After being apologized by the defendant in court, the victim withdrew the appeal.

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

According to investigation documents, because she did not have a stable job, Nguyen Thi Nga planned to defraud and appropriate other people's property.

With the excuse of needing money to trade in phone cards, 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 hide. Urged and demanded by creditors, Nga fled the area in October 2010. On May 31, 2011, Vinh City Police issued a wanted notice for Nguyen Thi Nga for the crime of "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. The person who lent the most money borrowed 670 million VND, the person who lent the least borrowed 100 million VND.

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

Phan Bui N. filed an appeal requesting an increase in the sentence for Nga after the incident. Speaking at the 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 a lack of sincerity, which made me angry, so I decided to file an appeal requesting an increase in the sentence for the defendant.”

The appellate panel held that the court of first instance had made a comprehensive assessment of the evidence proving the defendant’s criminal behavior and the dangerous nature of the defendant. The court of first instance 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 realized his mistake and, out of humanity, advised the victim to withdraw the appeal.

In 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.