Summary

Vietnamā€™s High Peopleā€™s Court upheld the death sentence for real estate tycoon Truong My Lan, convicted of embezzlement and bribery in a record $12 billion fraud case.

Lan can avoid execution by returning $9 billion (three-quarters of the stolen funds), potentially reducing her sentence to life imprisonment.

Her crimes caused widespread economic harm, including a bank run and $24 billion in government intervention to stabilize the financial system.

Lan has admitted guilt but prosecutors deemed her actions unprecedentedly damaging. She retains limited legal recourse through retrial procedures.

  • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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    10 days ago

    That has not happened yet. It may happen, but letā€™s not accuse them of things they havenā€™t done yet.

    Frances foreign minister has already claimed that heā€™s immune from prosecutionā€¦

    It was still them committing the war crimes. Letā€™s not pretend that Africans are somehow infantile children who are not responsible for their own actions.

    Lol, great choice of language thereā€¦ I would like to point out those are your words, not mine.

    Also, werenā€™t you the one claiming that the ā€œdeskā€ perpetrators should be the ones executed. I guess that sentiment ends conveniently with the warlord and not the people who enable them?

    Iā€™m not claiming they donā€™t hold blame, Iā€™m just saying that the governments whom caused the material conditions for a a warlord to rise to power hold that same responsibility. In a lot of cases these warlords are sponsored by Western nations trying to destabilize governments that politically align against them.

    And the European involvement in those cases is usually also far more removed than that accussation makes it seem.

    the European involvement in those cases is usually also far more removed than that accussation makes it seem.

    Weird, itā€™s almost like the ICC only prosecutes the crimes of people that oppose western geopolitical agenda. Curious.

    The sorry excuse for a justice system that the US has is for many reasons a whole different can of worms.

    I beg to differ. Itā€™s a very similar asymmetrical hierarchical structure that allows people in power to enforce rules on people who donā€™t have power, for engaging in the same crimes as the people in power.

    To make it short: The issues with white people getting away with shit more often than black people (and Iā€™m not convinced that that is as much a problem if we are talking about homicides

    "Black people were six times more likely to be arrested for homicide in 2020 than white people. " ā€œAccording to the FBI, 55.9% of homicide offenders were African-American, 41.1% were white, and 3% were of other races.ā€

    Sureā€¦not a big problem.

    doesnā€™t mean that the solution is to let black people get away with first degree murder. The issue is that white people can get away with shit, not that black people canā€™t!

    I never made that claim, I just said that itā€™s not really a justice system if one race is allowed to do crimes and other races are not.

    That is a completely different situation.

    Why? Because itā€™s damaging to your argument?

    A better analog would be if the federal police investigated murders happening in predominantly black communities more often than murders in predominantly white communitie

    I think a better analog would be that the government came up with a an entire new justice system that only investigated crimes committed by black peopleā€¦ While local police continue ignoring the crimes committed by white people.

    The problem is that that is not what is happening in the US, but it is kinda what is happening within the countries that ratified the Rome statute.

    White savior momentā€¦

    They are not immune though: The justice system is fully prepared to treat them like everyone else, the problem is that sometimes it doesnā€™t have jurisdiction (when something happens between non-member countries) or where you have to be concerned about whether corrupt cops are willing to let the criminal go despite an arrest warrant.

    Lol, sure. Iā€™m sure the foreign minister of France is sticking their necks out for a genocider from Kenyaā€¦

    Please, name one white person who the ICC has put in jail. Hell, name 1 white person who the ICC has prosecuted before 2020. At the end of the day the ICC is a political body of countries whom have geopolitical agenda, and are willing to turn a blind eye when it suits them.

    but it is really important to still look at who is on the other side and not to get blinded by accusations of hypocrisy, which is really just another form of whataboutism that in this case is even more inappropriate than in most others.

