Vietnam charges senior officials linked to underworld gang
HANOI - Vietnamese authorities on Friday filed criminal charges
against three senior government officials allegedly linked to an underworld crime
gang, state media reported.
The former Vice Minister of Public Security, Bui Quoc Huy, former state radio
director Tran Mai Hanh, and deputy national chief prosecutor Pham Sy Chien
were placed under house arrest Friday morning, Vietnam Television reported.
Their houses were searched for four hours and documents were confiscated,
VTV said.
Huy was charged with criminal negligence, which carries a maximum sentence
of up to 12 years, while Hanh and Chien were both charged with accepting
bribes, a crime punishable by death, the Vietnam News Agency reported.
The three are the highest ranking officials to be brought down by a massive vice
and corruption scandal that has shaken Vietnam's Communist Party.
Huy and Hanh both lost their membership in the party's powerful Central
Committee in July, and all three were fired from their jobs earlier this year.
The men were all allegedly linked to Truong Van Cam, Vietnam's top mafia
boss, who was said to reign over a prostitution and gambling empire in southern
Ho Chi Minh City.
Also known as Nam Cam, he was arrested last December, charged with bribing
a massive network of police and government officials who protected his gang for
nearly a decade. He also faces charges of murder, gambling and sheltering
criminals — which could lead to a death sentence.
The trial against 163 defendants, which includes police officers, state
prosecutors and journalists, is the largest criminal case ever in this Southeast
Asian country.
Dozens of policemen in Ho Chi Minh City have been fired and many others
suspended or disciplined for allegedly receiving payoffs to ignore the gang's
activities, including murder, gambling and running karaoke bars that fronted for
prostitution.
The defendants face sentences that range from several years in prison up to the
death penalty.
Operating in Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, the gang held such influence
over police that officers had to be brought in from other cities to arrest Nam
Cam and dozens of his associates.
The Associated Press - October 11, 2002.
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