The Saigon Times

Nguyen Duc Chung while serving as Hanoi City chairman – PHOTO: VNA

HCMC - Former Hanoi chairman Nguyen Duc Chung and his three accomplices will attend a closed court hearing on December 11 over appropriating the State's secret files, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

The former city leader and his accomplices, including Nguyen Hoang Trung, Chung's driver; Nguyen Anh Ngoc, former deputy head of the editorial department at the Hanoi People’s Committee and Pham Quang Dung, a former official of the anti-corruption police department, were detained in July for appropriating the State’s secret files. The State secrets are related to Bui Quang Huy, general director of Hanoi-based Nhat Cuong Trading and Services Co., Ltd or Nhat Cuong Mobile, who has fled after being charged with trading in smuggled mobile phones and electronic devices.

Between July 2019 and June 2020, following Chung’s request, Dung appropriated nine State secret files and sent six of them to Chung. Meanwhile, Trung and Ngoc printed and edited three of the State's secret files for the former Hanoi chairman.

Chung was also involved in accounting irregularities, money laundering and serious violations in bidding regulations at Nhat Cuong Mobile and the Hanoi People’s Committee’s mismanagement of State assets and wastefulness.

The trial panel will comprise one judge and two people's jurors. Chung’s defense attorneys are Nguyen Van Tu, Truong Trong Nghia, Tran Hoang Anh and Nguyen Thi Hoai Linh. Lawyer Ngo Kim Lan is Dung’s defense attorney, while lawyers Do Thi Anh Tuyet, Trinh Cam Binh and Giang Hong Thanh will defend Trung and Ngoc.