He sold his 13-year-old younger brother to a foreign country to get money to... build a house.
(Baonghean.vn) - In poverty, Dao had the heart to sell her 13-year-old sister to China to get married.
On July 29, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendants Cut Van Dao (born 1996) and Cut Van Ut (born 1988), both residing in Bao Nam commune, Ky Son district, for the crime of "Human traffickingunder 16 years old”.
This is a rare case where the defendant and the victim have a sibling relationship. Due to poverty, Cut Van Dao had the idea of selling his sister, CTC (born 2005), to China to get married.
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| Defendants Cut Van Dao (red shirt) and Cut Van Ut at the trial. Photo: Tran Vu |
To carry out that plan, in May 2019, Dao called Cut Van Ut to ask him to find someone to sell his sister. Through social media, Ut learned about a woman named Van (from Nghe An, currently married and living in China). Van promised to give Ut 5 million VND and would pay the seller's family 100 million VND.
After being informed by Ut, Dao agreed to sell her sister for 100 million VND. At the end of May 2019, Dao handed her sister over to Ut to take her to Lang Son City. Afterwards, the 13-year-old girl was taken by Van to China and sold to a local man for 240 million VND.
Van only sent Ut 85 million VND, not 100 million VND as originally promised. Of the above amount, Ut gave Dao 80 million VND, and spent the remaining 5 million VND.
As for the victim, after several unsuccessful calls for help, in December 2020, she was rescued by Nghe An Provincial Police in coordination with the Blue Dragon Children's Organization. It is known that at the time of being sold, C. was only 13 years, 11 months, and 11 days old.
In court, Dao said she sold her sister because she needed money to build a house. Dao said that only after receiving the money did her parents find out that she sold her sister and scolded her. The two defendants asked the court to consider reducing their sentences.
After reviewing the circumstances, the panel sentenced defendant Cut Van Ut to 13 years in prison and defendant Cut Van Dao to 12 years in prison for the crime of “Trafficking in persons under 16 years old”. Regarding the civil part, the court ordered the two defendants to compensate the victim 40 million VND.
