Judge's story

Struggling through civil trials

Although she has been retired for nearly 3 years, Ms. Le Thi Thu Ha in Mau Don Cultural Village, Hung Loc Commune (Vinh City), former Judge of Nghe An Provincial People's Court, is full of enthusiasm. She said that in 1989, she became a judge of Thanh Chuong District People's Court when she was only 26 years old, also the youngest judge in the province. She was elected by the District People's Council, not appointed.

As a judge, for her, many memories of judging inheritance cases were very painful in terms of human relationships. She still remembers a case (specific name withheld) where the parents died without leaving a will. The older brother already had a house, but the younger brother had no land, so the eldest grandson took possession of it all. The uncle wrote a petition to the court, asking the court to divide the land for him. The person involved - the nephew alone, accompanied by 3 police officers, still deliberately resisted and caused trouble.

Many touching stories in the courtroom hallway. Photo courtesy of Tran Vu

After reading the decision and introducing the litigants, the court adjourned the session to allow the litigant to calm down, but three days later, the litigant was still defiant. Continuing the trial, the court analyzed thoroughly, and upon hearing the verdict, the defendant's mood calmed down. When the court announced the verdict, the defendant felt that it was reasonable and did not dare to cause trouble anymore...

In 2009, Judge Le Thi Thu Ha moved to the Provincial People's Court to work until retirement. She happily said: "Those 37 years have left me with so many happy and sad, painful and sympathetic memories. The more I remember, ponder and worry, the more I love the people and lives in society."

The profession requires special litigation skills.

When talking about litigation skills, we cannot fail to mention Mr. Vi Van Chat - Judge, Deputy Chief Justice of the Provincial People's Court, former Chief Justice of the Criminal Court for the period 2012-2021. He is a veteran judge in criminal trials. With many years of experience in adjudication, 12 years of leading the Criminal Court, he has directly tried many large and complicated cases, especially corruption and drug cases with basic and specialized expertise, and must also have litigation skills to handle well the nature of the investigation, cases with many different views on assessing evidence, determining the crime... Mr. Chat shared: "A judge must equip himself with knowledge of situations arising during the course of conducting the trial"...

The most troubling issue is the trial of cases of abuse of position and power while performing official duties that occurred in some localities. The defendants (mostly commune-level officials) from the desire to have operating funds; repair, upgrade, build rural infrastructure; build community institutions to serve the common interest... or desire to have financial resources to soon complete the goal of building new rural areas, which led to violations in land management.

For example, in the case of abusing position and power while performing official duties in Thanh An commune, Thanh Chuong district (2012), when law enforcement agencies got involved, they only thought that the violations were only at the level of administrative sanctions...

A mobile trial at the Que Phong District Social Labor Center. Photo courtesy of Hung Cuong

The most pitiful and blameworthy are the defendants in drug cases. In 2013, the trial of Vu Duc Manh and his accomplices for trading 255 heroin cakes resulted in the death penalty for 5 defendants and life imprisonment for 1 defendant. It is worth mentioning that in this case, 5 defendants are women, of which 1 defendant is a teacher but lured her sister-in-law (with a child under 36 months old) to join this ring, 1 defendant committed the crime because of a loss in the transportation business when he met a defendant (a friend) in this case who was also lured into participating.

Or in 2017, the trial of Nguyen The Ha and his accomplices for illegally buying, selling, and transporting 10 heroin cakes and 4 kg of crystal meth involved 5 defendants, of which 1 defendant hanged himself to death, and 2 defendants were husband and wife. The problem with this case was that defendant Ha (mastermind, ringleader) claimed innocence while defendant Giang (accomplice) was the one who bought the drugs and died. So, was there a miscarriage of justice?

The case had to be tried for nearly 2 years, through many trials, the issues of the litigation were clarified at the trial, the role of each defendant was determined, assessed accurately and objectively. After the first instance trial, the defendants all filed appeals claiming their innocence, however, the appellate court's verdict affirmed that there was no wrongful conviction. And there are many more cases...

A civil court session drawing lessons from an inheritance dispute at the People's Court of Nghe An province. Photo courtesy.

Steel in court

There is a person that both former Judge Le Thi Thu Ha and Judge Vi Van Chat often mentioned in their conversations, that is Mr. Tran Ngoc Son - the current Chief Justice of Nghe An Provincial People's Court. Mr. Chat said that he was able to participate in the Trial Council of many cases with Mr. Tran Ngoc Son, especially major cases of crimes against national security such as the case of Ho Ngoc Hoa and accomplices (13 defendants), the case of Le Dinh Luong, both of which committed organized national security crimes.

The defendants all have high educational levels and clear political awareness, so in court they often give very roundabout statements and use sophisticated tricks. However, with extensive experience and procedural skills accumulated over many years of working in the court, Judge Tran Ngoc Son conducted the trial, ensuring both debate and handling arising procedural situations that could not be predicted when studying the case files, forcing the defendants to admit their crimes.

Chief Justice of Nghe An Provincial People's Court Tran Ngoc Son. Photo: PV

Former Judge Le Thi Thu Ha shared her memories: I knew Mr. Tran Ngoc Son when he was a Judge at the People's Court of Vinh City. He once went alone on a motorbike to Hue to check and verify the necessary details. Many times, he went all the way to Quang Binh or up National Highway 7 to the highlands of Ky Son, or all the way to the end of National Highway 48 in the highlands of Que Phong...

Just like that, for any case that was still unclear, Mr. Son would go on his way. Passionate, responsible and serious about his profession, in the courtroom, but people also mentioned Mr. Tran Ngoc Son as a literary artist, a "treasure" of poetry, folk songs, and folk songs of Nghe An,...

Indeed, meeting and talking, I understand that these judges, with their profession, have been quietly contributing to making the social environment better and cleaner.