    My friend, Iā€™m not saying that warlords shouldnā€™t be prosecuted. Iā€™m just pointing out that the ICC is not a non biased judicial system, at least not to the point where id trust them with the ability to prescribe capital punishment.

    Pointing out hypocrisy is not a whataboutism. I never once validated crimes of anyoneā€™s crimes because other crimes occurred that were not policed. My original rebuttal still stands true, the ICC isnā€™t non biased enough to prescribe death warrants.

    • Fiona@discuss.tchncs.de
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      10 days ago

      Frances foreign minister has already claimed that heā€™s immune from prosecutionā€¦

      Which is disgusting, but we will see what happens when it actually happens and in any case the fault of France, not of the ICC.

      Also, werenā€™t you the one claiming that the ā€œdeskā€ perpetrators should be the ones executed. I guess that sentiment ends conveniently with the warlord and not the people who enable them?

      What makes you think that? If you want to hear me say that Kissinger should have been sentenced to be burned at the stakes, I have zero reservations to give you that.

      In a lot of cases these warlords are sponsored by Western nations trying to destabilize governments that politically align against them.

      Please name reasonably recent examples, preferably ones where it is not the US doing it. You can talk about a lot of meddling, but it is really not a common thing of the current west supporting warlords against even remotely legit governments. And the goal is usually very much not destabilization, even if that may be the effect. When we are talking about criminal law, intention matters.

      I beg to differ. Itā€™s a very similar asymmetrical hierarchical structure that allows people in power to enforce rules on people who donā€™t have power, for engaging in the same crimes as the people in power.

      And the ICC is kinda doing the opposite. Really not comparable, as I said.

      Sureā€¦not a big problem.

      Fair, but again: Iā€™m not super interested in the US, because we already know that it is a shithole country.

      I never made that claim, I just said that itā€™s not really a justice system if one race is allowed to do crimes and other races are not.

      But thatā€™s the thing:

      Lol, sure. Iā€™m sure the foreign minister of France is sticking their necks out for a genocider from Kenyaā€¦

      Please, name one white person who the ICC has put in jail.

      Thatā€™s an unfair standard, considering that the ICC has so far sentenced 8 (EIGHT!) people from 2 (TWO) case-groups to prison, both of which concerned civil wars in Africa.

      Hell, name 1 white person who the ICC has prosecuted before 2020.

      First of all excluding all the white people that they charged since then in three case groups (Georgia, Russia, Israel) is something that you would have justify.

      And who should they have prosecuted? Blair obviously (and they did infect investigate it!), but other than that I donā€™t see many obvious candidates that are very clearly missing over whom the court has jursidiction. The thing is: Since the Iraq-war most European countries neither had large civil wars, nor did they really participate in other wars that were not UN-sanctioned.

      The fact of the matter is that they are doing more in Africa simply because Africa has a lot of civil wars that involve a significant amount of particularly illegal forms of warfare such as child-soldiers. So yes, there are more war-crimes in unstable regions.

      At the end of the day the ICC is a political body of countries whom have geopolitical agenda, and are willing to turn a blind eye when it suits them.

      I guess that is why it went against most of those countries and prosecuted Netanjahu?

      Like: Itā€™s actually pretty clear at this point that they are acting increasingly as an independent and neutral instance.

      My friend, Iā€™m not saying that warlords shouldnā€™t be prosecuted. Iā€™m just pointing out that the ICC is not a non biased judicial system, at least not to the point where id trust them with the ability to prescribe capital punishment.

      But you canā€™t argue that based on what other countries are saying whom they are going to extradite. The ICC is independent, thatā€™s the whole point!

      Pointing out hypocrisy is not a whataboutism. I never once validated crimes of anyoneā€™s crimes because other crimes occurred that were not policed. My original rebuttal still stands true, the ICC isnā€™t non biased enough to prescribe death warrants.

      Who should then prosecute those crimes that are otherwise not accessible to prosecution? The ICC only gets active if there is no serious attempt at prosecution in the country itself!

      • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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        10 days ago

        in any case the fault of France, not of the ICC.

        Like any international body, the ICC is only as legitimate as itā€™s member states willingness to participate.

        What makes you think that?

        ā€œLetā€™s not pretend that Africans are somehow infantile children who are not responsible for their own actions.ā€ Mainly thatā€¦ But itā€™s kinda besides the point, as you arenā€™t responsible for who gets prosecuted by the ICC.

        Please name reasonably recent examples, preferably ones where it is not the US doing it.

        ā€œNATO powers such as the United Kingdom and the United States support the Saudi Arabianā€“led intervention in Yemen primarily through arms sales and technical assistance.[396] France had also made recent military sales to Saudi Arabiaā€

        ā€œThe tribunal requested a thorough investigation as some of the evidence indicated ā€œpossible acts of genocideā€.[28] Its panel found Sri Lanka guilty of genocide at its 7ā€“10 December 2013 hearings in Berman, Germany. It also found that the US and UK were guilty of complicity.ā€

        " 2008 report by the Rwandan government-sponsored Mucyo Commission accused the French government of knowing of preparations for the genocide and helping to train Hutu militia members."

        ā€œSince the war began, both regional and international powers have been actively involved in the conflict. A number of reports have been made alleging that China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates were all providing military support for the Ethiopian government via the sale of weaponized drones.ā€

        ā€œOctober 2023, political analyst Lena Obermaier argued that Germany is complicit in Israelā€™s war crimes against Gaza.[6ā€

        "On 12 December 2023, Human Rights Watch said that selling weapons to Israel could make the UK complicit in war crimes. "

        "In March, OXFAM released a statement detailing its intention, alongside several other NGOs,[p] to sue Denmark to prevent arms sales to Israel, warning that by selling arms Denmark is ā€œcomplicit in violations of international humanitarian law ā€¦ and a plausible genocideā€.

        And the ICC is kinda doing the opposite. Really not comparable, as I said.

        Lol, the ICC isnā€™t run by economically advanced states? They havenā€™t primarily prosecuted people in poor states?

        People in those rich states never participated in war crimes?

        Thatā€™s an unfair standard, considering that the ICC has so far sentenced 8 (EIGHT!) people from 2 (TWO) case-groups to prison, both of which concerned civil wars in Africa.

        And how many POC were prosecuted vs white people?

        three case groups (Georgia, Russia, Israel) is something that you would have justify.

        Sure, western Europeans historically havenā€™t viewed serbs as ā€œwhiteā€. We already talked about Israel.

        Again, how many people have been prosecuted that are white?

        The thing is: Since the Iraq-war most European countries neither had large civil wars, nor did they really participate in other wars that were not UN-sanctioned.

        Ahh yes, the UN is immune from unethical warsā€¦

        The fact of the matter is that they are doing more in Africa simply because Africa has a lot of civil wars

        And why exactly does Africa have a lot of civil warsā€¦? Hmmmā€¦maybe the hundreds of years of western colonialism and interventionist actions on the continent might have something to do with it?

        I guess that is why it went against most of those countries and prosecuted Netanjahu?

        Only to have itā€™s own member states ignore the court they belong to?

        The ICC is independent, thatā€™s the whole point!

        So long as they donā€™t prosecute anyone from the G7ā€¦ Sure.

        Who should then prosecute those crimes that are otherwise not accessible to prosecution? The ICC only gets active if there is no serious attempt at prosecution in the country itself!

        Lol, Iā€™ve said this several times. I donā€™t inherently think the ICC itself is evil or anything, I just donā€™t think theyā€™re really effective at doing anything unless it fits within the geopolitical will of its wealthiest member states. The problem is systemic in nature, and no matter what anyone in the ICC believes no international body is truly independent.

        • Fiona@discuss.tchncs.de
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          10 days ago

          Please name reasonably recent examples, preferably ones where it is not the US doing it.

