He confessed to murder instead of me, the whole family got into trouble with the law.

On March 27, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial of Nguyen Doan Khai (born in 1998, residing in Hung Yen Bac commune, Hung Nguyen district) who was prosecuted for murder. Three subjects, Nguyen Doan Lan (born in 1985 - Khai's brother), Nguyen Doan Vinh (born in 1957, father of Khai and Lan), and Nguyen Dinh Hai (born in 1981, cousin of Khai and Lan), all residing in the same Hung Yen Bac commune, were prosecuted for "concealing criminals".

Four people in one family were imprisoned after the "drama" was exposed. Photo: Phuong Thao

According to the indictment, at about 9:00 p.m. on July 31, 2017, in front of the cultural house of hamlet 3A, Hung Yen Bac commune, Hung Nguyen district, a conflict occurred between Khai and Nguyen Tu Hung (born in 1984, residing in the same commune). Khai immediately ran home to get a knife and went with Lan to meet Hung. When he saw Lan being slapped in the face by Hung, Khai immediately used the knife he was carrying to stab Hung once in the neck, causing his death immediately. After committing the crime, Khai and Lan went home.

At around 11pm that same day, Nguyen Dinh Hai rode his motorbike to Khai and Lan’s house. There, Hai told Lan to turn herself in. At this time, Khai said he was the one who stabbed Hung to death.

Mr. Nguyen Doan Vinh advised Khai to turn himself in, but Nguyen Doan Lan said she would take the blame for her brother. Although Nguyen Doan Lan, Nguyen Dinh Hai, and Nguyen Doan Vinh knew that Khai was the murderer, they still discussed and agreed to let Lan take the blame for her brother because Lan was slow and had mental problems.

After telling his younger brother to stay home and work to pay off his parents' debt, Nguyen Doan Lan changed clothes and was taken by Nguyen Dinh Hai to turn himself in. Nguyen Doan Vinh took the knife that Khai used to stab Hung to death and threw it into the neighbor's garden to erase all traces of the crime.

However, during the investigation, investigators found that Nguyen Doan Lan's testimony had many contradictions. The results of analysis and evaluation of the collected evidence showed that Nguyen Doan Lan was not the perpetrator who caused the death of the victim Nguyen Tu Hung. The person who killed Hung was Nguyen Doan Khai, Lan's younger brother.

At court, all four defendants admitted to their crimes. The panel sentenced defendant Nguyen Doan Khai to 17 years in prison for "murder", ordered him to compensate the victim's family 90 million VND, provide 1 million VND/month/person for the victim's two children, and 200,000 VND/month/person for the victim's biological parents.

For the three defendants prosecuted for "concealing a criminal", Nguyen Doan Vinh and Nguyen Dinh Hai received a 9-month suspended sentence, with an 18-month probation. Nguyen Doan Lan received a 6-month suspended sentence, with a 12-month probation.