A former Vietnamese official allegedly kidnapped from Germany is next month to go on trial in Hanoi on corruption charges, officials said yesterday, a high-profile case that could see the former oil executive put to death.
The Communist Party of Vietnam has jailed or arrested scores of former officials, bankers and state executives this year as part of a sweeping anti-corruption crackdown that some observers have said is driven by political infighting.
However, Trinh Xuan Thanh’s brazen Cold War-style kidnapping from a Berlin park by Vietnamese security agents in July stunned many inside and outside the one-party state, sparking a diplomatic dustup that Germany called a “scandalous violation” of its sovereignty.
Hanoi had sought Thanh, former PetroVietnam Construction (PVC) board chairman, for mismanagement and embezzlement causing massive losses.
Vietnamese officials said he returned home voluntarily to face the charges.
However, German authorities said he was kidnapped on their soil, where he had sought asylum.
Thanh is to face trial on Jan. 8, alongside Dinh La Thang, former PVC chairman of the member council and former Party Central Committee member, a court clerk said.
As head of state-run PVC, Thang allegedly carved out a deal with Thanh to build a thermal power plant.
The deal allegedly caused losses of US$5.2 million for the state.
Twenty others also face charges in the case.
The defendants “were mostly key leaders in important economic organizations, trusted by the state and the people to manage state capital,” officials said.
Thang and Thanh face 20 years in jail for mismanagement, while Thanh faces an additional charge of embezzlement, which carries the death penalty.
Officials had earlier accused Thanh of causing losses worth US$150 million, for which he could still face a separate trial.
Thanh appears to have been a marked man since he was spotted driving a Lexus with government plates while serving as deputy head of Hau Giang Province.
The men are the most prominent officials to face corruption charges as part of Hanoi’s massive crackdown that has already seen one senior banker sentenced to death and scores of others face stiff jail terms.
Observers have said the anti-corruption sweep, which echoes a graft crackdown in China, is being led by a conservative leadership in place since last year.
Many believe it is as much about cleaning up Vietnam’s corrupted ranks as it is about weeding out political enemies aligned with the former leadership.
Vietnam has been ranked 113 out of 176 on the corruption index by Transparency International, worse than Myanmar.
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