          ā€œNATO powers such as the United Kingdom and the United States support the Saudi Arabianā€“led intervention in Yemen primarily through arms sales and technical assistance.[396] France had also made recent military sales to Saudi Arabiaā€

          ā€œThe tribunal requested a thorough investigation as some of the evidence indicated ā€œpossible acts of genocideā€.[28] Its panel found Sri Lanka guilty of genocide at its 7ā€“10 December 2013 hearings in Berman, Germany. It also found that the US and UK were guilty of complicity.ā€

          " 2008 report by the Rwandan government-sponsored Mucyo Commission accused the French government of knowing of preparations for the genocide and helping to train Hutu militia members."

          ā€œSince the war began, both regional and international powers have been actively involved in the conflict. A number of reports have been made alleging that China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates were all providing military support for the Ethiopian government via the sale of weaponized drones.ā€

          ā€œOctober 2023, political analyst Lena Obermaier argued that Germany is complicit in Israelā€™s war crimes against Gaza.ā€

          "On 12 December 2023, Human Rights Watch said that selling weapons to Israel could make the UK complicit in war crimes. "

          "In March, OXFAM released a statement detailing its intention, alongside several other NGOs,[p] to sue Denmark to prevent arms sales to Israel, warning that by selling arms Denmark is ā€œcomplicit in violations of international humanitarian law ā€¦ and a plausible genocideā€.

          Selling weapons to parties engaged in a conflict, to an extent even if they are used for warcrimes is not among the list of crimes that the ICC has jurisdiction for. You can argue that it should be on the list and Iā€™d be inclined to agree with you, but the entire point of a court like this is that it REALLY has to do things by the book to maintain its acceptance.

          And the ICC is kinda doing the opposite. Really not comparable, as I said.

          Lol, the ICC isnā€™t run by economically advanced states? They havenā€™t primarily prosecuted people in poor states?

          Not really, itā€™s actually quite diverse!

          People in those rich states never participated in war crimes?

          Thatā€™s an unfair standard, considering that the ICC has so far sentenced 8 (EIGHT!) people from 2 (TWO) case-groups to prison, both of which concerned civil wars in Africa.

          And how many POC were prosecuted vs white people?

          Define whiteā€¦ They are prosecuting 6 Russians, 3 Israelis, 3 Georgians, 3 Palestinians and 1 person from Myanmar of 65 people total, the remainder being from a variety of African countries.

          three case groups (Georgia, Russia, Israel) is something that you would have justify.

          Sure, western Europeans historically havenā€™t viewed serbs as ā€œwhiteā€. We already talked about Israel.

          Okay, you can of course say that no one prosecuted is white, by setting the standards for being white arbitrarily high. If you demand someone whose ancestors for the last 10 generations have lived in a Norwegian Fjord, then yes, none of them are white. Let me guess, you are from the US? Because this really isnā€™t a European perspective, the entire distinction between white and non-white matters a lot less here. And not even because there is necessarily less racism, but because the racism that is around isnā€™t really about whiteness.

          The thing is: Since the Iraq-war most European countries neither had large civil wars, nor did they really participate in other wars that were not UN-sanctioned.

          Ahh yes, the UN is immune from unethical warsā€¦

          Not necessarily, but it has done reasonably well with regards to what it sanctioned and is the relevant body who decides on the legality of wars. Which is what matters here, not whether or not you or me agree with every individual decision.

          The fact of the matter is that they are doing more in Africa simply because Africa has a lot of civil wars

          And why exactly does Africa have a lot of civil warsā€¦? Hmmmā€¦maybe the hundreds of years of western colonialism and interventionist actions on the continent might have something to do with it?

          Yes, but most of those colonialists are no longer available to be judged and since the events predate the Rome statute wouldnā€™t be accessible to it anyways. History can explain things, but it doesnā€™t justify or excuse things. At the end of the day, there are more warcrimes in Africa than in Europe, East-Asia and the Americas today.

