Case of documents with red seals being burned: initial results, shocking news about 2 people destroying them

Regarding the case of burning papers and documents at the football field of Thuong Mo commune (Dan Phuong district), Hanoi City Police have stepped in to investigate and verify. According to the initial report of the commune People's Committee, the person who burned the documents was not a local.

Chief of the Office of the Hanoi People's Committee Le Thanh Nam said that the city police are investigating and clarifying the case of people discovering the burning of papers and documents at the football field of Thuong Mo commune (Dan Phuong district). The city People's Committee has sent officials from the Department of Home Affairs to investigate the incident.

Speaking to reporters, Chairman of Thuong Mo Commune Nguyen Van Hung affirmed that the documents in the clip are not documents of the People's Committee of Thuong Mo Commune. The People's Committee of the Commune has no policy or direction to burn the commune's papers and documents.

According to Mr. Hung, initial verification results show that the woman and the young man driving the truck carrying the documents were not local but brought the documents from another place to burn. The truck did not belong to the driver.

"With the remaining pieces of paper that we initially collected, it shows that most of them are waste paper, not confidential documents," Mr. Hung said.

According to Mr. Hung, the area where the documents are burned is planned as a soccer field, and a wall has been built around it, but only part of the field has been socialized by the Commune People's Committee to be turned into a soccer field using artificial turf.

The rest is an empty lot, overgrown with weeds. After Typhoon Yagi in 2024, some people brought fallen tree branches to this area to destroy and burn. Therefore, some people from other places thought it was a local garbage disposal site.

Previously, a clip was circulated on social media showing a masked woman burning papers and documents at a soccer field in Thuong Mo commune. The person who posted the clip said the incident happened on the afternoon of June 28. Among the burned papers, many had red stamps. Next to them, there were many sacks of papers that had not been unloaded on the truck bed.

A few days ago (June 27), there was also an incident where many papers and documents were burned right next to the headquarters of the People's Committee of Co Nhue 2 Ward, including many half-burned pieces of paper with red stamps and content related to accounting activities, budget revenue and expenditure, and financial invoices.

Regarding this issue, lawyer Dinh Duc Duy (Ket Noi Law Office, Hanoi Bar Association) said that currently, localities are merging and handing over assets to operate under the two-level local government model. The city has also issued instructions on handing over assets and documents to the new administrative unit. Therefore, burning documents, especially those with red seals, will be misunderstood by the public as "destroying evidence".

According to lawyer Duy, although the authorities have information about some of the burned documents that are not state secrets, they are only documents that have been identified and "still have traces" from the fire. With the documents that have been burned, the authorities have not yet determined what documents they are, and how important they are?

Lawyer Duy said that to clarify whether or not there was destruction of state documents, the authorities need to conduct a comprehensive inspection and compare the documents stored at the People's Committee of Co Nhue 2 Ward. Along with that, it is necessary to clarify whether the destruction of documents was directed or unintentional, the level of importance... When there are verification results, it is necessary to strictly handle related people according to regulations.

If violating the destruction of state agency documents, will there be a penalty?

According to lawyer Le Van Kien, Head of the Law Office of Justice, if there is a violation regarding document destruction, the violator may be subject to administrative or criminal sanctions depending on the severity of the violation:

Administrative sanctions: According to Decree 98/2020/ND-CP (regulating sanctions for administrative violations in archiving activities), illegal destruction of documents may be subject to a fine, depending on the nature and severity of the violation.

Criminal handling: If the act of illegally destroying documents causes serious consequences, such as revealing state secrets or causing great damage, criminal liability may be prosecuted under the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017), specifically: Article 342: Crime of intentionally revealing state secrets; crime of appropriating, trading or destroying documents and objects containing state secrets may be punished by imprisonment from 2 to 7 years. In addition, violators may also be fined from 5,000,000 VND to 20 million VND and banned from holding certain positions.

Additional penalties: Depending on the case, violators may be banned from holding certain positions or doing certain jobs from 1 to 5 years.

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