More than a dozen Vietnamese officials went on trial in Hanoi for alleged corruption over repatriation flights during the Covid-19 pandemic, a scandal that saw 54 people jailed last year.
The case is part of a major anti-graft drive that has led to the resignation of a president and two deputy prime ministers in a country where political changes are usually carefully orchestrated.
Last year, 54 officials and businesspeople were found guilty of receiving, offering or acting as the go-between for bribes that state media said totalled US$9.5mil (RM42.6mil).
They included four former senior officials at the ministries of foreign affairs, health and public security, who were handed life sentences.
Among the 17 facing court yesterday on charges of bribery, power abuse and hiding of criminals are transport ministry and provincial officials as well as travel company employees.
The monetary amount involved in this case is about US$350,000 (RM1.57mil), with the trial expected to last about a week.
At the height of the pandemic in early 2020 – when Vietnam had closed its borders to almost everyone bar returning citizens – the defendants allegedly gave or took bribes to help people get seats on repatriation flights.
At the time, returnees faced complicated entry procedures, expensive flights and quarantine costs.
Last year, a Hanoi mother told how she had spent over US$10,000 (RM44,879) to get her teenage daughter back to Vietnam from a boarding school in Europe at the peak of the pandemic.
The graft allegations come as part of an anti-corruption drive that has uncovered a number of deals done during Vietnam’s Covid pandemic response.
Last year, the rubber-stamp National Assembly removed former foreign affairs minister Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam, who oversaw the Covid-19 pandemic response, from their positions as deputy prime ministers.
The crackdown also brought down President Nguyen Xuan Phuc after he “took political responsibility” for various officials’ shortcomings. — AFP