          I guess that is why it went against most of those countries and prosecuted Netanjahu?

          Only to have itā€™s own member states ignore the court they belong to?

          So far they havenā€™t and there have also definitely be some that made it clear that they will comply with the rules, as well as some that tried to avoid giving clear statements.

          The ICC is independent, thatā€™s the whole point!

          So long as they donā€™t prosecute anyone from the G7ā€¦ Sure.

          They donā€™t have jurisdiction for the US and for the other 6 there is no clear precedent. I would expect most of them to comply, though it is unlikely to come up because most of them would likely prosecute their criminals themselves if it reached the point where the ICC would look.

          Who should then prosecute those crimes that are otherwise not accessible to prosecution? The ICC only gets active if there is no serious attempt at prosecution in the country itself!

          Lol, Iā€™ve said this several times. I donā€™t inherently think the ICC itself is evil or anything, I just donā€™t think theyā€™re really effective at doing anything unless it fits within the geopolitical will of its wealthiest member states.

          But that is no longer an argument about whether it would deserve the right to execute people.

          The problem is systemic in nature, and no matter what anyone in the ICC believes no international body is truly independent.

          It has definitely started to show some attitude with Israel. thatā€™s more than most other institutions can say of themselves.

          • TranscendentalEmpire@lemm.ee
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            9 days ago

            Selling weapons to parties engaged in a conflict, to an extent even if they are used for warcrimes is not among the list of crimes that the ICC has jurisdiction for. You can argue that it should be on the list and Iā€™d be inclined to agree with you, but the entire point of a court like this is that it REALLY has to do things by the book to maintain its acceptance.

            Yeahā€¦ That kinda highlights my whole argument doesnā€™t it? The ICC isnā€™t independent enough to go after the arms dealers who make genocide possible in the first place. Like I said, itā€™s bound by the governments in its member states. Sure you can go after the guy who uses the weapons I sold to do horrendous crimes, but you canā€™t go after the people who knowingly sold them the tools of genocide. Convenient.

            Not really, itā€™s actually quite diverse!

            Just because the judges are from a wide range of countries doesnā€™t mean there isnā€™t a bias input from wealthier nations. Most cases put forward to be prosecuted by the ICC are done by NGO, most of which operate out of wealthier member states.

            ā€œThe ICC has been accused of bias and as being a tool of Western imperialism, only punishing leaders from small, weak states while ignoring crimes committed by richer and more powerful states.[315][316][317][318] This sentiment has been expressed particularly by African leaders due to an alleged disproportionate focus of the Court on Africa, while it claims to have a global mandate. Until January 2016, all nine situations which the ICC had been investigating were in African countries.ā€

            Define whiteā€¦ They are prosecuting 6 Russians, 3 Israelis, 3 Georgians, 3 Palestinians and 1 person from Myanmar of 65 people total, the remainder being from a variety of African countries.

            Itā€™s a stupid human construct that changes over time to suit ā€œwhiteā€ peopleā€™s needs. However, in this case I would say its fair to assume white means ethnicities hailing from western Europe. Historically serbs arenā€™t really considered white by western Europeans, but that kinda depends on your level of racism. Iā€™m not really an expert as I am not of European descent, and my people never felt the urge to measure peopleā€™s skulls for pseudo science.

            So, maybe some of the Russians are white depending on if theyā€™re ethnically serb, Scandinavian, or turkic. So even if weā€™re counting all the Russians as ā€œwhiteā€, it still means that over 90% of all people issued warrants from the court are POC. Not a good look.

            Okay, you can of course say that no one prosecuted is white, by setting the standards for being white arbitrarily high. If you demand someone whose ancestors for the last 10 generations have lived in a Norwegian Fjord, then yes, none of them are white.

            Lol, okay so weā€™re giving racism the benefit of doubt? How about we go off of something more solid, like historical context?

