Failed to escape death penalty, "super swindler" suffers from...mental illness

On September 6, the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City opened an appeal trial, rejected the appeal, and upheld the 10-year prison sentence for defendant Le Quang Sy (born 1965, residing in Ben Tre province) for fraud and property appropriation.

According to the first instance verdict, Ms. Nguyen Thi Noi, whose biological son Kieu Phuoc Chien was sentenced to death by the People's Court of Dong Thap province and the High People's Court in Ho Chi Minh City for murder and property destruction.

Failed to escape death penalty, "super swindler" suffers from...mental illness

In 2013, Mrs. Noi, through her nephew Kieu Phuoc Nhut's acquaintance, contacted and asked Pham Thanh Hien (born in 1983 in Vinh Long) to help Chien escape the death penalty at a cost of 800 million VND and Hien agreed. Hien asked her friend Tran Phi Long and Long to introduce Le Long Sy to help with the case. After Hien received Sy's consent to help, Hien organized for Mrs. Noi to meet Sy to discuss the case for Chien. All the money Mrs. Noi used for the case went through Hien.

From August 2013 to December 2013, Ms. Noi gave Hien and Sy a total of 670 million VND, of which 470 million VND was given to Hien and 200 million VND to Sy to cover the costs of the case. Hien and Sy could not help Chien get his case resolved and did not return the money, so Ms. Noi filed a complaint with the police.

During the investigation, Hien showed signs of abnormality and was taken for a psychiatric evaluation. According to the results of the psychiatric evaluation at Bien Hoa Central Psychiatric Hospital, Hien showed signs of psychosis and severe depression. The person did not have the cognitive capacity to control his behavior to work with law enforcement agencies.

On March 12, 2018, the People's Court of Vinh Long province decided to temporarily suspend the case and apply compulsory medical treatment to Hien. When he recovers from his mental illness, he will be dealt with later.

As for Sy, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Vinh Long Provincial People's Court for fraud and appropriation of property. Believing that the first instance verdict was too harsh, defendant Sy appealed for a lighter sentence.

At today’s trial, defendant Sy admitted to receiving 200 million VND from Ms. Noi, but he did not use it and instead transferred it to someone else. Defendant Sy said he did not intend to gain personal gain or defraud Ms. Noi. In addition, the defendant also presented mitigating circumstances such as returning 15 million VND to remedy the consequences, his family had contributed to the revolution, etc. From there, he requested the panel of judges to consider reducing the sentence for the defendant.

After deliberation, the panel of judges determined that the defendant’s actions were dangerous to society. When contacted by Hien, the defendant actively helped and coordinated to appropriate Ms. Noi’s money. The defendant claimed that he did not benefit and gave the money to others. However, when confronted, these people did not admit it, so there was no basis to accept the defendant Sy’s testimony.

The defendant was fully aware that his act of helping Chien escape the death penalty was a violation of the law, but he still deliberately did it to appropriate Ms. Noi's money. When Ms. Noi asked for the money back, the defendant avoided it in order to appropriate it. Therefore, the defendant's actions must be severely punished for public prevention. The first instance judgment sentenced the right person and the right law.

Therefore, the panel of judges decided to reject the appeal and upheld the first instance sentence of 10 years in prison for fraud and property appropriation against the defendant Sy.