Sentenced to 6 months in prison suspended for accepting to transport more than 2.5m3 of illegal timber
(Baonghean.vn) - Dung was hired by Kien to transport more than 2,527 cubic meters of wood without legal documents and was arrested.
On the morning of December 27, the People's Court of Quy Hop district opened a trial for the criminal case of "Violating regulations on forest exploitation and protection" against the defendant Dao Sy Dung (born in 1970, residing in Quynh Lam commune, Quynh Luu).
According to the indictment, on June 16, 2017, Dung and Mr. Dao Sy Vuong (same hamlet) drove car with license plate 34L-7955 to transport lime from Quynh Luu to sell in Quy Hop. After selling all the lime, Dung was called by Chu Van Kien (residing in hamlet 7, Quynh Hoa commune, Quynh Luu) to hire him to transport the goods from Chau Thai commune (Quy Hop) to Quynh Hoa commune for a fare of 1.5 million VND, and Dung agreed.
 |
| Dao Sy Dung at the trial. Photo: Le Phan |
Dung saw that the goods Kien hired to transport were 19 round logs, with a volume of 2.527 m.3When asked about the origin, Kien said, "This wood has legal papers, you can take it. If anyone asks, I will show you the papers." After loading the wood onto the truck, Kien made an excuse that he had family matters to attend to and left first.
At 1:00 a.m. on June 17, 2017, Dung drove his car to Quy Hop town and was inspected by Quy Hop police in coordination with forest rangers. They discovered that the wood did not have legal documents, so they made a record and temporarily detained the evidence.
At the investigation agency, Dung confessed to his illegal timber transportation. Chu Van Kien confessed that the timber had no legal documents and was purchased from a stranger in Chau Thai commune (Quy Hop) for 4.5 million VND.
The appraisal result report of the Forest Industry Research Institute - Vietnam Forestry Science Institute dated August 24, 2017 confirmed that the above wood belongs to the Tau Mat wood species, classified in group 2.
The police agency also determined that on January 11, 2017, Dung was administratively punished by Mobile Forest Ranger Team No. 3 under Nghe An Forest Ranger Sub-Department for "illegally transporting forest products" and "buying and selling forest products against state regulations".
The panel sentenced Dao Sy Dung to 6 months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and an additional fine of 5 million VND. As for Chu Van Kien, because it was his first offense and the amount of forest products involved was small, he was only punished for administrative violations.
Le Phan
