Thuduc House Case: Court Recommends Sentencing Reduction of 3-4 Years

According to a representative of the High-level People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City, 24/43 defendants appealing the first-instance verdict received mitigating circumstances that were not applied by the first-instance trial court.

By
Administrator
-
0
86

On the afternoon of April 24, the High-level People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City continued its appellate trial of the case that occurred at Thu Duc House Development JSC and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation.

After reviewing the case, a representative of the Procuracy of the same level requested that the审判长会 accept a reduction in the sentences of 24/43 defendants who had appealed. The prosecutor requested a sentence reduction for these defendants ranging from 3 months to 4 years in prison. 

Defendants at the trial

According to the Procuracy, these defendants had several mitigating circumstances that were not applied by the lower court. 

For the 10 defendants who were former officials of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation, the prosecution determined that when the Customs Department issued a warning regarding the signs of wrongdoing by Thuduc House, these officials had taken many measures to reduce the damage. In addition, the General Department of Taxation and the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation also submitted a request to review and reduce the sentences for these defendants.

Of the 24 defendants, a representative of the Ho Chi Minh City High-level People’s Procuracy requested that the court consider reducing the sentence by 6 months to 1 year compared to the 4-year sentence that the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Court had imposed on Nguyen Thi Bich Hanh, the former Deputy Director of the Ho Chi Minh City Department of Taxation.

The defendant who was recommended for the greatest sentence reduction (3-4 years in prison) was Nguyen Thi Ngoc Thuong, the former director of Hoang Nam Anh International Trading Co., Ltd. The representative of the Procuracy stated that at the appellate trial, this defendant was granted an additional mitigating circumstance for truthfully reporting the facts and paying an additional 300 million VND. In the first-instance judgment, this defendant was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

In addition, the Procuracy also requested that the appeals of the victims in the case be dismissed.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR