Ex-police official gets sentence reduced
The Court of Appeals under the Supreme People’s Court on May 23 reduced the sentence of Duong Tu Trong, former Deputy Director of the northern port city of Haiphong's Police Department, from 18 to 16 years in prison.
The reduction was made on the basis of other documents and evidence included in the dossiers, the outcomes of the interrogations, and the consideration of ideas of prosecutors and lawyers, it said.
In the first trial on January 8, Trong was found guilty of helping his brother, Duong Chi Dung, ex-chairman of State-owned shipping corporation Vinalines, flee abroad when wanted by the police.
The court upheld the sentences of Trong’s five accomplices. Accordingly Vu Tien Son, former deputy head of the Social Crime Investigation in the department, must still serve 13 years in prison and Nguyen Trong Anh, Son’s former subordinate, will be imprisoned for six.
Dong Xuan Phong, a former official at the Hai Phong City Customs Department; Tran Van Dung, 45, a resident in Haiphong’s Hong Bang district; and Pham Minh Tuan, former Director of Bach Dang Enterprise in Haiphong, were sentenced to eight, seven and five years behind bars, respectively.
According to the indictment, after receiving a tip-off that his brother would be arrested and prosecuted, Trong colluded with his accomplices to arrange for Dung to escape via the Moc Bai border gate in southern Tay Ninh province on May 23, 2012.
The jury ruled that this was an especially serious case masterminded by Trong. It directly compromised the State management of migration, blocked the investigation of the Vinalines criminal case and negatively affected public trust in law enforcement agencies.