Ice factory owner sentenced for threatening to shoot female worker with gun

On April 12, the People's Court of Cai Rang District (Can Tho City) sentenced Nguyen Hoang Nam (62 years old, residing locally) to two years and six months in prison for threatening to kill. Defendant Nam is the owner of many ice production facilities in Can Tho and Hau Giang.

Ice company tycoon Nguyen Hoang Nam in court. Photo: Cuu Long

According to the indictment, at noon on November 4, 2016, Mr. Nam took a pistol (with five bullets) and went down to the factory to find a female worker from Hau Giang to chase her out of his facility. When he arrived, he pulled out a gun and put it to the female employee’s temple, threatening to shoot her.

At this time, his wife and children intervened and confiscated the gun. After the female worker ran away in fear, the ice factory owner continued to take two knives to the rented room to look for the couple but could not find them.There, he held a knife to another woman’s neck because he thought she was defending the female worker he wanted to fire. However, people in the same boarding house intervened in time.

The forensic results of the Institute of Criminal Science (Ministry of Public Security) confirmed that the gun used by the ice shop owner was a support tool, capable of causing injury but with little impact on life.October 31, 2017, the "tycoon" of the ice facility was arrested.

In court, the two victims said they had no ill will towards the ice company owner. After the incident, they and their families were very confused and feared for their lives, so they fled to many places.

Meanwhile, defendant Nam claimed that the "police department" licensed the company four rubber bullet guns. However, the people who used them were his son and four others. The ice company owner insisted.denied the crime, did not admit to using guns and knives to threaten two women.

Previously, at the trial on March 28, the defendant claimed that he had fired the workers many times but failed. He was afraid that the couple would poison the water source for ice production, affecting many people, so he used support tools to intervene. At the same time, he also claimed that he was forced to confess, so the court postponed the hearing.

This time, the court summoned the investigator, who said that the defendant had been questioned three times, with audio and video recordings arranged. Two of these times, representatives of the prosecutor's office participated. "In all three interrogations, the defendant was read the entire content of the transcript by the investigating agency," the investigator said.

According to the investigator, the defendant also personally edited the content that was not agreed upon in the minutes."Therefore, the defendant's claim that he was forced to confess by the investigating agency and did not listen to the content of the confession is completely unfounded," this person said.

The panel of judges determined that in his self-confession and the minutes of his testimony, the defendant admitted to using a gun and a knife to threaten and kill the two victims. Considering that Nam's testimony in the minutes was consistent with the testimony of the victim and witnesses, and consistent with the content of the confrontation between the parties, the court held that there were sufficient elements to constitute the crime of Threatening to Kill.