Ho Chi Minh City People's Court opened Friday the trial of Huynh Ngoc Si, former deputy director of the HCMC Transport Department and director of the Japan-funded East-West Highway and Water Environment projects.
According to the indictment, Si took bribes worth US$262,000 from officials of the Japanese company Pacific Consultants International (PCI).
More than 30 reporters of press agencies were arranged to a room to watch the trial broadcast live.
"I did not take bribes"
After the court asked what he commented about the bribery charges laid against him, Si shook his head: "I totally reject the indictment. The charges against me were based solely on the testimonies of PCI officials, which are totally unfounded."
He repeatedly said "The testimony is not right” and “I did not do wrong" when he was questioned by the jury.
According to the indictment of the Supreme People’s Procuracy, PCI officials agreed to pay bribes in order to win a bidding package for supervision and consulting services of the East-West Highway project.
The sum was determined based on the percentage of contract value. PCI officials acknowledged that Si was the main “target” of their bribery.
Si told the trial he did not negotiate the “commission” with PCI officials when he was asked about the bribery sum.
The court heard the testimonies of Sakano Tsuneo, PCI chief representative in Vietnam, and Sakashita Haruo, PCI director of East-West Highway project, which were declared in documents issued by Japanese procurators and then handed over to the Vietnamese prosecution agency.
When he was asked to comment about the testimonies of PCI officials, Si said: "They are not true. I repeatedly asked to confront the PCI officials but was always turned down."
He rejected any personal contact with Japanese officials, but then added he met some officials at the Norfolk hotel in HCMC but did not remember clearly.
According to the testimonies of PCI officials, after they reached an agreement about the bribery sum, Si gave them a report of the criteria to win the contract, and PCI won the contract.
The indictment says PCI officials agreed to pay Si $1.7 million, or 11 percent of the contract value, in exchange for the supervision and consulting package.
It says PCI had paid Si seven times, including the time that they gave him $262,000 on May 28, 2003.
Only six of 13 summoned witnesses showed up at the trial. Among them was Le Qua, former deputy director of East -West Highway and Water Environment projects.
Last year, Qua was sentenced to five year in prison for conniving with Si to pocket money from renting a public house in District 3 to PCI executives.
Si and Qua were arrested on February 11 last year after the Ministry of Public Security began an investigation into the two infrastructure projects, estimated to cost US$930.9 million.
They were accused of renting state offices to PCI between 2001 and 2002 for a total of US$80,000 but not including the money in official accounts.
The two officials deducted VND350 million for "receptions", divided the rest among dozens of employees and managers, while each pocketed about VND53 million themselves.
The court will continue on until Monday.
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