Vietnam’s deputy FM arrested over pandemic flight bribe scandal

Vietnamese police arrested the country’s deputy overseas minister on Thursday for allegedly receiving bribes linked to a repatriation flight program for the duration of the pandemic, officers stated.

In recent months the communist country has ramped up an anti-corruption pressure, concentrated on government officers and business humans.

On Thursday, the Ministry of Public Security issued a announcement pronouncing To Anh Dung and different officers have been arrested as a part of an research into a bribery scandal connected to repatriation flights for Vietnamese residents on the grounds that 2020.

Police searched the residences and workplaces of the three on Thursday.

No other details on the case were revealed.

The 58-year-old Dung was appointed Vietnam’s deputy foreign minister in 2019, after holding various positions at the ministry since 1991.

After closing its borders to slow the spread of Covid-19, Vietnam organized nearly 800 charter flights to bring citizens home from 60 countries and territories, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Traveller’s faced complicated procedures while paying exorbitant airfares and quarantine fees to get home, reports said.

Police have arrested five different human beings connected to the case given that January.

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang formerly said the ones involved inside the wrongdoing need to be “significantly punished” below the regulation.

Vietnam had closed itself to the sector for almost years earlier than reopening in mid-March.

The us of a shifted from a zero-Covid-19 policy to dwelling with the virus once vaccination costs accelerated.