Choking on the dream of a boy whose father sold the house and left, mother 'in and out of prison'

Children are alone when their mother is in prison.

In the group of people who came to Nghe An Provincial People's Court to attend the trial of defendant Vi Thi Choi (born in 1969), residing in Luong Minh commune, Tuong Duong district, for the crime of "Illegal trading of narcotics"drug” recently happened, the image of a 15-year-old boy made many people feel sympathy. With a skinny body, he tightly held in his hand a bag of some milk and some cakes to send to his mother. He was the youngest child of the defendant Choi.

Vi Thi Choi's fourth prison sentence is life imprisonment. Photo: Tran Vu

Because he was not old enough to attend court, his relatives assigned him the task of watching the bag in the hallway. Sitting alone in the quiet hallway of the court, he listened attentively to the sound of the gymnastic drum from the nearby school. When asked, “Are you absent from school today to see your mother?”, the boy timidly said, “I have been absent from school for a long time. I stopped going to school after 5th grade because my mother went to jail and had no money to pay for school. If I were still going to school, I would be in 9th grade today.”

The boy’s tragedy stemmed from his mother’s imprisonment. In 2003, Choi received his first sentence for drug use. After his release from prison, Choi and his wife had another child, this 15-year-old boy. But even though the child was still young, Choi returned to drugs. Not long after, Choi was imprisoned again with a longer sentence. In 2013, Choi reoffended for the third time for drug trafficking.

At the same time, the husband left to marry another woman. The family's old house was also sold. As a result, Choi's five children had no place to live. Feeling sorry for the children who had suffered so much, a relative took them into his home to take care of them. In a situation of poverty, with his mother in prison and not even a house to stay in, the youngest boy decided to quit school after finishing 5th grade. He said: "I couldn't go to school so I mostly stayed around the village, and when I got home I fed the chickens. The little chickens were our inheritance." When asked "what is your dream?", the boy was silent for a moment and then said "to go to school like my friends". But perhaps he knew very well that it would be difficult to realize that dream when his mother was in prison again.

In the courtroom, Vi Thi Choi's criminal behavior was announced by the representative of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province. Accordingly, in July 2020, while visiting the forest area of ​​​​Dua village, Luong Minh commune, Choi saw two unfamiliar men eating. Being hungry, Choi boldly asked to eat with them. After eating, Choi saw that the two men were using drugs, so he asked to use them too. After the drug high, Choi asked the two men to stay and serve them food and drink so that they could use drugs. Choi's request was agreed by the two men.

The 15-year-old cried when he saw his mother in court. Photo: Tran Vu

On July 12, 2020, these two people told Choi to stay and watch the shack while they went out. Before leaving, Choi saw them go to the base of a tree for a while before moving. Suspecting that these two people were hiding something, Choi later went to check and discovered many packages of drugs. Greed arose, Choi took all the drugs at the base of the tree and fled with the intention of selling them to whoever bought them. The next afternoon, two men came to Choi and asked to buy 30 packages of pink phien and 1 block of heroin for 60 million VND. Choi agreed and set a time and place for delivery. On the evening of July 14, when Choi went to deliver drugs to customers, he was arrested by the police with evidence of more than 600 grams of drugs.

"My child, don't be like your mother"

Before the indictment announced by the People's Procuracy, Choi admitted to his crimes. The defendant stated that after being released from prison, in order to have money to raise his children, he worked many jobs. Once, when he went to the forest, he accidentally met two strange men, so he asked for food and a few puffs of drugs. The defendant admitted that he relapsed into drug addiction after being released from prison. "Due to difficult circumstances, my children had no food to eat, and no house to live in, so I stole drugs to sell," Choi justified his crime.

“The defendant said he loved his children, so why did he repeatedly sell drugs?”, Choi continued to justify his difficult circumstances in response to the jury’s question. “Not everyone who is in difficulty sells drugs. There are many people who are in difficulty but still do honest business. What do you think about this or do you disregard the law?”, Choi remained silent in response to the jury’s question. In his final statement, Choi explained his difficult circumstances, including his husband remarrying and his children temporarily living with relatives, in order to ask for a lighter sentence.

In the courtroom, the 15-year-old boy was led inside by his brothers to meet his mother. As soon as he saw his youngest son, Choi cried loudly: “My son, I’m sorry.” Holding his mother’s hand, the boy lowered his head and shed tears. Then Choi continued: “You have to listen to your aunt and your brothers and sisters at home. As long as you are safe and healthy, I can rest assured that I can reform here. Don’t listen to other people’s instigation to use or get involved with drugs, okay? I’ve made enough mistakes. Don’t be like me, my son.”

The female defendant's advice made her children cry. A relative who attended the court shared that she was very sad to see Choi in court. Before, when Choi was released from prison, everyone advised and encouraged Choi to give up drugs to raise his children, but he refused to listen. We only felt sorry for the 5 children, living alone away from their mother for many years, and their father left to marry another woman. He even sold the stilt house...

For the crime of “Illegal drug trafficking”, Vi Thi Choi was sentenced to life in prison. Sentenced to indefinite imprisonment, Choi burst into tears, turned back to look at her young child, intending to tell her something more, but it was too late.

At the end of the trial, the representative of the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province cleverly gave the child a gift to take home. Photo: Tran Vu

The court ended, the boy took the bag of things he brought to the detention center to give to his mother. Seeing that, the representative of the Nghe An People's Procuracy participating in the prosecution at the trial came to encourage and comfort the boy. After that, she cleverly gave him a small gift: "Take some money for the trip and buy warm clothes to wear." In front of the unexpected gift, the boy refused, but then timidly reached out his black hands to receive it and did not forget to say thank you. Seeing the boy sadly leave, many people could not help but feel sorry for the child who had suffered so much misfortune.