VietNamNet Bridge – It is generally agreed that respect for the law is a foundation of civilization.  And – reflecting on the verdict rendered on Huynh Ngoc Si in the PCI ‘scandal’ – does it undermine the law if a good personal record is accepted as a reason to mitigate a sentence?  

Huynh Ngoc Si gets 3-year sentence

Why Huynh Ngoc Si not be prosecuted for bribery yet?

Huynh Ngoc Si (white) at the court.

There are common values of the human that the whole world recognizes – including “law is supreme”. Whether the law is harmed if good personal record is used to judge an offence like the case of Huynh Ngoc Si in the PCI scandal?

VietNamNet considered the Huynh Ngoc Si verdict in the light of filmmaker Roman Polanski’s pending extradition form Switzerland to the US to face sentencing for a crime committed over 30 years ago.

Polanski’s professional reputation doesn’t help him in US courts

On September 27, the media reported Oscar-winning filmmaker Roman Polanski’s arrest by Swiss police in Zurich on a charge of raping a minor.  Polanski  was attending the Zurich Film Festival.

In 1977, the world-famous director pleaded guilty in 1977 to a single count of having unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor, acknowledging he had sex with a 13-year-old girl. Before he was sentenced, Polanski fled the US.  American authorities have had a warrant out for his arrest since 1978.  Polanski has lived in France for decades to avoid being arrested.  Apparently, unlike the French police, the Swiss police were willing to cooperate with the American FBI. If he enters the US and declined to appear in person to collect his Academy Award for Best Director for "The Pianist" in 2003.

Polanski’s personal record is very imposing. He was awarded an Oscar for Best Director ("The Pianist," 2003) and nominated three other times (best director for "Tess" and "Chinatown," and best writing for "Rosemary’s Baby," which he also directed).

Both the organizing board of the Zurich Film Festival and the French Minister of Culture professed shock when Polanski was arrested. The French President’s office is closely following this case.

Let’s compare Polanski’s situation with the situation of the former Vietnamese high official, Huynh Ngoc Si.

Despite his professional accomplishments, Polanski cannot hide from the law. He has to face the US court, where only evidence will decide his sentence, not testimony about the defendant’s good record or the intervention of his friends.

*But in Vietnam, Huynh Ngoc Si’s ‘good professional reputation’ mitigates his sentence

This time last year, several editors and reporters were convicted of blackening the reputation of Vietnamese officials involved in the so-called ‘PCI scandal.’

According to information from Japan, former officials of a Tokyo firm, Pacific Consultants International (PCI), bribed Huynh Ngoc Si with $820,000 to win consulting projects for ODA-funded projects in HCM City.

Japan court sentenced the former officials of PCI for bribery and for violating the Japanese Law Against Unhealthy Competition.  However, when Vietnamese newspapers reported these facts, they were successfully sued for libel.

Ironically, Huynh Ngoc Si, who was head of the East-West highway project in HCM City, was also arrested in February, 2009.  The charge was abuse of position and power, however, not corruption. On September 25, Si was sentenced three years in jail for misusing only 52 million dong (around $3000), and not for taking bribes worth $820,000, as accused by former PCI officials.

The local media has reported that, thanks to Si’s ‘contribution to society,’ the court decided to sentence him to only three years in jail. And with that, the case seems to have been closed.

Different rules

In the other hemisphere, Polanski’s brilliant professional record helps him not at all. He has lost his freedom for a crime committed 30 years ago, even though he is in a third country. Globalization and integration has made it hard to hide from offences anyway on the earth.

There are common values that the whole world recognizes, including “the supremacy of the law.”. A famous person like Polanski is not above the law, is not an exception.  If he is extradited to the US, he may face a heavy charge.  It will not be mitigated by his Oscar award. But here in Vietnam, it seems to be different.

Hieu Minh