            ā€œ. Ante Starčević, the leader of the Party of Rights between 1851 and 1896, believed Croats should confront their neighbors, including Serbs.[10] He wrote, for example, that Serbs were an ā€œunclean raceā€ and with the co-founder of his party, Eugen Kvaternik, denied the existence of Serbs or Slovenes in Croatia, seeing their political consciousness as a threat.ā€

            ā€œIn the 1920s, Italian fascists accused Serbs of having ā€œatavistic impulsesā€ and they claimed that the Yugoslavs were conspiring together on behalf of ā€œGrand Orient masonry and its fundsā€. One antisemitic claim was that Serbs were part of a ā€œsocial-democratic, masonic Jewish internationalist plotā€.[40] Benito Mussolini viewed not just the Serbs but the whole ā€œSlavic raceā€ as inferior and barbaric.ā€

            "Serbs as well as other Slavs (mainly Poles and Russians) as well as non-Slavic peoples (such as Jews and Roma) were not considered Aryans by Nazi Germany. Instead, they were considered subhuman, inferior races (Untermenschen) and foreign races and as a result, they were not considered part of the Aryan master race.[48][49] Serbs, along with the Poles, were at the bottom of the Slavic ā€œracial hierarchyā€

            ā€œAccording to Vojislav KoÅ”tunica and British commentator Mary Dejevky, in the summer of 1995 the French president, Jacques Chirac created controversy when he commented on the Bosnian War, he reportedly called Serbs ā€œa nation of robbers and terroristsā€.[93][94ā€

            ā€œDuring the war in Croatia, French writer Alain Finkielkraut insinuated that Serbs were inherently evil, comparing Serb actions to the Nazis during World War II.[95]ā€

            Because this really isnā€™t a European perspective, the entire distinction between white and non-white matters a lot less here. And not even because there is necessarily less racism, but because the racism that is around isnā€™t really about whiteness.

            Ahh, yes please explain racism to me white European. I as a Korean person living in the west must not understand the intricate scientific system of your forefathers. Shall we pull out your grandpaā€™s skull measuring calipers and charts to explain how racism in Europe excludes whiteness as a concept?

            Iā€™ve lived in Europe before, and this is just a fucking lie white Europeans tell themselves as if ore their fellow countryman throw bananas at black football players. Get bent.

            Not necessarily, but it has done reasonably well with regards to what it sanctioned and is the relevant body who decides on the legality of wars. Which is what matters here, not whether or not you or me agree with every individual decision.

            Legality does not dictate morality. The afghan war is very modern history, the Iraq war is very modern history, hell even the Vietnam war was modern. You are just ignoring or excluding examples that donā€™t suit your bias.

            Yes, but most of those colonialists are no longer available to be judged and since the events predate the Rome statute wouldnā€™t be accessible to it anyways.

            The coup belt that started in 2020 is a direct result of competing European colonialism in modern Africa between Turkey, Russia, and France.

            So far they havenā€™t and there have also definitely be some that made it clear that they will comply with the rules, as well as some that tried to avoid giving clear statements.

            Wanna make a bet?

            They donā€™t have jurisdiction for the US and for the other 6 there is no clear precedent. I would expect most of them to comply, though it is unlikely to come up because most of them would likely prosecute their criminals themselves if it reached the point where the ICC would look.

            Unless itā€™s something like supplying weapons to commit genocidesā€¦ Thatā€™s conveniently not illegal.

            that is no longer an argument about whether it would deserve the right to execute people

            How? My original assertion is that a requirement of capital punishment is a non biased court. Establishing that the court is innately biased sure seems like a cohesive argument.

            It has definitely started to show some attitude with Israel. thatā€™s more than most other institutions can say of themselves.

            I mean, it is kinda worrying that the first people who can pass as ā€œwhiteā€ being prosecuted by the court are serbs and Jews. Itā€™s not like those have a history of ethnic persecution in Europe.