Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Vietnam court doubles jail term for official

Asian Defense News: HANOI (AFP) - – A Vietnamese appeal court Wednesday doubled the prison term of a former transport official jailed in a corruption scandal that led key donor Japan to suspend aid.

The court in southern Ho Chi Minh City ordered the former official, Huynh Ngoc Sy, to serve six years instead of the three to which he had been sentenced in September, a court official said.

Sy's deputy, Le Qua, was also ordered to serve five years, up from an original two.

Vietnam court doubles jail term for official

"The judge accepted proposals of the prosecutor," said the official, who declined to be named and gave no further details.

Sy was convicted of abusing his position in a case involving Tokyo-based Pacific Consultants International (PCI), which worked on Ho Chi Minh City's largest infrastructure project, a highway linking the city's east and west.

Japanese aid money backed the project.

Sy was deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City's transport department and headed the project management unit (PMU), at team in charge of major road projects.

He and Qua were accused of renting state offices to PCI between 2001 and 2002 for a total of 80,000 dollars but not including the money in official accounts.

The two officials deducted 350 million dong (18,227 dollars) for "receptions", divided the rest among dozens of employees and managers, while each pocketed about 53 million dong themselves, the lower court ruled in September.

At the appeal, Sy and Qua sought a suspension of their jail terms but prosecutors asked that they serve more time behind bars, the VNExpress news website reported.

Vietnamese police are separately investigating whether Sy received bribes of up to 262,000 dollars from PCI, local media reported in January.

Last year a Tokyo court sentenced former PCI president Masayoshi Taga to a suspended jail term after convicting him of bribing Sy.

Japanese media reported that former PCI executives admitted paying Sy 820,000 dollars in bribes.

Three former PCI executives in addition to Taga were given suspended prison terms and the company was fined 70 million yen (774,193 dollars) over bribes to secure road contracts in the case.

Japan, Vietnam's biggest bilateral donor, resumed aid loans to Vietnam one year ago after suspending them during the PCI scandal.

No comments:

Post a Comment