The appeal court of the Supreme People\'s Court in Ho Chi Minh City on September 1 reduced the sentence for a former official found guilty of bribery to 20 years in prison.

Huynh Ngoc Sy continues to claim his innocence

Huynh Ngoc Sy, born in 1953, was accused of taking bribes of up to USD262,000 in 2003 from a Tokyo-based company, Pacific Consultants International (PCI), in connection with Japanese Official Development Assistance funded East-West Highway and City Water Environment Improvement project in Ho Chi Minh City.

At the time, Sy was Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City\'s Transport and Public Works Department and Head of the project.

He received the money from PCI officials so that the company could win two major tenders for the project. Sy was originally sentenced to life imprisonment at a trial in Ho Chi Minh City last October.

However, at the hearing today (September 1), the court decided to cut his jail term to 20 years after his family paid back VND3 billion (USD144,230) to the court after the original trial. The court also considered his previous 30-years of contributions to the development of the country.

After the original trial last October, Sy has constantly denied the allegations; saying that the court had reached its decision solely based on statements made by PCI officials. He also asked the Supreme People\'s Procuracy of Vietnam to provide more evidence of the accusation.

However, the Supreme People\'s Procuracy of Vietnam denied Sy’s appeal.

Sy is also serving a six-year sentence for abuse of power, and financial violations in the East-West Highway and City Water Environment Improvement project.

In 2009 a Tokyo court sentenced former PCI president Masayoshi Taga to a suspended jail term for bribing Sy.

Japan, Vietnam\'s biggest bilateral donor, resumed loans to Vietnam in March 2009 after suspending them in December 2008 during the PCI scandal.