Sawt Falasteen - 50 officials on trial in Vietnam over rescue flight bribes

The case is part of a major anti-corruption drive that led to President Nguyen Xuan Phuc's sudden resignation earlier this year -- an unprecedented move in communist Vietnam, where political changes are normally carefully orchestrated.

"The prosecutors will charge 21 officials and civil servants... for receiving almost seven million dollars from up to 100 businesses to solve administrative procedures for repatriation," state-run Thanh Nien newspaper said, quoting the prosecutors' indictment.

Thirty-three others will face various other charges, including "offering or intermediating bribes, fraudulence and power abuse," the report said.

The total amount of bribery money in this case reached $9.5 million, according to Thanh Nien's report on Monday.

That included about $2.65 million given to police officials to avoid prosecution, it added.

Eighteen defendants, including To Anh Dung, former deputy minister of foreign affairs, and Nguyen Quang Linh, former assistant to the deputy prime minister, could face the death penalty if found guilty.

In early 2020, Vietnam closed itself off to the world in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus and organised nearly 800 charter flights to bring citizens home from 60 countries and territories.

But travellers faced complicated procedures while paying exorbitant airfares and quarantine fees to get back to Vietnam, according to official and social media reports.

Dung is alleged to have received nearly $910,000 in bribes to add companies to a list of repatriation flight providers.

- Purge -

The graft allegations come as part of an anti-corruption purge that has involved a number of deals done during Vietnam's Covid pandemic response.

Earlier in the year, the country's rubber-stamp National Assembly removed Pham Binh Minh and Vu Duc Dam from their positions as deputy prime ministers.

Minh was a minister of foreign affairs while Dam was in charge of the country's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic.

At least 100 officials and businesspeople, including Dam's assistant, have been arrested in connection with a scandal involving the distribution of Covid-19 testing kits.

The purge -- led by Communist Party General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong -- also brought down President Phuc, who "took political responsiblity" for various officials' shortcomings, a party central committee statement said at the time.

Authoritarian Vietnam is run by the Communist Party and officially led by the party general secretary, president and prime minister, with key decisions made by the politburo.

The repatriation flight trial, which follows a yearlong investigation and involves more than 100 defence lawyers, is scheduled to last one month.

T.Samara--SF-PST