The Phu Tho provincial People’s Court on November 12 brought to trial two former senior officers of the Ministry of Public Security and 90 accomplices for their alleged involvement in a major online gambling ring.

The 92 defendants face the charges of “using the internet to appropriate assets”, “organising gambling”, “gambling”, “illegally trading invoices”, “laundering money”, and “abusing positions and power while performing duties”.

They include former Director General of the Ministry of Public Security’s Police General Department Phan Van Vinh and former Director of the the ministry’s Hi-tech Crime Police Department Nguyen Thanh Hoa.

Both are prosecuted for “abusing positions and power while performing duties”, an offence that has the maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.

The court said this is a case with a lot of complexities and a record number of defendants in Phu Tho. The first-instance trial is schedu♓led to last for 15 days 𒀰and open for the media.-VNA