Life imprisonment after more than 20 years on the run

On April 9, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened the first instance trial of defendant Va Gia Tenh (born 1960), residing in Tri Le commune, Que Phong district (Nghe An) for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking”.

The case involving the defendant occurred more than 21 years ago. Specifically, around August 2004, Va Gia Tenh helped Va Cha Tho sell 2 heroin cakes to customers.

When he heard Tho's daughter come to his house and say, "Uncle, come down here and see if the customers are buying drugs. If they are, go with them and give them the drugs." Hearing that, Tenh immediately went to Tho's house.

After trying the drugs, the group of customers agreed to buy 2 heroin cakes for 3,600 USD/cake. In this transaction, Tenh was paid 1 million VND by Tho.

In addition to that sale, Va Gia Tenh also helped Va Cha Tho sell drugs a second time. On September 10, 2004, the same group of customers continued to come to Tho's house to buy 3 cakes of heroin.

Seeing a customer coming to buy drugs, Tho called Va Gia Tenh to come over. Afterwards, Tenh had dinner with everyone. During the meal, the customer asked Tho and Tenh to buy 3 heroin cakes.

At this time, Tho went into the bedroom to get drugs to sell to customers. At 10 pm that same day, when the group of customers left, Tenh took on the task of leading the way.

After committing the crime, Va Gia Tenh fled to Laos, living in Vieng Thoong village cluster, Muong Quan district, Hua Phan province. On June 22, 2024, this subject was arrested according to the wanted decision.

The investigation agency determined that Va Gia Tenh must bear criminal responsibility for the act of illegally buying and selling 5 heroin cakes twice with a total weight of more than 1.7 kg of drugs.

At the trial, the defendant stated that because his family was poor, he went with the subjects to receive payment. Defendant Tenh stated that he only helped and did not directly participate in the drug trafficking.

After the subjects were arrested, the defendant fled to Laos out of fear.

At the witness stand, the defendant presented his difficult circumstances, old age, and poor health to ask the court to consider reducing his sentence.

The panel of judges determined that in this case, the defendant had an aggravating circumstance of committing the crime two or more times. Therefore, the court sentenced Va Gia Tenh to life in prison for the crime of "Illegal drug trafficking".