A court in Hanoi on Friday sentenced a Party official to 12 years in prison for helping a friend intimidate his creditor, which eventually resulted in the death of the latter.
According to the indictment, Le Trung Kien, a senior official of Cau Giay District's Party Unit and Nguyen Quoc Van are close friends.
Last year, after learning that Van had difficulties paying a loan of more than VND2 billion (US$94,000) to a businessman, Kien decided to hire Nguyen Kim Binh to threaten the creditor with violence.
Binh in turn hired two men, Hoang Anh Tuan and Le Hong Thuan, for the job.
Police said Tuan stabbed the victim to death. He received a death sentence on Friday, while Binh and Thuan got 20 years each.
Van, the debtor, was sentenced to one year in jail for "harboring criminals."
The group also has to pay more than VND200 million to the family of the victim.