A Vietnam court imposed an extra 15-month sentence on an ex-deputy police chief, who is serving a 16-year jail term for helping his corrupt brother flee abroad in 2012, during a trial on Thursday for a different offense.
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Duong Tu Trong, 53, was re-tried on charges of “abusing positions and/or powers while performing official duties” pursuant to Article 281 of the Penal Code.
Trong was the deputy director of the police department in Hai Phong, a city in northern Vietnam.
The Hai Phong City People’s Court convicted the ex-colonel and pronounced a 15-month sentence on him at the one-day trial.
According to the indictment, when Trong was holding the deputy director post, he had a close relationship with Dong Xuan Phong, who was then an official of an anti-smuggling unit of the Hai Phong City Customs Department.
In 2009, Phong was wanted nationwide by the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department in connection with smuggling.
At that time, HCMC police sent a team to Hai Phong to coordinate with their colleagues in searching for Phong but they failed to find him.
On April 22, 2011, the criminal hunting division of the Hai Phong City Police Department submitted to Trong a list of criminals, including Phong, who was believed to hide in the northern city.
Trong, however, did not take any action to hunt for and arrest Phong although he had clearly known that the wanted man was staying in Hai Phong.
On May 17, 2012, Duong Chi Dung, Trong’s elder brother, who was then director of the Vietnam Maritime Administration, began to flee the country after receiving a tip-off revealing that he was about to be arrested for the offenses he had committed during the time he was chairman of the state-owned Vietnam National Shipping Lines (Vinalines).
Dung then told Trong to help him hide from police, and the then deputy police chief requested several people, including Phong, to arrange for his brother to leave Vietnam for Cambodia on May 23, 2012.
The former Vinalines chairman then went to Singapore, where he carried out procedures to go to the U.S. However, as he was hunted internationally, Dung was not allowed to enter the U.S.
The man returned to Singapore and then came to Cambodia to hide himself. On September 4, 2012, Vietnamese police captured Dung with the help from their Cambodian counterparts and later extradited him to Vietnam.
Dung was sentenced to death on December 16, 2013 on charges of “intentionally violating state regulations on economic management, causing serious consequences,” and “embezzlement.”
He appealed for a commutation, but the Supreme People’s Court upheld his sentence at an appeal hearing on May 7, 2014.
Trong was arrested on February 22, 2013 and in January this year, his six accomplices and him were convicted of “making arrangements for other people to flee abroad illegally.”
He was first sentenced to 18 years behind bars but at his appeal trial in May 2014, the sentence was commuted to 16 years.
With the additional 15-month sentence given to him yesterday, Trong will have to serve a total jail term of 17 years and three months.
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