Truong My Lan has 6 days left, husband boasts, accomplice pleads for forgiveness on her behalf in court

After the Procuracy reserved its opinion on the death penalty for Ms. Truong My Lan, the panel of judges allowed the defendants to have their final say and deliberate. The panel of judges will officially announce the verdict on December 3.

Today (November 27), the first phase of the appeal trial of the Van Thinh Phat case, Saigon Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SCB) and related entities entered the deliberation phase. At the trial yesterday afternoon (November 26), after Ms. Truong My Lan (Chairwoman of Van Thinh Phat Group) gave her final statement, the panel of judges allowed the remaining defendants to do the same in court.

Defendant Do Thi Nhan (former Director of the State Bank of Vietnam's Inspection and Supervision Department) said that the past few days have been the most painful days for her. The first instance verdict was extremely harsh, and she did not know if she would be able to return to her family. She and her family will continue to contribute to society with all their heart and soul.

Ms. Nhan also expressed her gratitude and apology to her husband, children, and both sides of the family. She earnestly hoped that the People's Court and the Procuracy would acknowledge her and apply all regulations to reduce her sentence, giving her the motivation to continue living the rest of her life.

At the first instance verdict of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, the panel sentenced Ms. Do Thi Nhan to life imprisonment for the crime of "Receiving bribes" with the accusation of receiving 5.2 million USD from Ms. Truong My Lan, to direct subordinates to report and issue a dishonest draft inspection conclusion, covering up violations of SCB Bank.

Ms. Do Thi Nhan appealed for a reduced sentence, however, at the appeal hearing, the representative of the Procuracy requested the panel of judges to reject the appeal and uphold the life sentence for Ms. Nhan.

Defendant Truong Hue Van (General Director of Windsor Real Estate Management Group) was sentenced to 17 years in prison by the court of first instance for "embezzlement of property", but appealed and the representative of the Procuracy requested the appellate panel to reduce the sentence to 14-15 years in prison.

In her final words, Truong Hue Van expressed her deep gratitude to the Procuracy, the People's Court, the lawyers, the prison officers, and the escort force during the past time. Ms. Lan's niece said that during the trial, she heard many times about two keywords that sounded very unethical, which were 'ghost company' and 'withdrawal and appropriation'. Therefore, the defendant would like to add that it is necessary to mention other keywords, 'debt restructuring' and 'debt restructuring'.

Standing at the witness stand for the defendant, Mr. Chu Lap Co (Ms. Truong My Lan's husband) said he had been in Vietnam since 1990, for the past 34 years and trained many young people to become qualified people to serve the country, bringing hundreds of thousands of tourists to his wife's homeland.

Mr. Co also said that he only lent Ms. Truong My Lan assets to restructure SCB Bank, but then had to appear in court as a defendant. Referring to Ms. Lan, Mr. Co said that he, his wife, and family accepted the verdict of the panel of judges. He asked for Ms. Lan to be given leniency, humanity, and the lowest sentence.

At the first instance verdict of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, Mr. Chu Lap Co was sentenced to 9 years in prison. He appealed for a reduction in his sentence and the representative of the Procuracy accepted it, and at the same time requested the appellate panel to reduce his sentence to 7-8 years in prison.

In her final statement, defendant Tran Thi My Dung (former Deputy General Director of SCB Bank, whose appeal was accepted by the Procuracy, requesting the Panel of Judges to reduce her sentence from 16 years in prison to 14-15 years) thanked the lawyers and associates who defended and accompanied the defendant throughout the course of the case.

Defendant Dung said that when he was still in society, he heard that the law was always humane and lenient. Based on the spirit of humanity and leniency, he respectfully hopes that the People's Court and the Procuracy will be open to applying all mitigating circumstances, applying all lenient provisions of the law to consider reducing the sentence for all defendants in the case, especially asking for forgiveness of the death penalty for Truong My Lan.

Truong My Lan can escape death, her husband and niece have their sentences reduced for this reason! Snow20:34:27 03/12/2024Recently, the appellate court sentenced Ms. Truong My Lan in the Van Thinh Phat case (phase 1). Meanwhile, her husband and granddaughter were considered for sentence reduction.