An appeals court on Thursday upheld the eight year jail sentence handed down last August on the former director of a collective farm who had been named a Labor Hero.

Tran Ngoc Suong, 60, former director of state-run Song Hau Farm in Can Tho, was sentenced to eight years in jail for running a slush fund and ordered by the city People’s Court to pay back VND4.3 billion (US$240,500) to the government.

A five-day trial in August issued the same sentence after Suong was found guilty of instructing her subordinates to embezzle more than VND9.1 billion ($510,000) for the off-the-book fund while holding the post from 2001 to 2007. Suong then lodged an appeal against the verdict, saying it was unlawful and unjust.

The court on Thursday also awarded jail sentences of between two to five years to three officials involved in the case. It suggested prosecutors press charge against Suong for personally using more than VND1.1 billion from the slush fund to buy house and land.

Suong was named a Labor Hero by the government in 2000 and honored at the International Federation of Business & Professional Women’s Women Inspire Awards in 2002.

VietNamNet/Thanh Nien