Testimony and “confusing” recording of a former police officer in Ho Chi Minh City

On December 29, after two working days, the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court sentenced the defendant Pham Quang Tien (former officer working in the Police Department of the Administrative Management of Social Order, City Police of the Ho Chi Minh) to 8 years in prison for the crime. “Fraudulent appropriation of assets”.

Committing the same crime “Bribery” in this case, the two defendants: Nguyen Vu Thanh Thuy and Nguyen Long, each received 3 years and 6 months in prison. Furthermore, the Group sentenced the defendant Tran Thi Dieu Trang to 4 years and 6 months in prison for “brokerage bribery”.

The defendants in court

On November 15, 2018, Trang’s “adopted child into society” (named Nguyen Duy) reported that Duy was involved in the robbery that occurred in Ho Chi Minh City. Over the phone, Duy told Trang that he was being arrested by the police. So, Duy asked Trang to find someone to help him.

Trang agreed and contacted Pham Quang Tien. Accept the word “execute the sentence”, Tien cost 300 million VND. Newspaper newspaper Duy price 320 million. After that, the two parties made an appointment to meet at a hotel owned by Trang. On November 19, 2018, Long, Trang handed over enough money to “execute the sentence” as required by Tien. I thought everything was fine, but Nguyen Duy still hasn’t escaped. Suspecting that Trang was cheating, he appropriated money, for which Thuy and Long filed a complaint.

The authorities intervened to clarify the situation. During the investigation, Tien confessed after accepting the word “execute sentence”, Tien exchanged the whole matter with a friend (named Dinh Duy Hung) who worked at HCM City VKSND. Tien transferred all the money he received from Trang to Hung. At the investigating agency, Tien provided a recording proving the delivery of money between Tien and Hung. However, in the recording, Tien did not specify the origin of the amount, the purpose or the actual amount of the transaction. According to the evaluation conclusion issued by the Sub-Institute of Criminal Sciences of the Ministry of Public Security, the voice samples in the aforementioned recording are of poor quality, not suitable for evaluation.

In addition to the above evidence, the former police officer did not have any additional documents or evidence. The investigation agency said the law has no basis to consider and handle Dinh Duy Hung.