HCMC – At a closed court hearing on December 11, the Hanoi People’s Court handed down a five-year prison term to former Hanoi chairman Nguyen Duc Chung for appropriating the State’s secret files.
The State’s secrets are related to Nhat Cuong Mobile’s accounting irregularities, smuggling and money laundering, the local media reported.
Besides Chung, three other accomplices were given different prison terms for the same charge.
Specifically, Pham Quang Dung, a former official of the investigation department for corruption, smuggling and economic crimes under the Ministry of Public Security, got four and a half years behind bars.
In addition, Chung’s driver, Nguyen Hoang Trung, and former deputy director of the Editorial Department of the Hanoi City People’s Committee Office, Nguyen Anh Ngoc, received jail terms of two years and 18 months, respectively.
According to lawyer Giang Hong Thanh, who defended Nguyen Hoang Trung, the defendants pled guilty and made sincere declarations in court, so lower prison terms than those proposed by the Supreme People’s Procuracy were imposed on them.
Chung was the mastermind of the case. In court, he apologized to the Party, the State and the voters, Thanh said.
Chung and his wife Nguyen Thi Truc Chi Hoa were determined to get involved in the case at Nhat Cuong Mobile. To get access to information and files on the case, Chung got acquainted with Dung, who was assigned with supporting the investigation into Nhat Cuong Mobile and asked him to collect information and documents on the progress and results of the investigation.
Between July 2019 and June 2020, following Chung’s request, Dung appropriated nine State secret files and sent six of them to Chung. Meanwhile, Trung and Ngoc printed and edited three of the State’s secret files for the former Hanoi chairman.
