Proposal to prosecute couple who destroyed 3.6 hectares of protective forest

Tien Lanh protective forest was burned down by Bay and his wife to plant acacia - Photo: LE TRUNG

On January 14, Tien Phuoc District Police said that the district's police investigation agency had just completed the investigation into the criminal case of forest destruction in the Tien Lanh protective forest area and requested the district People's Procuracy to prosecute the two suspects.

The two defendants proposed for prosecution are Phung Van Bay (40 years old, residing in village 9, Tien Lanh commune) and Nguyen Thi Viet (39 years old, Mr. Bay's wife).

According to the investigation conclusion, around the end of March 2017, Bay went to the Doi Lon area of ​​Na Cau stream (belonging to plot 5, plot 6 of sub-zone 556, Tien Lanh protective forest) and had the intention of cutting down forest trees to plant acacia.

In early April 2017, Bay and his wife set up camp in this area and cleared forest trees for 45 days. At the end of June 2017, Bay went to the Doi Lon area to burn the cleared forest area and bought acacia seeds with his wife to prune the cleared forest area.

In July 2017, Bay inspected the area where the acacia trees had been trimmed and saw that the acacia trees were growing unevenly and had a lot of grass and vines, so he hired 7 more local people to clear the grass and trim the acacia trees.

In August 2017, when Bay and his wife's group of workers were pruning acacia trees in the above area, they were discovered by the authorities and a report was made.

During the investigation, the police determined that the area of ​​destroyed forest in plots 5 and 6 of sub-zone 556 was 36,367.5m2.², the damaged timber volume is 275,883m³, commercial timber reserves are 165,530m³.

The group of workers hired by Bay did not know that he and his wife were destroying the forest, so the police did not take action.

As reported, in relation to this serious case of deforestation, the Standing Committee of Tien Phuoc District Party Committee has disciplined 3 officials of Tien Lanh Commune. In particular, Mr. Vo Hong Nhiem - Chairman of Tien Lanh Commune - was disciplined and dismissed from his position.