Vietnamese official, colleagues imprisoned for conspiracy
HANOI - A former top aide to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai was sentenced to four years in prison for heading a plot to
discredit and threaten the director of Vietnam's Tourist Administration, state media reported Friday.
Nguyen Thai Nguyen, 53, was sentenced Wednesday under a terrorism law which covers intimidation and death threats, the
state-run Vietnam News said. Also convicted were Nguyen's wife, Nguyen Thi Thanh Hien, 56; Do Ngoc Chap, 48, deputy
director of the intelligence section of the Ministry of Defense; and army officer Nguyen Quang Vinh, 35.
Hien was sentenced to two years in prison, Chap was given 3 1/2 years and Vinh received 3 years.
The four were involved in a complicated plot to discredit and arrest tourism director Vo Thi Thang, investigators said, but they
did not give a motive for their plans.
At the time of their arrests last December, officials familiar with the case said, on condition of anonymity, that Thang was
threatened because she forced Nguyen's wife to retire from her staff in the tourism agency.
Thang, a member of the ruling Communist Party's powerful central committee and a National Assembly legislator, is best
known for spending 20 years in jail for being a communist under the former South Vietnamese government.
According to investigators, two documents were seized from Vinh's office on July 10, 1999 that related to a plan to arrest
Thang. After Vinh was arrested, he confessed that Nguyen had prepared the documents.
Nguyen was the deputy chief of the Government Office and a senior aide to the prime minister before the scandal.
Associated Press - October 6, 2000.
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