Authorities in Vietnam on Thursday arrested Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs To Anh Dung on charges of accepting bribes, the Ministry of Public Security said in a statement.
Dung’s arrest comes amid a larger investigation into the foreign ministry’s organization of rescue flights for Vietnamese living abroad during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Several officials are accused of taking bribes from overseas Vietnamese.
The 58-year-old Dung had worked in foreign affairs for nearly 30 years, and was appointed deputy foreign affairs minister in 2019. He was appointed Hanoi’s ambassador to Japan in January but had not yet officially taken the post, Reuters news service reported.
Besides Dung, authorities also arrested Ministry of Health official Pham Trung Kien and former Ministry of Public Security official Vu Anh Tuan Thursday on the same charge.
Four other foreign ministry officials were arrested in January for their alleged roles in the plot.
Translated by An Nguyen. Written in English by Eugene Whong.