Investigation Police in the southern city of Can Tho are charging 60-year-old Pham Thanh Dung, a former official of the provincial Department of Justice, for accepting bribes and illegally possessing an army weapon.
Eight others have also been charged for the same offence.
The other defendants Tran Ngoc Trung, Nguyen Hoang Minh, Tran Thi Thanh Huong, A Huu Tho, Che Thi Bich Trang, Nguyen Thi Kim Hoang, Tran Hue Co and Bui Huu To were charged with “offering bribes”.
Dung, former deputy head of the Administration Section of the Can Tho Justice Department, was caught in the act of accepting a bribe for helping local girls obtain papers to marry foreigners, from Tran Ngoc Trung, a local taxi driver, in November 2010.
Dung first confessed that he received VND 15 billion and then admitted he received VND8 billion.
Then when arguing with investigators he finally confessed that from April 2009 until November 2010, he had received in all VND6.5 billion.
He said that he handed VND1.5 billion to the Director as well as the Vice Director of the provincial Department of Justice, who are responsible for signing documents to permit Vietnamese women to marry foreigners, Dung added.
However, the police have so far found no evidence to prove Dung’s claim relating to the sum of money given to the two above mentioned officials.
Police searched Dung’s workplace and home, from where they confiscated more than VND160 million (US$7,600), a large quantity of gold and a K59 handgun with seven bullets.
Dung admitted that he had made use of his position to help hundreds of local girls obtain papers to marry foreigners, mostly from Taiwan and South Korea, since April 2009.
