Teacher Le Thi Dung's sentence reduced

The People's Court reduced the sentence to 15 months in prison for defendant Le Thi Dung, 51 years old, former Director of the ContinuingEducation Center of Hung Nguyen district, because it considered the first instance sentence of 5 years in prison too harsh.

From the time of detention until the time of sentence reduction, the defendant has more than 10 days left in prison and will be released.

According to Judge Hoang Ngoc Anh, during the investigation, first instance trial, and appeal, the defendant Dung fully disclosed the establishment of the regulations and declared the conversion to receive the payment. The amount of money received was consistent with the case file. This shows that the defendant made an honest statement, so there is a basis for applying mitigating circumstances.

The defendant also has mitigating circumstances such as receiving many certificates of merit during his work, and his family's contributions to funding Covid-19 prevention in the locality. "Evaluating all the evidence, considering that the amount of money the defendant benefited from was not large, the 5-year prison sentence imposed by the court of first instance is too harsh," Judge Ngoc Anh said when announcing the appeal verdict at the People's Court of Nghe An province tonight.

With the above verdict, the appellate court also rejected the appeal to annul the sentence for reinvestigation by the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province.

Defendant Dung at the trial on the afternoon of June 13. Photo: Duc Hung

Earlier, on the same afternoon, the provincial People's Procuracy requested to cancel the first instance judgment and return the case file for re-investigation to ensure a comprehensive trial due to many issues that had not been clarified. At the first instance trial, Ms. Le Thi Dung, 51 years old, former Director of the Hung Nguyen District Continuing Education Center, was convicted of the crime of Abusing position and power while performing official duties , sentenced to 5 years in prison.

According to the People's Procuracy, the determination of damages caused by the defendant's violation of official duties must be accurate to serve as a basis for criminal prosecution. In addition to the content related to the amount of damages, the People's Procuracy wants to re-investigate to clarify whether the internal spending regulations signed by Ms. Dung in 2012-2017 have any illegal content that leads to their invalidity?

Six lawyers defend defendant Le Thi Dung for free. Photo: Duc Hung

In the argument, defending Dung, lawyer Hoang Thi Phuong argued that a continuing education center is different from a high school, and the center director is not the principal of the high school. The center operates under a self-financing, self-funded regime, unlike general schools - which are 100% funded by the state budget.

With this analysis, lawyer Phuong said that Hung Nguyen District Continuing Education Center is not subject to Circular 28/2009 of the Ministry of Education and Training on working regime for general education teachers. "But the first instance court still deliberately 'cut the foot to fit the shoe', considering the financial regime of the center to be the same as that of a general education school, which is not realistic," the lawyer stated.

The lawyer said that the first instance People's Procuracy used document 6120 guiding the concurrent-duty regime for high school principals as the basis for forcing the Director of the Continuing Education Center of Hung Nguyen district to do so, which was "illegal" and "intentional".

According to the lawyer, from the beginning of the investigation process, some officers assigned to conduct first-instance proceedings did not thoroughly and carefully study the regulations on granting autonomy and financial responsibility to public service units and autonomous units.

"Sometimes it is said that continuing education centers are not allowed to issue internal spending regulations, other times it is said that the regulations must seek the opinion and approval of the Director of the Department of Education and Training of Nghe An province," the lawyer stated his defense opinion.

Ms. Dung's remaining five lawyers all agreed to request the panel of judges to annul the first instance verdict, suspend the case, and release their client.

Six lawyers requested Nghe An authorities to consider the responsibility of prosecutors in supervising investigation documents; clarify the responsibility of the Department of Finance and Planning, the State Treasury, and the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen district in inspecting and controlling the center's financial and accounting activities to ensure objectivity and fairness.

This afternoon, the court continued working with the debate.

The judge read the verdict at 7:10 p.m. on June 13. Photo: Duc Hung

According to the first instance court's accusation, from 2012 to 2017, Ms. Dung was the director and account holder of the Center, but took advantage of her position and assigned authority to make multiple illegal payments to embezzle 45 million VND.

Specifically, in the 2014-2015 school year, she had 171 teaching periods converted to pay for overtime, and was accused of embezzling more than 30 million VND. The corresponding amount in the 2015-2016 school year was more than 13 million VND.

Hung Nguyen District Continuing Education Center is a grade 5 school, according to the regulations of the Ministry of Education and Training. This is a self-funded public service unit, covering part of its regular operating expenses, and implementing an autonomous regime.

On January 1, 2012, Ms. Dung was appointed director of the center by the Director of the Department of Education and Training of Nghe An; arrested on March 28, 2022.

Vnexpress.net