Life imprisonment for man who spent more time in prison than at home.

On the morning of June 27, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial to hear the case against defendant Phan Doan Binh (born in 1981, residing in Yen Thanh town, Yen Thanh district) for the crime of illegally trading narcotics.

Binh has a bad criminal record, with a prior conviction related to drugs. Specifically, in 2003, Phan Doan Binh was sentenced to 6 months in prison by the Yen Thanh District People's Court for theft. A year later, Binh received another 12-month prison sentence for the same crime.

Defendant Phan Doan Binh. Photo: Tran Vu

In 2007, Binh was sentenced to 30 months in prison for theft. In 2011, he appeared in court again for theft. Furthermore, in 2016, the Do Luong District People's Court sentenced Binh to 20 months in prison for illegally possessing narcotics. Shortly after his release, this young man re-offended.

According to investigative documents, at approximately 5 PM on January 26, 2019, Binh hired a taxi driver to take him to Muong Xen town, Ky Son district. Around 11 PM that same day, Binh asked the driver to stop so he could "meet a friend." Binh called Mann to pick him up (Man was a fellow inmate from his time serving a criminal sentence at Prison No. 3).

Afterward, the two walked into the forest for about 40 minutes until they met the man Bình had met earlier. Bình said to Mằn, "Ask that man if he has any heroin." Mằn spoke to the man in his local dialect and then told Bình, "No heroin, only methamphetamine. Do you want it?" They agreed on a deal to buy 1 kg of methamphetamine for 100 million dong.

At approximately 1:00 AM on January 27, 2019, Binh got into a car, sat in the passenger seat, and placed a plastic bag containing drugs under the seat, telling the driver to go to Yen Thanh. While the car was traveling through Chau Khe commune (Con Cuong district), it was stopped for inspection by a task force from the Nghe An Provincial Traffic Police Department. When the task force approached Binh, he quickly opened the car door and tried to flee but was apprehended. A search of Binh's seat revealed a package containing 989 grams of methamphetamine.

At the trial, Binh admitted to the crime. Regarding the money used for drug trafficking, the defendant stated that it was "borrowed."

The panel of judges determined that the defendant's actions were dangerous to society. Despite having been tried multiple times for various crimes, the defendant did not learn from his past mistakes. Considering all aspects of the case, the panel of judges sentenced Phan Doãn Bình to life imprisonment for the crime of illegally trafficking narcotics.