After 30 years of wrongful conviction, the company director received a public apology from the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy.

On January 31, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy held a public apology and correction session for Mr. Nguyen Van Khan (71 years old, residing in Binh Tan district) due to being wrongly convicted in criminal proceedings.

The apology was held at the People's Committee of Tan Tao A Ward, Binh Tan District. Attendees included Mr. Nguyen Van Khan, representatives of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy, Ho Chi Minh City Police, and Binh Chanh District prosecution agencies.

After 30 years of suffering injustice and finally being cleared of his innocence, Mr. Khan emotionally said: "I am very touched when the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy cares and apologizes. Now that I am old and sick, I request that the officers witnessing this apology must have extensive experience to avoid wrongfully accusing someone like I did."

The representative of the People's Procuracy apologized to Mr. Nguyen Van Khan.

According to the case, in 1991, when Mr. Khan was the Director of Thai Duong Company, he signed a contract with Mr. Dang Kien Cuong to transfer 177,800 square meters of land in Tan Tao Commune, Binh Chanh District. This land has a total value of 1,019 taels of 96% gold. The contract signing was witnessed by the Department of Industry and Construction of Binh Chanh District.

During the contract implementation, Mr. Cuong gave Mr. Khan 991 taels of gold to buy the above land area from 25 households. Mr. Khan paid the households 800 taels of gold, equivalent to 123,116 m2, of which 22,149 m2 had been transferred to Mr. Cuong.

The remaining area was undergoing transfer procedures when on October 2, 1992, the People's Committee of Binh Chanh district sent an official dispatch not allowing Mr. Khan and Mr. Cuong to transfer and sell land.

After that, Mr. Cuong filed a complaint against Mr. Khan to the Binh Chanh District Police.

In November 1994, the police prosecuted and detained Mr. Khan for "fraudulent appropriation of public property". The decisions and orders were approved by the People's Procuracy of Binh Chanh District. The case was then transferred to the city level for investigation.

Relatives were also present to congratulate Mr. Nguyen Van Khan.

However, through investigation and prosecution, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy found that due to the official dispatch of the People's Committee of Binh Chanh District not allowing the continued transfer and sale of land; on the other hand, Mr. Cuong was also partly at fault according to Article 3 of the contract appendix and had remedied all the consequences.

The above economic contract is a civil relationship, so Mr. Khan should not be prosecuted for criminal liability. Therefore, on November 25, 1995, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy canceled the temporary detention and issued an order prohibiting Mr. Khan from leaving his place of residence, and on November 15, 1997, continued to issue a decision to suspend the case and suspend the investigation of the accused against Mr. Khan.

Thus, the reason for the wrongful prosecution of Mr. Khan is that the prosecuting agencies have not fully and comprehensively considered and evaluated the case, leading to violations that caused Mr. Khan to be wrongly convicted.

The People's Procuracy of Binh Chanh District, the People's Procuracy of Ho Chi Minh City, and the Investigation Police Agency of Ho Chi Minh City Police have recognized their responsibilities and drawn profound lessons from the process of prosecuting the case.

On behalf of the prosecution agencies that have wrongfully prosecuted and detained Mr. Nguyen Van Khan, the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy sincerely apologizes to Mr. Khan, takes serious responsibility and commits to be cautious. At the same time, we will further enhance our sense of responsibility in the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases in the future so that the same injustice as happened to Mr. Khan will not happen again.

At the apology, Head of the Office of Prosecution and Appeal of Criminal Cases of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy, Vu Thi Xuan Nhue, said that the Procuracy will continue to complete the next procedures to compensate Mr. Nguyen Van Khan as soon as possible.

Source