HCMC – Investigators at the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) today, December 5, pressed charges against the former Vietnamese ambassador to Malaysia, Tran Viet Thai, and Nguyen Hoang Linh, an official at the Vietnamese Embassy in Malaysia for their alleged involvement in the Covid-19 repatriation flight scandal.
Both of them were accused of abusing their powers while on duty.
Tran Viet Thai is in police custody while Nguyen Hoang Linh is barred from leaving his residence.
The MPS is expanding its investigation of the bribery case involving the arrangement of flights to repatriate Vietnamese nationals abroad at the height of the Covid pandemic.
Earlier, Chu Xuan Dung, vice chairman of the Hanoi City People’s Committee, and Vu Hong Nam, former Vietnamese ambassador to Japan, were arrested on alleged charges of taking bribes in repatriation flights.
Also involved in the case is Tran Xuan Tan, vice chairman of the Quang Nam Province People’s Committee, who was accused of taking bribes. He was detained at the end of 2022.
Since the prosecution of the repatriation flight case began around a year ago, nearly 40 individuals, most of them senior officials, have been prosecuted and detained.
Data from the MPS showed almost 2,000 flights were conducted to bring Vietnamese nationals home from abroad during the pandemic.
