Father-in-law and daughter-in-law 'join hands' to buy and sell children

On December 16, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Luong Thi Tam (born 1988), residing in Chieu Luu commune, Ky Son district, for the crime of "Buying and selling children".

According to the case file, around April 2012, Luong Thi Tam was in China when she received a phone call from her husband in Vietnam named Lo Van Uyen asking if he would bring women to China to marry. Tam agreed.

Defendant Luong Thi Tam. Photo: Tran Vu

About a month later, Uyen informed Tam that she had found two girls and asked Tam to come back to the country to pick them up. To avoid being discovered, Tam agreed with Uyen to accept the girls in Vinh City.

At Vinh bus station, Tam and Uyen picked up Cut Thi L. (born in 1997) and Lo Thi M. (born in 1998) brought by Lo Van Cho (living in Ky Son district, an acquaintance of Lo Van Uyen). Tam and Cho took the two mountain girls to Mong Cai city. Afterwards, Cho returned, while Tam alone took the two girls across the border to China.

Tam's Chinese father-in-law then sold M. and L. to two Chinese men for 210 million VND and about 245 million VND, respectively.

Tam was given 60,000 NDT (equivalent to 210 million) and a phone by her father-in-law. Tam said she sent 105 million VND to her husband in Vietnam, Uyen.

As for the victim, in 2013, M. escaped back to Vietnam. As for L., in November 2018, she asked her husband to return to Vietnam to visit her family.

On May 10, 2022, knowing that Tam had returned to Vietnam, M. and L. filed a complaint with the police. The investigation agency determined that at the time of sale, Cut Thi M. was only 14 years, 1 month and 20 days old, and Cut Thi L. was 14 years, 9 months and 27 days old.

At the trial, the defendant confessed to the crime. The defendant said that his only duty was to transport people, and that his father-in-law in China was responsible for selling the victims.

The panel of judges determined that the defendant’s actions violated the law, trampled on the dignity of the victims, and took away the youth of the victims. However, it is also necessary to consider mitigating circumstances for the defendant such as his honest confession, remorse, being an ethnic minority, and the victims’ petitions for a reduced sentence.

Considering the case in its entirety, the panel sentenced Luong Thi Tam to 7 years in prison. The suspect Lo Van Uyen has now passed away. As for Lo Van Cho, who was not present in the area, the investigation agency will continue to clarify the case and will handle it later when it is verified.