Using a hammer to hit neighbor's face because of the drain

On April 23, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a criminal appeal trial of defendant Tran Dinh Thien (born 1982), residing in Quynh Long commune (Quynh Luu) for the crime of "Intentional injury”.

The defendant and victim Tran Dinh Hung (born in 1972) are neighbors. At around 9:00 p.m. on May 22, 2020, Thien came home from work and saw that the gate of his house was flooded due to the rain with no way out. Seeing that the drain next to Hung's house was clogged, Thien took a hammer and a small iron bar to clear the drain. Seeing Thien breaking the iron trash net, Hung's wife did not allow it. The two sides exchanged words.

Defendant Tran Dinh Thien. Photo: Tran Vu

Hearing the noise, Hung ran out and asked Thien not to break the manhole cover. Being pushed away by Hung, Thien took an iron hammer and hit Hung in the face, causing injuries to the eyes and jaw. The victim Tran Dinh Hung was determined to have a 30% physical disability.

At the first instance trial, the People's Court of Quynh Luu district sentenced defendant Tran Dinh Thien to 30 months in prison, suspended, for the crime of "Intentionally causing injury". The court also ordered the defendant to compensate the victim more than 61 million VND.

Disagreeing with the first instance judgment, the victim filed an appeal stating that the first instance court's judgment was not objective, and that it had not clarified the nature and level of danger of the defendant's actions; the defendant's suspended sentence was not in accordance with the law; the victim also did not agree with the level of compensation the defendant was awarded by the first instance court.

At the appeal court, the victim maintained the appeal. The victim also provided additional documents about the fact that after the first instance court, due to the recurrence of the injury, the victim went for a re-examination. After that, the victim filed a request for a re-assessment of the disability rate, with the result of 36%. Regarding civil matters, the victim requested the defendant to compensate the amount of over 500 million VND.

The Court of Appeal determined that after the first instance verdict, the victim re-assessed the disability rate, and concluded that it was 36%, while the first instance court considered it to be 30%. To ensure that the trial was in accordance with the law, the right person, and the right crime, the Panel of Judges declared the entire first instance verdict null and void and the Quynh Luu District Court re-tried the case.