A Vietnamese court has jailed a former deputy foreign minister, Anh Dung, alongside 53 other officials, in one of the country’s largest ever bribery cases. 

Businessmen were also among those found guilty and sentenced by the court on Tuesday. 

The convicts were found guilty of taking part in a scheme in which diplomats and companies took money from Vietnamese citizens abroad who wanted to return home on “rescue flights” during the COVID-19 pandemic when commercial flights were not available, according to Al Jazeera. 

A total of 25 state officials were found guilty of receiving bribes totaling up to 175 billion dong ($7.4 million). 

Mr Dung, the former deputy foreign minister, was found guilty of accepting 21.5 billion dong ($908,000) in bribes. 

The former minister, who was sentenced to 16 years in jail, admitted to the court that he had received bribes, mostly at his office at the foreign ministry in Hanoi, to add companies to a list of repatriation flight providers. 

He told the court that he received the cash once the flights were completed.

“I did not think at that time I had done something wrong. I only thought I had facilitated the companies to bring back Vietnamese citizens from abroad,” Mr Dung said. 

In 2020, Vietnam shuttered its borders to the world to slow the spread of the coronavirus and organised nearly 800 charter flights to bring citizens home from 60 countries and territories.

However, the travellers faced complicated procedures and exorbitant airfares, as well as quarantine fees, to return to Vietnam, according to officials. 

The verdict read that the former officials had abused their positions of power and the pandemic “for personal benefit”.

According to the court, “the move badly undermined the prestige of state agencies and sectors, causing anger in society and undermining people’s trust”.