In the evening of Aug 28, at 88 Trung Liet Street, Hanoi is more crowded with journalists than the police, hundreds of reporters waited there before the Ministry of Public Security’s car came to search the house of Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung, the suspended chairman of the People’s Committee of Hanoi.
According to the videos reported at Mr. Chung’s house gate, no one saw Mr. Chung step down from the Ministry of Public Security’s vehicle into the house when the house gate was opened to allow police officers to enter and search.
It seems that the reporters had been informed that the Ministry of Public Security took Mr. Chung home from the hospital to read the prosecution order, but so far there has been no media posting pictures of Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung during his arrest.
According to the report of journalist Truong Chau Huu Danh who was at the scene, police officers also searched many other facilities related to the arrest of Mr. Nguyen Duc Chung. Mr. Danh said that Mr. Chung would have a good night’s sleep in a detention center because no more has to wait for something bad to happen like previous nights.
“Mr. Chung was healthy from the date of suspension to the time he was arrested. He has not been hospitalized as rumored. His wife, Mrs. Hoa goes to the hospital to take care of her very sick father,” Mr. Danh added.
Commenting on the livestream of Mr. Truong Chau Huu Danh, some people think that this is the retribution from Dong Tam village and many people expect this to happen soon for Tat Thanh Cang and Le Thanh Hai in Ho Chi Minh City.
On August 28, the Ministry of Public Security of Vietnam announced that they had decided to probe and arrest Mr. Chung for 4 months to investigate the allegation of stealing state secret.
Impressed with the number 8, Facebook Thanh Mai said: “Today on August 28, the police brought handcuffs number 8 to number 88 on Trung Liet Street, and arrested Mr. Chung.”
Facebook Le Kien wrote that “In his life how many secrets he holds, he is now arrested again for misappropriating documents of state secrets. Heal and great tragedy.”
Ms. Le Nguyen Huong Tra, with a Facebook page with more than half a million followers, reported that: “After the suspension, Nguyen Duc Chung went to see General Secretary cum President Nguyen Phu Trong to admit his wrongdoings and accept to be removed from all positions but remain unprobed. That is a privilege he should have thanks to his police maijor general rank, member of the party’s Central Committee, and a Hero of the Armed Forces of Vietnam.
However, everything as expected, this afternoon, August 28, the Supreme People’s Procuracy approved the arrest warrant of the suspended chairman and detained for 4 months on charges of “disclosing state secrets.” Maybe this is just an initial crime, with material evidence from three his close people – Nguyen Hoang Trung (driver), Nguyen Anh Ngoc (secretary) and Pham Quang Dung (police officer of Ministry of Public Security’s Investigation Agency). It seems the trio have confessed their wrongdoings after being arrested in Nhat Cuong Company case.
Thus, the whole family of Mr. Chung, his wife Nguyen Thi Truc Chi Hoa (works for Minh Hoa Trading Co., Ltd.) and son Nguyen Duc Hanh (Arktic Service Trading Co., Ltd.) have the ability to be criminally charged. National legislator lawyer Truong Trong Nghia (HCM City Bar Association) was invited by Mr. Chung to be his legal representative and defense, like Mr. Dinh La Thang did!
Remember, just in May 2020 at the 12th plenum of the Central Committee, Chung was in the top 10 list of 87 people who are planning to run for the next Politburo!” Ms. Le Nguyen Huong Tra provided more information.
Former prisoner of conscience Pham Minh Vu wrote on his personal Facebook page which has 26,000 followers “Today, the Security Investigation Agency of the Ministry of Public Security took Chung into custody for the next four months in B14, where Chung imprisoned a number of political prisoners when he was the director of the Hanoi Police Department. At that time Chung had a good meal and sleep, and would never think that one day he would be held there.
Tonight, laying on cement platform, has Chung asked why he is in this situation?”
Today’s arrest of Chung, we have to confirm with each other that Chung is the weak fraction in the political game that the 13th Congress is about to take place, and his opposition group is the Nghe Tinh province fraction.
In the preliminary voting session at the 12th plenum of the Central Conference in May, Chung and Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam had the highest number of votes of confidence among the Central Committee members, and the duo may be promoted to the powerful Politburo. DPM Dam had no great ambitions to go further, but Chung was different. The fault of Nhat Cuong or other cases where the security investigation placed into Chung’s neck today is just an excuse. Because if we say a mistake, Hoang Trung Hai (Hanoi) or Tat Thanh Cang and Le Thanh Hai (in HCM City) even committed a mistake ten thousand times bigger than little Chung, but the three almost escaped serious punishment and received only criticism.
Being state and party officials in Vietnam, there is a principle that they must obey the rules of the game: “To climb higher, there must be mistakes,” the bigger the mistake, the higher the position will be. Mistakes as a necessary condition for officials to enter politics, because at that time they were easily controlled according to the will of his superiors. If reputable and clean individuals being hired, someday they may surpass the incumbent supervisers who don’t want this to happen.
Because of the principle that Chung or those who put Chung in jail are the same.
Because Chung has high prestige and big ambition of a police general, other fractions were forced to join forces to bring Chung down, before Chung could enter the Politburo. Because Chung did not like senior officials from Nghe Tinh as their number is too big. Today Chung is one of them.
The fraction’s purge colors often take place drastically at each congress, this time the Nghe Tinh faction is determined to arrest Chung while Chung is still the incumbent chairman of Hanoi City, still holding the rank of police general.
This shows the urgency before Hanoi prepares for the congress of the City Party Committee, the Ministry of Public Security does not need to wait for the central government to remove him from the Hanoi chairman post. This showed that how strong is the Nghe Tinh province fraction in the upcoming 13th National Congress. The Nghe Tinh fraction will dominate Vietnam’s political life. More arrests of senior officials are expected in coming time,” Pham Minh Vu concluded.
VNExpress newspaper describes a series of achievements of Mr. Chung: Mr. Chung graduated from the Police Academy, is a doctor of law, has worked in Hanoi Police for decades, from the leader of the Criminal Division to the Head of the Criminal Police Division, Deputy Director and Director of the city’s Police Department. When he was 37 years old, he was awarded the Hero of the Armed Forces, and when he was 46, he was promoted to major general.
At the end of 2015, when he was head of the police force of the capital, he was elected as chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee for the term 2011-2016. At the meeting of the City People’s Council in mid-2016, he was re-elected for the 2016-2021 term with high votes.
During the tenure of Mr. Chung as chairman of the city, Hanoi planted more than one million trees, bringing Formula 1 racing to the local organization, opening the walking space of Hoan Kiem lake and the vicinity, and rearranging the speaker of the ward.
As the Head of the Steering Committee for the Prevention and Control of Covid 19 in Hanoi, he introduced a number of drastic measures to localize and suppress the pandemic. Hanoi, from being the leading locality in the country in the number of infected cases, soon returned to a new normal state and had 105 days without new cases in the community.
Thoibao.de (Translated)
