The price of a man who abandoned his wife and children and got involved in drugs

(Baonghean.vn) - He had a family, a wife and children, but then abandoned her to be with another woman hundreds of kilometers away from his homeland. On the day he received his life sentence, only his sister came to court, sitting quietly in the back...

The trial of Le Van An (born in 1974, from Quynh Luu district, Nghe An, living in Thai Nguyen) took place quickly. "The defendant has nothing to declare. The defendant has confessed everything to the investigation agency, just as the indictment stated," Le Van An appeared indifferent as he stood before the bar.

Defendant Le Van An in court. Photo: Nhu Binh

An's criminal behavior can be summarized in a few lines: Knowing that An was addicted and needed money to buy drugs, a subject named Hung (whose identity was not specifically identified) hired him to go to Nghe An, go to Tuong Duong district to deliver drugs to Thai Nguyen city for Hung. In return, An would be paid 20 million VND and have drugs to use freely.

On November 24, 2016, Le Van An and Ha Thi Hien (born in 1980, residing in Thai Nguyen city, living with An as husband and wife) took a bus from Thai Nguyen to Nghe An and then up to Tuong Duong district. After a night in town, on the evening of November 25, An and Hien took a motorbike taxi to Doc Kem area, receiving drugs from a man Hung had contacted in advance.

After receiving all the goods, An was given 5 million VND by the man, the rest when he arrived in Thai Nguyen, Hung would pay. In the early morning of November 26, when the two returned to Cau Rao area (Xa Luong commune, Tuong Duong), they were ambushed and arrested by the anti-drug crime force of Tuong Duong district police.

Authorities seized from Le Van An 2 heroin cakes (weighing more than 700g) and 5,000 synthetic drug pills (weighing nearly 500g) along with 5 million VND.

An was born into a large family of fishermen in Quynh Luu district. Like other coastal men, An got married early to a girl from the same commune. The young couple, lacking much life experience, often quarreled and had conflicts.

Fed up with family problems and the hard, dangerous work at sea, Le Van An decided to leave his hometown to find the promised land. When he left, his first son was just 2 years old, and his second son was still in his mother's womb.

He went straight away, occasionally returning to visit his parents, but he never looked for his wife and children again, nor did he file for divorce, just pretending they never existed in each other's lives. To the point that An couldn't remember how old his children were now, what they were doing now, or whether they were married.

In 2001, An went to Thai Nguyen, determined to “change his life” by working as a porter. In 2006, he met Ha Thi Hien, a woman whose husband was in prison for drug crimes. The man who despised his wife and the woman who was far from her husband quickly fell in love with each other, living a life of “old love, young husband and wife”. “She got pregnant three times, all were daughters, but she couldn’t keep them,” An said about his woman as if telling someone else’s story.

Then An became addicted to drugs, that deadly pleasure drained his strength, so An's job as a hired porter was considered abandoned. He was worried about food in front of him and the drug doses became more and more frequent. Therefore, when Hung hired him to go to Nghe An to carry drugs to Thai Nguyen, taking 20 million VND and drugs to spend freely, An eagerly invited his "wife" to go with him. Before the shipment could make it back to the North, both An and Hien were arrested.

During the investigation, Ha Thi Hien developed a mental illness and had to be sent for compulsory treatment. The investigation agency has separated the case into a separate case, and will deal with it when Hien recovers. Therefore, standing in the dock today is only An. The older sister also attended, sitting quite a distance from her younger brother and it seems like no one said a word to each other. "Now in the countryside, only my father is left. My brothers are at sea and probably haven't reached shore yet," An said.

The trial was quick, An admitted all his crimes. The representative of the provincial People's Procuracy who held the right to prosecute at the trial said that Le Van An's actions were particularly serious, and the amount of drugs involved was large.

With this amount of drugs, the defendant should have been sentenced to death. However, An is also a victim of drugs, has not profited illegally from the act of illegally transporting drugs..., there is no need to permanently isolate the defendant from social life.

Considering the case as a whole, the jury sentenced Le Van An to life in prison. With this sentence, he would spend the rest of his life in prison, but it seemed that he didn't care much. Without changing his expression, Le Van An silently followed the police to the car to return to prison, not even bothering to look at his sister once. It seemed that it was understandable that An's ex-wife and two sons didn't come to court...

Nhu Binh