ATTAPEU: On July 30, the Attapeu Provincial People's Court sentenced 15 provincial officials for corruption, handing down life imprisonment to 10 of the defendants in one of the province's most sweeping corruption verdicts in recent years.
Lattana Simavath, Head of the Attapeu Provincial People's Court Office, announced the verdict. She said the offences took place between 2021 and 2024, with Sulixay "Mou" Suliyalay, 37, a former deputy section head of the research department at the provincial office, leading the scheme.
Investigators found that the corruption scheme moved a total of roughly LAK 103.5 billion (about USD 4.8 million), USD 2,356,000, and VND 1.5 billion (about USD 58,000) through the defendants' hands. This total covers all the money investigators traced through the scheme, including funds the defendants later converted from Vietnamese dong into Lao kip and Thai baht to help cover their tracks.
The court found that Attapeu Province's actual, confirmed loss, the real damage the state now needs to recover, came to about LAK 51.9 billion (USD 2.4 million), USD 2,316,000, and THB 60,000 (about USD 1,850).
The court sentenced nine other defendants alongside Sulixay to life imprisonment: Sulichanh Phonkeo, 55, former Chief of Provincial Office; Sounnakhone Keoviengkham, 59, former Head of the Planning and Investment Department; Khamphery Somthavone, 60, a retired official and former Head of the Provincial Finance Department; Thounxay Mekdavong, 60, a retired official and former Deputy Head of the Provincial Finance Department; Somsack Mountivong, 45, a former provincial official; and Inpong Silavikone, 38, a former technical officer in the same section.
The court also sentenced Manisone Phetvilay, 34, a former finance technical officer, to life imprisonment, along with Nipaphone Phothilath, 34, a volunteer staff member at the provincial office, and Phouthidavanh Kaysonesena, 36, an official at the Provincial Finance Department, bringing the total sentenced to life imprisonment to 10.
The court gave the remaining five defendants lesser terms based on their individual roles.
It sentenced Outthali Singthammavong, 43, former Head of the Administration Section at the provincial office, to 20 years, and Simmali Khamman, 44, a provincial office official, to 18 years and six months. It also sentenced Keophouthone Vilathum, 47, a former official at the Provincial Finance Department, to 16 years and six months.
The remaining two received shorter terms.
The court sentenced Souksavanh Bounphan, 55, former Deputy Head of the Provincial Finance Department, to five years, and Phonpiloun Xaysombath, 49, former Deputy Head of the Accounting/Audit Department, to two years and six months, of which she had already served seven months and 11 days.
The court closed the case against a sixteenth defendant, Soukmay Soutbounlon, following his death during proceedings, though his estate remains liable for civil damages through his seized assets.
The Attapeu verdict follows closely on a separate wave of corruption rulings in the capital.
Earlier in July, the Vientiane Capital People's Court sentenced 17 defendants across four major cases involving the State Inspection Authority, the Bank of the Lao PDR, the Agricultural Promotion Bank, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and Electricity of Laos (EDL).
The court ordered the defendants to pay a combined total exceeding USD 27 million in damages and compensation, with the largest sum, more than USD 24.8 million, tied to the EDL hydropower case alone.
The court handed life sentences to at least 10 defendants, including former EDL executives and a Thai businessman convicted in a hydropower corruption scheme, alongside senior banking and foreign affairs officials found guilty of bribery, embezzlement and document forgery.
Together, the two rounds of verdicts point to intensifying efforts by Lao courts to prosecute high-level corruption and recover state assets, with life imprisonment increasingly applied to officials found to have abused positions of trust across finance, energy and administrative agencies. - Laotian Times
