Reduced suspended prison sentence for trafficker.

On July 29th, the Nghe An Provincial People's Court held an appellate criminal trial to hear the case against defendant Vo Van Thiet (born in 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 PM 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, exhibiting suspicious behavior suggesting he was transporting prohibited goods, and therefore requested an administrative inspection. During the inspection, they seized from the suspect one cardboard box containing 18 boxes of firecrackers manufactured in China.

Defendant Vo Van Thiet in court. Photo: Nguyen Duong

Manh confessed that a few days earlier, a person named Hoang (whose identity and address are unknown) called him to inquire about buying firecrackers. Around 1 PM on October 11, 2018, Manh called Hoang to inform him that the firecrackers were available. After the customer discussed and ordered 30 boxes of firecrackers at 750,000 VND per box, Manh called Vo Van Thiet, residing in Nghi Thai commune, Nghi Loc district, to order the same quantity. Since Thiet did not answer the phone, Manh went to meet Thiet in person and placed the order, agreeing on a price of 720,000 VND per box.

Here, Thiet used Manh's motorbike to go pick up 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, while transporting the fireworks from Nghi Thai commune to Vinh City to deliver to the customer, Manh was discovered and arrested by the Vinh City Police.

Based on Mạnh's testimony, the Vinh City Police issued an arrest warrant and searched the residence of Võ Văn Thiết to investigate his involvement in "trading prohibited goods".

At the first-instance trial, the Vinh City People's Court sentenced defendant Vo Van Thiet to 18 months in prison for the crime of "Trafficking in prohibited goods". Considering this sentence too harsh, defendant Thiet filed an appeal. He requested 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 requested 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, as well as other documents and evidence in the case file, thus confirming that the first-instance judgment was correct in identifying the perpetrator and the crime.

However, at the trial, the defendant confessed honestly that during the process of buying and selling prohibited goods, he did not profit from the sale of fireworks. Furthermore, the defendant has a clear profession and workplace, and the court deemed it unnecessary to isolate him from society.

Based on the circumstances presented at the trial, the panel of judges decided to change the sentence of defendant Vo Van Thiet from 18 months of imprisonment to 36 months of suspended imprisonment, with a probationary period of 5 years, under the management and supervision of the local authorities. If, during the period of serving the sentence, the defendant fails to comply with the provisions of the law, the sentence will remain as in the first-instance judgment.