Nguyen Bac Son, former minister of Information and Communications, has been proposed death sentence in the MobiFone-AVG acquisition trial taking place in Hanoi.

Nguyen Bac Son, former minister of Information and Communications, on way to the ongoing court in Hanoi. Photo: Nguoiduatin

Son was charged with two crimes namely “violating regulations on managing public investment, causing serious consequences” with a penalty of 16-18 years in jail and death sentence for “taking bribes”, local media reported.

The Hanoi People’s Procuracy brought the charges on December 20 in the trial which will last until the end of this month.

Under the indictment, Son, 66, played the main role in the acquisition of private pay TV firm Audio Visual Global JSC (AVG) by state-owned telecom giant MobiFone in 2016. He asked Truong Minh Tuan, who was then his deputy, to sign the executive order on the deal and asked Tuan to push up the purchase.

In the investigations, Son admitted to taking US$3 million from AVG Chairman Pham Nhat Vu and gave the money to his daughter.

However, he changed his confession sometimes.

The indictment concluded that defendant Nguyen Bac Son was not repented.

Former minister Truong Minh Tuan, 59, was proposed a jail term of 14-16 years for the same charges.

The prosecutors proposed a jail sentence of 23-25 years for MobiFone’s former Chairman of the Board of Directors Le Nam Tra who took US$2.5 million worth of bribes and 14-16 years behind bars for former General Director Cao Duy Hai who received US$500,000 from AVG's Chairman Pham Nhat Vu.

Vu was proposed a jail term of 3-4 years for “giving bribes”. Vu is deemed to have shown good cooperation in the investigation and paid all the proceeds back. Vu is a younger brother of Vietnam's richest man, Pham Nhat Vuong, who is chairman of Vingroup.

Nine other defendants are charged with “violating regulations on managing and using public capital that causes serious consequences” with proposed jail term from 2 to 6 years each.

Prosecutors said bringing this case into light showed the state’s determination to combat corruption regardless of the positions the involvers have.