January 22, 2018
HANOI (Reuters) – A court in Vietnam sentenced a former politburo member to 13 years in prison on Thursday for violating state regulations amid a widespread corruption crackdown, the state-run Voice of Vietnam reported.
Dinh La Thang, a former chairman of state oil and gas group PetroVietnam, is the most senior politician to be charged in decades.
The court also sentenced high-profile official Trinh Xuan Thanh, whom Germany said Vietnamese agents kidnapped in a Berlin park, to life in prison. They were among a group of more than 20 oil executives facing trial.
(Reporting by Mai Nguyen; Editing by James Pearson and Paul Tait)
