A Vietnamese court yesterday sentenced to death a former chairman of state-run PetroVietnam after finding him guilty in the mass trial of 51 officials and bankers accused of graft and mismanagement that led to losses of US$69 million.
Former PetroVietnam chairman Nguyen Xuan Son was the second of the accused to be sentenced as the People’s Court of Hanoi began delivering its verdict in the long-running trial.
The death penalty had been recommended by the Vietnamese Supreme People’s Procuracy.
Photo: EPA-EFE/STR
Vietnam has introduced the use of lethal drugs for executions in the past few years, having previously used firing squads.
The court had earlier in the day sentenced tycoon Ha Van Tham, founder of Ocean Group’s banking unit, Ocean Bank, to life imprisonment, having found him guilty of charges ranging from embezzlement to abuse of power.
Dozens of other banking and energy officials were also sentenced to jail terms.
The mass trial was a result of a tougher stance on graft taken by the ruling Vietnamese Communist Party since the country’s security establishment emerged stronger from a power struggle last year, in which then-Vietnamese prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung lost out.
The party has said it wants to tackle corruption, but some critics have accused Vietnam’s rulers of embarking on a witch hunt following the launch of investigations implicating increasingly senior figures.
Dung lost out last year in the battle to secure the post of party general secretary, Vietnam’s most powerful position. The post remained in the hands of Nguyen Phu Trong, whose modest public profile contrasts with the conspicuous wealth that some members of Dung’s administration had displayed.
Probes into PetroVietnam have resulted in a politburo member who was a former PetroVietnam chairman and a vice trade minister being fired from their positions, and a former deputy central bank governor prosecuted.
The court finished hearing the case against the 51 officials on Monday and reconvened yesterday to deliver the verdicts and sentences.
Neither Son nor Tham were given a chance to respond after the verdict was handed down.
On Monday, Son proclaimed his innocence and pleaded for the court not to give “an unjust verdict.”
“I did not believe my eyes when I was prosecuted on charges of embezzlement; stunned and bewildered, I became like a soulless person,” Son said.
In the same session, Tham admitted the charge of lending violations at Ocean Bank, but denied graft allegations.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in