Prosecutor disciplined for wrongly accusing group of young people

There was not enough evidence to charge the group of young men with robbery, but the Binh Chanh district prosecutor still proposed prosecution, causing injustice to them.

The Ho Chi Minh City People's Procuracy has just disciplined prosecutor Mai Hoan Dong (Binh Chanh District People's Procuracy) with a warning for allowing a wrongful conviction in the prosecution of a group of young people for robbery.

Mr. Dong was the prosecutor who directly handled the case, directed by Mr. Le Thanh Tong (former Deputy Chief of the District People's Procuracy) - who was dismissed due to the wrongful prosecution of Mr. Nguyen Van Tan (owner of Xin Chao restaurant) and the duck hut case of Mr. Nguyen Van Bi.

Representative of Binh Chanh District People's Procuracy presented the decision to suspend the case to the defendants. Photo: TG

The investigation results of Binh Chanh District Police previously determined that on the night of December 5, 2012, while drinking at work, Ong Van Set, Khuu Khanh Sy (34 years old, all from Soc Trang), Tran Van Uong (27 years old) and Den invited each other to go to Tran Dai Nghia street to block vehicles of passersby and rob their property.

Later, a young man named Quyen drove his girlfriend past and saw the group. Afraid of being robbed, he turned his car around and went to the militia post to report. Le Minh Xuan commune police and militia arrived at the scene and arrested Uong and Sy, taking them to make a record of the arrest of the criminals in the act; Set and Den escaped.

Uong and Sy were prosecuted for robbery but both claimed innocence, saying that at that time the group had just finished drinking and were going to the bathroom. Because the road was deserted and it was dark, when they met Mr. Quyen, they were scared and shouted "robber" and went to the police.

After many requests for additional investigation, in July 2014, the People's Court of Binh Chanh District sentenced Uong and Sy to 1 year, 7 months and 9 days in prison (equal to the time spent in detention). Based on Uong's appeal, the People's Court of Ho Chi Minh City overturned the verdict and returned the case for re-investigation. Set was also arrested later.

The People's Procuracy continued to issue an indictment to prosecute the group of young men for the crime of robbery. However, the court returned the case file twice more, and the victim was not present on these occasions.

On December 13, 2016, the People's Procuracy of Binh Chanh District issued a decision to suspend the prosecution of Uong, Set and Sy due to insufficient evidence to prove that they committed robbery. This unit requested the local authorities where they reside to restore the legal rights of these three young men.

According to VNE