The Ho Chi Minh City police have said they will ensure fairness and objectivity in their investigation of a bribery case involving Hoang Khuong, Tuoi Tre’s anti-corruption journalist, who was detained last month pending investigation.
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| Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Thong speaks at the press conference Photo: Tuoi Tre |
37-year-old Nguyen Van Khuong (the journalist’s real name), was served a 4-month detention warrant on January 2, 2012 for indirectly giving a bribe of VND15 million (US$713) to former police cop Huynh Minh Duc in exchange for Duc’s help in releasing a motorbike that had been impounded in a traffic violation case committed by a young man, Tran Minh Hoa.
After briefing the conference about the progress of the investigation, Senior Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Thong, deputy head of the police’s investigation agency, said, “This is an organized criminal case in which the defendants have discussed and arranged things they needed to do to manipulate the process of handling a traffic rule violation.”
“Not to be journalistic activity”
Thong emphasized that Khuong’s acts in the case “were not journalistic activity” and that there has been information showing that Khuong once interfered to help Tran Minh Hoa get his vehicle back from the police in another traffic rule breach in 2009 or 2010.
An attendant of the conference, Le Xuan Trung, general managing editor of Tuoi Tre, the Vietnamese-language daily newspaper, told the conference that Khuong had written a number of articles on corruption among police officers, such as "Cops blatantly take bribes, threaten drivers", "Where road accidents are settled off the records" and "Traffic cop takes bribe to return bike,” according to the editorial board’s policy.
In 2011, the editorial board launched the topic “Preventing traffic tragedies” and Hoang Khuong was among the journalists assigned to cover subject. Khuong had reported all he would cover to his supervisor and had received approval before he wrote articles on the topic.
Therefore, Hoang Khuong had carried out journalistic activities in accordance with the editorial board’s requirements and not for his personal motives or purposes, Trung said.
On the other hand, there is yet to be any grounds or evidence to conclude that Khuong had threatened Duc to force him to return vehicle papers to him, and after Khuong failed to get the papers back, he wrote an article against Duc, Trung said.
However, "It is possible that Khuong had committed shortcomings in his method of carrying out journalistic activities when he wrote “Traffic cop takes bribe to return bike”, Trung added.
Trung also asked the police to review the accuracy of the allegation that Khuong once unlawfully helped Hoa get back his vehicle in 2009 or 2010.
Fairness to be ensured, police say
Giving a briefing on the bribery case, Major General Minh said in April 2011, Tran Minh Hoa had his motorbike detained by police in Binh Thanh District for riding in a dangerous manner. Hoa wanted to get his vehicle back and not to be given a public warning.
In June 2011, Khuong found Duc, who handled Hoa’s case, committing corruption while handling vehicles involved in a traffic accident. Khuong actively arranged giving money [VND15 million] to Duc to take Tran Minh Hoa’s bike back, Minh said.
“Khuong took advantage of his journalistic activities to help Hoa unlawfully get his vehicle back when it was detained by police.”
Minh also affirmed that Khuong was the instigator, mastermind and arranger of the bribing of Duc.
Regarding whether Khuong once helped Tran Minh Hoa in a similar case, Minh said it would depend on the results of the ongoing investigation, in which the police have collected a tape from Khuong and testimonies from Hoa.
In response, Trung requested that the police ensure the accuracy of their conclusion that Khuong was “the instigator and arranger of the bribing,” since the investigation remained uncompleted.
Trung said that the bribe had been handed from Hoa to Nguyen Duc Dong Anh (Khuong’s brother-in-law) then to Khuong, who continued handing the money to Ton That Hoa, director of Duy Nguyen Private Enterprise. who finally gave it to Duc.
The actual situation showed that Khuong had been implicated in the bribery during his journalistic activities and that he could not be considered to be the instigator, given the fact that the money had been transferred through many persons before it was received by Duc, Trung said.
In speaking to conclude the press conference, Major General Minh said the city police would ensure the fairness and objectiveness during their investigation.
Minh said he expected that the results of the investigation would be available in March 2012.
