The prosecutor proposed the death penalty, Ms. Truong My Lan could not stand and was mentally disturbed.

After the prosecutor proposed to keep the death sentence, defendant Truong My Lan could not keep calm, showed signs of shock, could not stand firmly and asked the panel of judges to present.

On the morning of November 15, the appeal hearing of Ms. Truong My Lan and 47 defendants and some related people entered the debate phase, according to information from VnExpress.

Presenting his views on the case, the representative of the High-level People's Procuracy in Ho Chi Minh City assessed that Ms. Lan's actions were particularly serious; she was the mastermind, leader, and simultaneously committed three crimes: embezzlement of assets, violation of lending regulations in the operations of credit institutions, and bribery; negatively affecting banking operations, disrupting security and order, confusing public opinion, and losing the people's trust. Therefore, the court of first instance sentenced the defendant to death for these three crimes, which was "the right person, the right law, and not a wrongful conviction".

In addition to the mitigating circumstances applied at the first instance, such as many achievements in charity activities, Covid-19 prevention... at the appeal hearing, the defendant had many new details: honestly confessed, repented, committed to remedy all damages and committed to hand over all 658 unmortgaged assets for any loan, along with the 6A Trung Son project to remedy the consequences of the case in case 1,121 mortgaged asset codes were not enough...

The Procuracy determined that these were new mitigating circumstances and that it was necessary to consider reducing the defendant’s sentence for violating lending regulations in the operations of credit institutions. Therefore, the prosecution proposed reducing the sentence from 20 years to 16-18 years in prison for this crime.

"For the remaining two crimes, the defendant committed an especially serious, organized, sophisticated crime, committed two or more times over a long period of time. Although the defendant has new mitigating circumstances as above, according to the provisions of the law, there are not enough conditions to reduce the sentence. Therefore, there is no basis to reduce the sentence for the defendant for the crimes of Embezzlement of property (death penalty) and Bribery (20 years in prison)," the representative of the People's Procuracy stated.

Immediately after the prosecutor proposed to uphold the death sentence for Ms. Lan, the panel of judges interrupted and asked that defendant Lan be allowed to sit down to continue hearing the verdict.

After the prosecutor proposed to keep the death penalty, defendant Truong My Lan could not keep calm, showed signs of dizziness, could not stand and asked the panel of judges to speak. "If I had not been allowed to speak, I would have fainted on the spot" - Ms. Lan's voice trembled.

The panel agreed, Ms. Lan thanked the People's Procuracy for reducing her sentence for violating lending regulations in the operations of credit institutions (from 20 years to 16-18 years in prison). However, she hoped that the panel and the People's Procuracy would consider the charges of embezzlement (death penalty) and bribery (20 years in prison).

"Up to today, the People's Procuracy continues to maintain the same penalty level, the defendant has no mind left, his spirit is in turmoil. I respectfully ask the court and the People's Procuracy to consider carefully for the defendant. The defendant only wishes to be able to pay the debt to the State Bank," she said.

With a broken voice, Chairman of Van Thinh Phat added: "The defendant is a person who dares to do and dares to take responsibility. Over the past 10 years, the defendant has contributed a lot to SCB Bank. The defendant does not know what to say, only asking the People's Court and the People's Procuracy to carefully review the data and once again allow the defendant to compare with SCB about the loans."

The panel of judges then asked Ms. Lan to calm down and continue to present her self-defense.

According to VietNamNet, defending defendant Truong My Lan, lawyer Phan Trung Hoai said that at the time when the appeal hearing had not yet taken place and the verdict had not yet taken legal effect, Ms. Truong My Lan had submitted a request to the Civil Judgment Enforcement Agency to organize the enforcement of the verdict according to the decisions of both first-instance verdicts (phase 1 and phase 2).

According to lawyer Hoai, at the appeal hearing, Ms. Lan had a new change in perception regarding the appeal request. This was shown in the fact that the defendant did not claim innocence of the charges but only wanted to consider the causes, context and issues that needed to be fully, comprehensively and objectively assessed. In particular, defendant Lan wanted to consider the authenticity of the data alleging appropriation or causing damage.

In addition, there are many new details related to the cash flow to remedy the consequences of the case, specific handling plans and recommendations on mechanisms. This is to revive and develop projects and assets to have a source of money to remedy all the consequences of the case during the execution of the judgment, according to Ms. Truong My Lan's voluntary commitment.

Lawyer Hoai also requested the panel of judges to consider the personal background, family history of Ms. Truong My Lan and the cause and context of the case. At the same time, Mr. Hoai said that it is necessary to fully assess the nature of the restructuring plan of SCB Bank; the State Bank's approval of SCB Bank's proposal to implement a new lending plan to restructure old debts since 2012.

According to this lawyer, Ms. Truong My Lan hopes that the panel of judges will consider the humane and lenient policies of the Party and State to reconsider the death sentence that the first instance verdict had imposed for the crime of "Embezzlement of property".

Truong My Lan case: Total assets and evidence seized worth thousands of billions of dong Trí Nhi14:56:22 18/11/2024The Ho Chi Minh City Civil Judgment Enforcement Department has just sent a document to the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City providing information on the receipt of evidence and the amount of compensation paid by the parties in the Van Thinh Phat case.