the pandemic.

"Fateful relationship" Viet A - Military Medical Academy

According to the accusations and developments at the trial, Viet A and the defendants at the Military Medical Academy colluded and deceived businesses to "borrow the name" of the Academy's research topic to accept test kit products and grant commercial production licenses.

The subjective factor leading to this is that the Military Medical Academy does not have any accepted products, and the objective factor is that this unit does not meet ISO requirements.

Therefore, the "fate" between Viet A and Military Medical Academy was connected through the matchmaking of defendant Trinh Thanh Hung (former Deputy Director of the Department of Economic and Technical Sectors, Ministry of Science and Technology).

Defendant Phan Quoc Viet at trial (Photo: Nguyen Hai).

In court, the above defendants affirmed that there was no personal or profit-seeking intention in this cooperation.

Mr. Hung said that he only connected, did not suggest or promise to receive money from Viet; Viet said he participated because he considered that at that time Viet A was the leading company in producing test kits.

According to Viet's testimony, even without coordinating with the Military Medical Academy, Viet A had researched and produced Covid-19 tests as soon as the epidemic broke out in China.

"The defendant can affirm that Viet A's role and contribution to the success in preventing and fighting the Covid-19 epidemic is very large. Viet A's participation in the fight against the epidemic is out of responsibility to the country, at that time the country needed Viet A's test kit," said the General Director of Viet A.

It is worth mentioning that the defendants all said that Viet A's test kit was more effective and of higher quality than the product researched by the Military Medical Academy.

"If you were in my situation, faced with the quality of two types of kits like that, which one would you choose, what would you do?", former Lieutenant Colonel, former Deputy Director of the Military Medical Research Institute, Military Medical Academy Ho Anh Son said in court.

Defendant Ho Anh Son at the trial on December 28 (Photo: Nam Anh).

Meanwhile, Viet affirmed that "only Viet A has test kits", even if another unit does it in the future, it still cannot compare to the test quality of Viet A.

"The whole country needs Viet A for testing kits to fight the epidemic," defendant Viet explained, claiming that he personally invested hundreds of billions of dong, along with many people, to fight the epidemic.

From the above factors, combined with the epidemic context, the defendants argued that they had no other choice.

"A thousand repetitions and knowing the result like today, the defendant still did it. The defendant believes that in that context, others will definitely do the same," Phan Quoc Viet explained at the witness stand.

Clear profit motive

In response to the above arguments of the defendants, the prosecution agency had counter-arguments and responses.

First, denying any profit motive, the representative of the People's Procuracy pointed out that former Lieutenant Colonel, former Deputy Director of the Military Medical Research Institute, Military Medical Academy Ho Anh Son asked many scientists to stand in his name even though he did not conduct research, to receive 2.8 billion VND assigned to research the topic; while Viet A participated in the research topic of the Military Medical Academy with the purpose of circulating and licensing the product.

Regarding Mr. Ho Anh Son asking himself the question "what to do?", the representative of the Procuracy said that as a manager, the defendant must be responsible for considering and evaluating whether he can do it himself or not when proposing a research topic for the test kit.

The representative of the Procuracy responded to the defense lawyers' viewpoints (Photo: Nguyen Hai).

Therefore, when accepting the promise from the Ministry of Science and Technology to have a product within one month, the defendant himself must be responsible for whether or not he can fulfill this promise.

"Thus, the defendants' purpose of profiteering is very clear. Whether they researched or not, the defendants took more than 18 billion VND from the state budget," the representative of the People's Procuracy responded.

Regarding the viewpoints that "the defendants committed crimes in cases beyond the urgent situation, in epidemic prevention there was no other choice, obeying orders from superiors...", the People's Procuracy said that the purchase and sale of test kits between Viet A Company and the Military Medical Academy for epidemic prevention took place with many contracts, over a long period of time, so it was no longer an urgent situation.

Final words

Given the final say, most of the defendants accepted responsibility and asked the jury for leniency.

"The defendant's mistake was unintentional, not intentional," said Mr. Trinh Thanh Hung, and respectfully asked the panel of judges to consider mitigating circumstances so that he could soon return to his family to take care of his sick mother.

Former Lieutenant Colonel, former Deputy Director of the Military Medical Research Institute, Military Medical Academy Ho Anh Son said that he used to be a member of the Party, but was expelled for his mistakes and "only felt regret after losing it".

Defendant Trinh Thanh Hung at trial (Photo: Nguyen Hai).

"The defendant also wore a military uniform, with 30 years of proud service. However, the defendant's violations have affected the military force, especially the Military Medical Academy," Mr. Son stated.

The former army colonel advised his former colleagues to maintain their enthusiasm for research, not to have thoughts and feelings because of seeing the defendant in trouble with the law, and not to compare or calculate too much when dealing with big matters.

Meanwhile, Viet A General Director Phan Quoc Viet hopes the court will consider his merits and the context of the crime, "entirely for the common good of the country" and consider the value of the Viet A kit during the epidemic to give the defendant a low sentence.

In the indictment, the representative of the Procuracy requested the People's Court to sentence defendant Trinh Thanh Hung (former Deputy Director of the Department of Science and Technology of Economic and Technical Sectors, Ministry of Science and Technology) to 15 years in prison for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties".

For the same crime, defendant Ho Anh Son (former Deputy Director of the Military Medical Research Institute, Military Medical Academy) was proposed by the Procuracy to be sentenced to 11-13 years in prison.

Regarding the crime of violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences, the Procuracy proposed that the People's Court sentence defendant Nguyen Van Hieu (former Colonel, former Head of the Equipment and Supplies Department of the Military Medical Academy) to 7-8 years in prison; defendant Ngo Anh Tuan (former Major, former Head of the Finance Department of the Military Medical Academy) to 3-5 years in prison; defendant Le Truong Minh (former Major, former Head of the Pharmaceutical Chemistry Department, Military Medical Academy) to 6-7 years in prison; defendant Vu Dinh Hiep (Deputy General Director of Viet A Company) to 6-7 years in prison.

Phan Quoc Viet , General Director of Viet A Company, was proposed by the Procuracy to be sentenced to 15 years in prison for the crime of "Abusing position and power while performing official duties"; 10-11 years in prison for the crime of "Violating bidding regulations causing serious consequences"; the total proposed sentence is 25-26 years in prison.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/phap-luat/nhat-ky-xet-xu-viet-a-ly-le-cua-ong-chu-viet-a-va-cai-tat-cua-vks-20231229042720216.htm