Hanoi - Two Vietnamese marine police officers were kicked out of the Communist Party, and one had his permission to carry a weapon revoked, for having accepted a bribe of up to one billion dong (59,000 dollars), local media said Wednesday. The Party Committee of Ba Ria Vung Tau province, 120 kilometers east of Ho Chi Minh City, decided Tuesday to revoke the party membership of Major Vo Van Ly, 43, and Lieutenant Vo Chi Thanh, 28, reported the newspaper Lao Dong.
Ly and Thanh reportedly accepted one billion dong from the owner of an oil tanker on May 19, after finding the tanker carrying 70 tons of fuel oil without receipts or vouchers, according to the newspaper.
The paper said the oil tanker, the Thanh Cong 1, belonged to a company in the Mekong Delta province of Tien Giang. It was hauling oil reportedly worth some 10 billion dong (590,000 dollars).
The provincial police department took away the sidearm of Lt. Thanh and proposed to the national Ministry of Public Security that the same be done to Major Ly, according to the newspaper. The department has the authority to disarm a lieutenant, but not a major.
The paper reported that the province's Investigation Department will charge the two officers with receiving bribes, but a local official was reluctant to confirm that.
"I have heard about them having been dismissed from the party, but I cannot say anything about the case yet," Nguyen Duc Trinh, deputy chief of the province's Investigation Department.
According to the penal code of Vietnam, anyone receiving a bribe valued at 300 million dong (17,600 dollars) or more is subject to penalties ranging from 20 years in prison to capital punishment.
In April, four Hanoi police officers were suspended from duty after a local news website posted a video clip showing them taking bribes from motorists who had violated traffic laws.
In the clip, the police were shown stopping motorbike drivers not wearing helmets or going the wrong direction on one-way streets. They accepted up to 300,000 dong (18 dollars) each from the drivers before letting them go.
