On the afternoon of July 21, the trial of Mr. Tran Hung (former Deputy Director of Market Management, former head of Group 304 of the General Department of Market Management) and 35 defendants in the case of producing 27,000 fake textbooks entered the third day of trial with the debate.

After the prosecution agency announced the indictment and proposed sentence, the lawyers began defending the defendants, presenting documents and details hoping the panel of judges would consider and reduce the sentence.

The defense attorney for defendant Tran Hung said that Mr. Hung only had the function of advising and supervising under the direction of the General Director, so he had no role in the discovery of 27,000 textbooks of Phu Hung Phat Company.

According to the lawyer, Tran Hung's working group had no responsibility and could not interfere in the handling of the case. Defendant Le Viet Phuong (former Deputy of Market Management Team No. 17) knew this clearly, so he refused to provide documents to Team 304.

Giving evidence, the lawyer said that when Mr. Tran Hung discussed with Phuong about handling the case at Phu Hung Phat company, Mr. Hung did not meet in person but discussed with Phuong over the phone, saying that it must be handled seriously.

"The recording of Mr. Hung's call with Phuong does not show that Mr. Hung directed Phuong to create favorable conditions for Thuan," the lawyer stated.

In addition, Mr. Hung's defense attorney also claimed that when extracting the recording from Tran Hung's phone, he only said that he would forgive Cao Thi Minh Thuan (Director of Phu Hung Phat Company) if she pointed out other illegal book printing establishments. However, the attorney explained that this was only for the purpose of exploiting information.

During the two-day trial, Mr. Tran Hung was the only one who did not plead guilty. The defendant stated that right after the market management discovered 27,000 fake textbooks at Phu Hung Phat Company, Director Thuan contacted him for help. Nguyen Duy Hai (a regular collaborator) reported the news and then also asked for help for Ms. Thuan.

"However, when Hai brought the black bag containing the money, I immediately cursed him and kicked him out of the room. I never received 300 million VND from Hai," Mr. Hung testified in court.

In court, defendant Hai stated that when he took the bag of money to Mr. Hung's room, there were two other people there. Presenting themselves in court as witnesses, these two people both said they saw Hai take the black bag to Mr. Hung's room but were "screamed at and asked to take it away" by Mr. Tran Hung. Regarding whether Mr. Hung "received the money or not", they said they did not witness it and did not know.

The lawyer denied that his client received 300 million VND from Nguyen Duy Hai. According to him, the prosecutor charged Mr. Hung based on only Nguyen Duy Hai's testimony. Regarding Hai's testimony, Mr. Hung's defense lawyer also said that there were many contradictions. Initially, Hai said that he gave money to Tran Hung on July 20, 2020. Then, Hai re-stated the incident that happened on July 15, 2020. The lawyer said that the defendant Hai changed his testimony 10 times about giving money to Tran Hung.

In court, defendant Hai confirmed that he gave money to Hung at around 1:00 p.m. on July 15, 2020. Hai said that after giving the money, he returned home. However, this contradicts Hai's testimony at the investigation agency. The lawyer pointed out the contradiction in the testimony related to the afternoon of July 15, 2020. Accordingly, Hai knew that Mr. Hung's house had a death anniversary, but Hai said that he brought money to Mr. Hung's office that afternoon.

According to the lawyer, after collecting evidence from the phone signal tower, he said that the time Hai called Mr. Hung was at two geographical distances apart. It is very unlikely that Hai gave money to Mr. Hung. According to the extract, from 11:44 to 14:02, July 15, 2020, the signal tower located Mr. Hung in Ba Dinh district. However, at the same time, Hai's location was in Hoan Kiem district and Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi.

"We have made many assumptions, including Mr. Hung going home and then returning to the office, but none of them are feasible. Mr. Hung's family has a death anniversary, no one would stop their family's spiritual activities for no reason to go to the office for 2-3 minutes to receive money," said Mr. Tran Hung's defense attorney.

Given the above evidence, the lawyer requested the prosecutor to evaluate the witnesses, evidence, and review the entire case. The lawyer requested to consider and release Mr. Tran Hung right in court.

According to the indictment, in 2021, Cao Thi Minh Thuan (Director of Phu Hung Phat Company) and her accomplices produced more than 9.4 million fake books of various types related to the Education Publishing House, with a printed value of more than 260 billion VND on the cover. This group sold more than 6.3 million books; the remaining 3 million books that had not been sold were discovered and seized by the authorities.

Expanding the investigation, the investigation agency determined that in 2020, Thuan was inspected by Market Management Team No. 17 in coordination with Team 304 where Tran Hung was the Team Leader, and seized more than 27,000 fake books. However, Hung did not report the incident to the General Director but directly directed the Hanoi Market Management Department and Market Management Team No. 17 to inspect and handle it.

Cao Thi Minh Thuan texted and called Tran Hung to ask for help and to have the case handled lightly. The indictment clearly stated that Tran Hung "agreed to let her go" with the request that Thuan point out a number of illegal printing establishments. Afterwards, Thuan continued to contact Nguyen Duy Hai (a freelancer) to discuss paying Tran Hung money to ask for a lighter sentence.

According to the indictment, Tran Hung instructed Hai to tell Thuan to change his statement about the origin of the books, from "purchased books that were confiscated" to "books brought by someone else for consignment" to get a lighter sentence.

On July 15, 2020, Hai brought 300 million VND in a black plastic bag to Tran Hung's office. There, Hai called Mr. Hung to talk to Thuan and listen to specific instructions on how to make a declaration. According to the People's Procuracy, Hung then directed his subordinates to create conditions to help Thuan in the direction of administratively handling the case of illegal book trafficking.

During the investigation, defendant Tran Hung did not admit to accepting bribes. However, the Procuracy said that based on the testimony of others, electronic data extracted from the phone, etc., there was sufficient basis to determine that Tran Hung had received 300 million VND to lightly handle the case of illegal book trafficking.

English - Vien Minh