This morning, July 11, the Hanoi People's Court opened a trial for the "rescue flight" case. The 54 defendants were escorted to the courtroom by the judicial police force.

At about 9:15 a.m., after the end of the procedural part, the representative of the Hanoi People's Procuracy announced the indictment of the Supreme People's Procuracy against the defendants.

The case has 21 defendants prosecuted for accepting bribes; 23 defendants for giving bribes; 4 defendants for brokering bribes; 4 defendants for abusing positions and powers in performing official duties; 2 defendants for fraud and appropriation of property.

Of the above, 21 defendants are former leaders and officials of ministries, branches and localities who were determined to have received bribes up to more than 500 times, with a total amount of nearly 165 billion VND.

Among them, the defendant Nguyen Quang Linh is a former Assistant to the Permanent Deputy Prime Minister of the Government. Mr. Linh was assigned to advise, propose and submit to the Government leaders for approval of flights to bring citizens back to the country. Knowing Mr. Linh's role, a number of businesses approached and asked the defendant to consider and help resolve procedures related to flight licensing.

Investigation results show that from March 2021 to April 2021, Mr. Linh received bribes 5 times with a total amount of 4.2 billion VND, to "favor" businesses that were included in the list of flights. Mr. Linh was one of the defendants holding the highest position in this case, at the time of his prosecution and arrest.

Defendant To Anh Dung, former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Dung was assigned to be in charge of and direct the Consular Department - the focal point for receiving documents from businesses organizing flights. Mr. Dung was also the person who signed the document asking for opinions from 4 ministries (Public Security, Transport, Health, National Defense) and signed the proposal for the Government leaders to approve the plan to bring citizens back to the country.

Knowing this, many businesses sought to approach Mr. Dung to ask for help. From December 2020 to January 2022, the former Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs was accused of accepting bribes 37 times with a total amount of 21.5 billion VND.

Defendant Nguyen Thi Huong Lan, former Director of the Consular Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Ms. Lan is in charge of all work of the Consular Department, including reviewing the list of businesses that operate flights, and directly reports to Deputy Minister To Anh Dung on related work.

Like most other former officials, upon learning of Ms. Lan’s position, many businesses “colluded” with this defendant. Investigation results showed that from December 2020 to January 2022, the former female director received bribes 32 times with a total amount of 25 billion VND.

Defendant Vu Hong Nam, former Vietnamese Ambassador to Japan. When the Covid-19 pandemic broke out, the Vietnamese Embassy in Japan organized 57 rescue flights to bring citizens home. Mr. Nam then saw the great need to return home, so he sent many secret telegrams requesting more flights, the investigation agency concluded.

Mr. Nam was accused of accepting bribes of VND1.8 billion twice to help businesses sell airline tickets and bring citizens back to the country for quarantine. So far, the defendant has returned VND1.8 billion to remedy the consequences.

Defendant Tran Van Du, former Deputy Director of the Immigration Department, Ministry of Public Security. The Immigration Department is the unit that receives, considers, and proposes opinions from the Ministry of Public Security on approving the plan to organize flights to bring citizens back to the country. The Supreme People's Procuracy accused Mr. Du of accepting bribes of 7.6 billion VND from businesses, either through subordinates or directly handling the money.

Defendant Pham Trung Kien, former secretary of the Deputy Minister of Health. When checking in for flights, Mr. Kien asked the company to pay from 50 to 200 million VND/combo flight or from 200,000 VND to 2 million VND/passenger.

The Supreme People's Procuracy determined that in just 11 months, defendant Kien received a total of 42.6 billion VND from 18 business representatives 253 times. He was also the defendant with the highest number of times and the highest amount of bribes in the case.

Defendant Chu Xuan Dung, former Vice Chairman of the Hanoi People's Committee. During the Covid-19 outbreak, the Hanoi People's Committee assigned the Department of Health and the Department of Foreign Affairs to be the focal points for receiving documents and advising the city leaders to consider and issue a decision to accept the policy of quarantining citizens returning to the country.

Businesses that want to be approved for flights must have an official dispatch from the Hanoi People's Committee approving quarantine. Therefore, businesses colluded with Mr. Dung to request this document and pay "thank you" money. The former Vice Chairman of Hanoi was accused of receiving bribes of more than 2 billion VND.

Defendant Tran Van Tan, former Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Quang Nam Province. Mr. Tan was assigned to handle tasks related to the prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic in the area.

However, the defendant did not fulfill his responsibility, receiving 5 billion VND from the enterprise to issue quarantine policies for citizens returning to Quang Nam on 56 flights.

Defendant Vu Anh Tuan, former Deputy Chief of Staff (under the Immigration Department, Ministry of Public Security). Mr. Tuan is the person responsible for evaluating, selecting and advising superiors to decide, signing the reply document for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to gather and notify the business to conduct the flight.

During the performance of his duties, defendant Tuan agreed with defendant Pham Trung Kien (former secretary of the Deputy Minister of Health) to proactively contact businesses and request them to pay bribes. The Supreme People's Procuracy accused defendant Tuan of accepting bribes 49 times with a total amount of more than 27 billion VND.