The defendant apologized in court and the victim withdrew the appeal.

On March 29, the High People's Court in Hanoi opened an appeal hearing to try defendant Nguyen Thi Nga (born 1976), residing in Vinh City, for the crime of Abuse of trust to appropriate property. The hearing was opened following an appeal by Mr. Phan Bui N. (a victim in the case) to increase the sentence against defendant Nga.

According to investigation documents, due to not having a stable job, Nguyen Thi Nga planned to defraud and appropriate other people's property.

With the excuse of needing money for phone card business, Nga approached some acquaintances to ask for loans. Nguyen Thi Nga offered high interest rates, causing the victims to quickly fall into the trap.

Defendant Nguyen Thi Nga in court. Photo: Tran Vu

To gain people's trust, Nga initially paid the interest fairly, but later Nga made excuses to go into hiding. Urged and demanded by creditors, in October 2010, Nga fled the locality. On May 31, 2011, Vinh City Police issued a wanted notice for Nguyen Thi Nga for "Abuse of trust to appropriate property". On April 18, 2018, Nga was arrested while hiding in Ho Chi Minh City.

The investigation agency determined that from August 2008 to October 2010, Nguyen Thi Nga borrowed 1 billion 175 million VND from 4 people. In which the person who lent the most money borrowed 670 million VND, the person who lent the least money borrowed 100 million VND.

At the first instance trial, Nguyen Thi Nga admitted all her crimes. The panel sentenced defendant Nguyen Thi Nga to 12 years in prison for the crime of abuse of trust to appropriate property, and ordered her to compensate the victims for the entire amount.

Believing that the defendant and his family were insincere and did not apologize after appropriating a large amount of money, Phan Bui N. filed an appeal requesting an increase in the sentence for Nga. Speaking in court, the victim said: “After the incident, I have not received any compensation from the defendant. However, before the first instance trial, the defendant's relatives insulted me. That showed insincerity and made me angry, so I decided to file an appeal requesting an increase in the defendant's sentence.”

The appellate panel held that the first instance court had made a comprehensive assessment of the evidence proving the defendant’s criminal behavior and dangerous nature. The first instance court had also considered the defendant’s personal background and the aggravating and mitigating circumstances and decided that a 12-year prison sentence was appropriate. In any case, the defendant had recognized his mistake and, out of humanity, advised the victim to withdraw the appeal.

At court, in the presence of the jury, the defendant Nga and her husband apologized to Mr. N. At the same time, they promised to gradually recover the amount of money that the defendant had appropriated from the victim. After hearing the defendant's apology, Mr. N. decided to withdraw his appeal.