Tricking 2 young girls from Nghe An into growing flowers and then selling them to China

On November 27, Nghe An Provincial People's Court held a first-instance trial of the human trafficking case against two subjects, Lu Van Thanh (born in 1993), residing in Ta Ca commune, and Luong Van Lu (born in 1992), residing in Keng Du commune, Ky Son district.

Defendants Luong Van Lu and Lu Van Thanh in court. Photo: Quynh An.

According to the indictment, around September 2017, Lu Van Thanh went to work at a wood workshop in China and discussed with his sister, Lu Thi Don (born in 1982, living in China), about finding women in Vietnam to sell to China. For each woman who successfully brought them to China, Thanh would receive 30 million VND.

In December 2017, Thanh returned to Vietnam and discussed with his friend Luong Van Lu about finding women to sell to China for marriage, and splitting the money in half.

At the end of May 2018, Luong Van Lu often called and talked to Ms. Moong T. L, born in 1996 (living in the same commune as Lu) and invited her to work for hire (growing flowers) in Da Lat City, Lam Dong Province in order to deceive Ms. L so that Thanh could sell her to China. Ms. L agreed and invited her nephew, LT M, born in 2002, to work with her.

On June 21, M and Ms. L were taken to the bus station. But instead of going south, Thanh took Ms. M and L back north. At 5:00 a.m. on June 22, 2018, Thanh, Ms. M and L arrived at the Nuoc Ngam bus station.

At this time, Thanh led Ms. M and L to another bus to continue the journey to Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh Province. When getting on the bus, the two young girls asked the passengers and discovered that this bus would go to Mong Cai, not to Da Lat.

Realizing they had been tricked, L and M hurriedly got out of the car and ran away, but Thanh chased after them. The incident was discovered by the bus station security force, so Thanh tried to run away but was later arrested.

The panel of judges determined that the actions of the two defendants were dangerous to society and should be severely punished by law. However, based on mitigating circumstances such as repentance and not causing any damage, the panel of judges decided to sentence Lu Van Thanh to 5 years in prison and Luong Van Lu to 4 years in prison.