On January 29, the People's Court of Kien Giang province sentenced Tran Van Luyen (born in 1980) to 8 years in prison; Pham Chi Dung (born in 1965) to 7 years in prison; Tran Minh Tam (born in 1984) to 7 years in prison; and Tran Van Nhut (born in 1987) to 1 year in prison. All 4 defendants reside in Kien Giang province and committed the crime of "Organizing illegal exit for others".
This is the first case in the country related to the act of sending a vessel through another country's waters to illegally fish in violation of the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, as recommended by the European Commission.
According to the indictment, on May 16, 2022, Tran Van Luyen was the owner of the pair of ships numbered KG-94294-TS and KG-94295-TS, which were arrested by Malaysian authorities for illegal fishing.
By the end of May 2022, Luyen and Tam discussed changing the registration numbers of the above pair of ships after being returned to their country to avoid detection.
Tam contacted a registration officer to discuss making a new set of ship documents with the numbers KG-93949-TS and KG-93971-TS to replace the documents of the pair of ships that were arrested for 400 million VND. After that, Tam introduced Pham Chi Dung as the captain of Luyen's ship to go to Malaysia to illegally exploit seafood. Luyen assigned Dung to find fishermen to go fishing and give the fishermen advance money, find someone in Malaysia to buy tickets for port information about the Malaysian navy patrolling, then inform Dung and Luyen to avoid it.
By the end of August 2022, Luyen, Tam and another person went to Malaysia to redeem the pair of ships with the symbols KG-94294-TS and KG-94295-TS that were being held by Malaysian authorities. When the ships returned to Ca Mau province, the numbers KG-94294-TS and KG-94295-TS were erased and new ship symbols KG-93949-TS and KG-93971-TS were redrawn.
On September 6, 2022, Tran Van Nhut invited 5 people; Dung invited 11 people, 2 others invited 8 people to go on a pair of ships that changed their registration numbers to Malaysia to illegally exploit seafood. Pham Chi Dung controlled the ship KG-93949-TS, another captain controlled the ship KG-93971-TS to the area of 70 degrees bordering 60 degrees North latitude, then Dung turned off the journey monitoring device and erased the last number of the 2 ships to avoid being detected by Vietnamese authorities.
On October 18, 2022, Dung drove the pair of boats to Ca Mau province to sell fish. On the way to the mainland, the boat reached the area of 60-70 North latitude when the Coast Guard Region 4 Command checked the documents and procedures and discovered that it lacked a fishing license, a life buoy, and a captain's license, so he was administratively fined 27.9 million VND.
Not long after, Dung continued to operate the two above-mentioned ships through Malaysian waters to illegally fish. While fleeing from the Malaysian Navy patrol, Dung operated the ship into Indonesian waters to fish, but was discovered and arrested by the Indonesian Navy, then taken to a detention camp in Indonesia.
After the case occurred, in October and December 2023, the Kien Giang Provincial Police Department of Security Investigation prosecuted and temporarily detained 3 suspects including Luyen, Dung and Tam. On January 5, 2024, Tran Van Nhut was prosecuted and banned from leaving his place of residence.
According to the People's Procuracy of Kien Giang province, regarding the behavior of NBD as a vehicle inspection officer, the Security Investigation Agency of Kien Giang province police will continue to investigate and verify and will handle it later.
LE QUOC
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