Two "monsters" accused of selling children to China for marriage, 8 years later, sentenced

On June 30, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened the first instance trial of defendants Cut Thi Lien (born 1992), residing in Bao Thang commune, Ky Son district and Cut Thi Tuyet (born 1989), residing in Chieu Luu commune, Ky Son district (Nghe An) for the crime of "Child trafficking”.

According to the indictment, in 2016, Lien received a phone call from Moong Thi Y (identity unknown, living in China) saying she was looking for women to bring to China to sell to people to buy as wives. Lien agreed, so she contacted Cut Thi Tuyet (Lien's brother's niece) to find people together.

When she heard that a family in the village wanted to send their daughter, Luong TX (born in 2002), to China to earn money to build a house, Tuyet immediately tried to approach them. Then, Tuyet called Lien to inform her.

The next day, the two subjects asked someone to take them to meet X's family. Tuyet and Lien asked the family if they would let X go to China to work and earn money. If they agreed, they would pay them 100 million VND and after 3 years, they would pick up their child.

Hearing this, the father was concerned because his child was still young. At this time, Tuyet and Lien invited the child to go to China so that the family would have money. Hearing this, the girl agreed.

Two days later, following Y's instructions, Tuyet and Lien took the child to catch a bus. Afterwards, Tuyet took the child directly to the foreign country, while Lien returned home.

After arriving in the foreign country, Y. picked up X. and brought her home. About 4 days later, the subjects sold X. to a Chinese man to marry for about 250 million VND.

Y. gave Tuyet 110 million to bring back to Vietnam to give 100 million to X.'s parents. The remaining 10 million, Tuyet and Lien split in half and benefited.

As for the victim, after being sold, she fled back to her country in June 2024 and filed a complaint with the police. On July 26, 2024, Tuyet and Lien went to the police to surrender and report their crimes.

However, after being prosecuted, Cut Thi Lien changed her testimony, not admitting to the crime as she had previously confessed and confessed.

The police investigation agency had the victim, defendant Tuyet and related people identify and confront Cut Thi Lien. These people confirmed that Lien was the one who participated in taking X. to China to sell.

At the trial, defendant Tuyet admitted to the crime, admitting that she had taken the victim to China to sell for a profit of 5 million VND.

Meanwhile, defendant Lien cried and did not admit to the crime. She claimed she did not know about the incident and did not take the victim to China to sell.

The panel of judges determined that, based on the documents and statements of defendant Tuyet and those involved in the case, there was sufficient basis to affirm that defendants Tuyet and Lien committed the crime of Child Trafficking.

After considering the role of each defendant in the case, the panel sentenced Cut Thi Lien to 12 years in prison and Cut Thi Tuyet to 10 years in prison for the crime of Child Trafficking. In terms of civil matters, the court ordered the defendant Lien to compensate the victim 23 million VND for mental damages.