Reduced suspended sentence for drug traffickers

On July 29, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a criminal appeal trial of defendant Vo Van Thiet (born 1986), residing in Thai Thinh hamlet, Nghi Thai commune, Nghi Loc district, for the crime of "Trading in prohibited goods".

According to the indictment, at 6:00 p.m. on October 11, 2018, in My Ha hamlet, Hung Loc commune, Vinh city, Vinh city police discovered Pham Van Manh (born in 1991), residing in My Ha hamlet, Hung Loc commune, Vinh city, showing signs of suspicion of transporting prohibited goods, so they requested an administrative inspection. Thereby, they confiscated from the subject a cardboard box containing 18 boxes of Chinese-made firecrackers.

Defendant Vo Van Thiet in court. Photo: Nguyen Duong

Manh confessed: a few days before, a person named Hoang (unknown background and address) called Manh to ask to buy fireworks. At about 1:00 p.m. on October 11, 2018, Manh called Hoang to inform him that he had fireworks. After the customer discussed and ordered 30 boxes of fireworks at 750,000 VND/box, Manh called Vo Van Thiet, a resident of Nghi Thai commune, Nghi Loc district, to order the above quantity. Because Thiet did not answer the phone, Manh went directly to Thiet and ordered the fireworks, agreeing on a price of 720,000 VND per box.

Here, Thiet used Manh’s motorbike to go get the fireworks. After receiving the “goods”, Manh gave Thiet 5 million VND as a “deposit” and promised to pay the remaining amount after delivering the goods to the customer. However, on the way to transport the fireworks from Nghi Thai commune to Vinh city to deliver to the customer, Manh was discovered and arrested by Vinh city police.

Based on Manh's testimony, Vinh City Police issued an arrest warrant and searched the residence of Vo Van Thiet to investigate the act of "Trading in prohibited goods".

At the first instance trial, the Vinh City People’s Court sentenced defendant Vo Van Thiet to 18 months in prison for “trading in prohibited goods”. Believing that this sentence was too harsh, defendant Thiet filed an appeal. The defendant asked for a reduced sentence and a suspended sentence.

At the appeal hearing on the morning of July 29, defendant Vo Van Thiet maintained the content of his appeal and asked the panel of judges to reduce his sentence.

The panel of judges determined that the defendant’s actions were serious and dangerous to society. The defendant’s testimony at the trial was consistent with his testimony at the first instance trial and other documents and evidence in the case file, so it was determined that the first instance verdict was correct in convicting the right person and the right crime.

However, at the trial, the defendant honestly confessed that during the process of buying and selling banned goods, the defendant did not receive any profit from the sale of fireworks. On the other hand, the defendant has a clear profession and place of work, so the panel of judges found it unnecessary to isolate the defendant from social life.

Based on the circumstances at the trial, the panel decided to sentence the defendant Vo Van Thiet from 18 months in prison to 36 months in prison, suspended for 5 years, and handed over to the local authorities for management and education. If during the sentence, the defendant does not comply with the provisions of the law, the defendant's sentence will be maintained as in the first instance judgment.