HANOI: Eight former top executives at Vietnam's
state-owned shipbuilder have appealed against lengthy prison sentences handed
to them over their role in its near-collapse, official media said Wednesday.
Chairman
Pham Thanh Binh, 58, was jailed for 20 years late last month for intentionally
violating state regulations at Vinashin, which racked up billions of dollars of
debts, shaking investor confidence in the communist country.
Seven
other former top executives at the company, formally known as the Vietnam
Shipbuilding Industry Group, were given sentences of between three and 19 years
after a four-day trial in the northern port city of Haiphong.
The men
-- who according to Vietnamese law had 15 days from their sentencing to lodge
an appeal -- recently sent their request to a higher court, the official Thanh
Nien newspaper said Wednesday.
They
were given long sentences because their behaviour "was very dangerous,
damaging public opinion, reducing public trust and the prestige of the country
in the eyes of foreign investors", the presiding judge said at the time.
The
scandal sparked investor fears of wider problems at state-owned firms, a key
pillar of Vietnam's economy.
The
executives were specifically accused of losing more than US$43 million, mostly
from the procurement of an Italian-made high-speed passenger boat as well as
two electricity plants.
Binh
admitted during the trial that he had made mistakes but insisted that he had
not acted for his own personal gain.
Experts
say the trial has done little to ease the company's deeper financial woes.
In
December 2010, Vinashin defaulted on the first US$60 million installment of a
US$600 million loan arranged by Credit Suisse in 2007, but no further
information on the loan settlement is available.
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AFP/wm
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