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Death for Vietnamese gang leader

Defendants and police in Vietnam's biggest corruption trial sit in court awaiting the verdict, yesterday in Ho Chi Minh City. Some of the defendants include several former high-ranking communist officials, including a vice minister of public security, the director of state radio and a vice national chief prosecutor. PHOTO: AP

The head of a notorious Vietnamese crime gang was sentenced to death yesterday after being found guilty of murder and bribery in the communist country's biggest trial against crime and corruption.

Truong Van Cam, 56, known by his nickname of Nam Cam, had been expected to receive capital punishment in the trial of 155 people that has riveted a country growing increasingly impatient with government graft.

Five of the 155 defendants were sentenced to death, including Ho Thanh Tung, who broke down and wept in the dock as the verdict was read.

Cam remained impassive, but his daughter -- red-eyed and tearful after hearing the news -- said he had been victimized.

"My father is like a fish on the cutting board," said Truong Thi Hien, 36, a buddhist nun.

Cam was also fined US$75,000 plus 1.19 billion dong (US$77,073) "which equals the amount of bribery" he committed, the court said. Half of his property has been confiscated.

Giving bribes of 300 million dong (US$1,943) or more is subject to capital punishment. That may seem like a small sum, but the average per capita income in Vietnam is US$400.

Dozens of people thronged the outside of the French colonial-style courthouse that was barricaded and tightly secured on the final two closing sessions. Verdicts on the main defendants were read out on Wednesday by the jury.

Cam's defense attorney Nguyen Dang Trung said yesterday after the guilty verdict that he planned to appeal against the sentence. He has 15 days to do so, and if that is turned down by the court, has another seven days to ask for presidential clemency.

``He is well prepared spiritually to receive this,'' said Nguyen during an earlier interview.

One longtime foreign resident of Vietnam, American lawyer Sesto Vecchi, said the trial should satisfy those demanding punishment for criminals.

But he added, "It will take more than a trial like this to make Vietnam corruption-free."

The court also sentenced to die by firing squad five members of Nam Cam's gang, whose 15-year crime spree in Vietnam's biggest city was abetted by police and other officials who turned a blind eye, prosecutors said.

Among the 20 state-linked defendants was Tran Mai Hanh, 60, ex-head of state-run Voice of Vietnam radio and a former member of the powerful Central Committee who was found guilty of accepting bribes.

He was accused of writing articles to try to sway opinion on the mafia don and was sentenced to 10 years in jail, fined US$8,500 and banned from holding government office for five years after his release.

Bui Quoc Huy, 57, a former vice minister of public security, and the highest ranking government defendant, was found guilty of not properly supervising the investigation into Nam Cam.

He got four years in jail for dereliction of duty and was banned from public office for three years after that.

Carl Thayer, a longtime Vietnam analyst at the Australian Defense College in Canberra, said the message of the trial was that "any official -- no matter how high his or her rank -- will be punished for corruption."
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