The People’s Supreme Court agreed June 1 to undertake a new probe in the case of Tran Ngoc Suong, following demands by the Supreme People’s Procuracy, Vietnam’s highest prosecutorial office.
The Supreme People’s Court should annul the verdict against the former director due to procedural violations and shortcomings during Suong’s investigation and trial, said the procuracy.
Tran Ngoc Suong, 60, former director of the State-run Song Hau Cooperative Farm near Can Tho City, was sentenced to eight years in jail for running an illegal fund last November.
Suong was also ordered by the city People’s Court to repay some VND4.3 billion (US$240,500) to the government. The decision upheld a verdict reached by a lower court last August.
Suong was named a Labor Hero by the government in 2000 and honored at the International Federation of Business & Professional Women's Women Inspire Awards of 2002.
According to Suong’s lawyer Nguyen Dang Trung, the fund was set up before her term as head of the State-run farm from 2001 to 2007, and was used to help collective members in need. The court on November 19 last year, however, declared that it was illegal for the State-run farm collective to maintain any funds off the books.
