Thirteen years in prison for man who took patient hostage and seriously injured police officer.
Suspecting someone was trying to harm him and his wife, Loat held a female patient hostage and demanded that the police chief of the ward send a car to take her away.
On February 2nd, the Hanoi People's Court opened the first-instance trial of Pham The Loat (31 years old, from Ninh Binh province) on charges of murder and illegal detention.
According to the prosecution, nOn November 22, 2016, Loat took his wife to Bach Mai Hospital for treatment. While caring for his wife, Loat noticed several people frequently talking in the hallway and acting suspiciously. Loat suspected they were plotting to harm him and his wife, so he considered taking his wife back to their hometown for treatment.
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Defendant Pham The Loat in court. |
Early in the morning five days later, Loat unexpectedly used a knife he had taken from the hospital balcony to hold a knife to the neck of Nguyen Thi Hong Ngan (29 years old), a patient sharing a bed with his wife. He held her hostage and told her she had to go with him and his wife to Ninh Binh.
Receive information,Mr. Nguyen Hoai Son (head of Phuong Mai ward police station, Dong Da district) and his team arrived at the scene.Mr. Son demanded that Loat release Ms. Ngan, but he refused, demanding instead that Loat provide a car to take him and his wife back to their hometown.
Mr. Son agreed and drove the car carrying Loat and his wife along with the hostage.Along the way, Mr. Son continued to plead with Loat to release the hostage, but he refused to drop the knife. Loat even told his wife to check if Mr. Son was carrying a gun before instructing the driver to continue driving.
As they approached the Phap Van overpass, Mr. Son stopped the car and demanded that Loat release Ms. Ngan, offering to give them money for a taxi to return to their hometown, but Loat refused. From the back seat, Loat leaned forward and stabbed Mr. Son in the neck. Injured, the victim opened the door and ran out with the hostage. Shortly afterward, Loat was apprehended.Mr. Son was taken to the hospital in time and survived, suffering a 33% loss of health, but did not request compensation.
In court, Loat confessed that staying up late had caused him to become mentally disturbed and paranoid. He explained that he held hostages to alert people around him so they could rescue him and his wife.
Then, Loat forced the patient next to him to go down the stairs from the fifth floor to the ground floor of the hospital.
The presiding judge stated that Mr. Son's survival was beyond the defendant's subjective intent. "If Mr. Son hadn't been skilled in martial arts, the stab wound would have been fatal," the judge said.
The court sentenced Loat to a total of 13 years in prison for the two charges.
