Woman holds gas tank, barricades herself in house, threatens to burn herself

When the task force forced the site clearance, the woman and her blind mother barricaded themselves in the house, threatening to burn themselves with a gas cylinder.

On November 20, the People's Court of Hoang Mai District, Hanoi brought defendant Nguyen Thi Thuy (born 1971, from Ha Nam) to trial for the crime of Resisting a person on official duty. The crime and punishment are stipulated in Article 257, Clause 1, of the Penal Code.

Previously, in July 2017, the People's Committee of Hoang Mai district planned to forcibly recover land from households and individuals who did not comply with the land recovery decision and did not hand over the site to carry out site clearance for the Thinh Liet new urban area project in Thinh Liet ward.

On August 18, 2017, the family of Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy and the family of Ms. Hoang Thi Huong (both living at No. 60, Alley 143/190, Group 42, Thinh Liet) resisted, using gasoline to threaten to burn themselves, so the forced land recovery of these two households had to be temporarily suspended.

Defendant in court

Afterwards, the District Police and the People's Committee of Hoang Mai District had to come up with a plan to forcibly recover land from these two households.

At about 8:00 a.m. on August 29, 2017, the site clearance task force, including the People's Committee of Hoang Mai District, the Hoang Mai District Police, the People's Committee of Thinh Liet Ward, and a number of other departments and agencies, implemented the enforcement decision.

After the working group read the enforcement decisions and mobilized the people present in Ms. Thuy and Ms. Huong's houses to comply with the law to carry out land clearance according to regulations, Ms. Thuy and her blind mother, Ms. Nguyen Thi Van, locked the door, barricaded themselves in the house, and refused to comply. As for Ms. Huong's house, the door was locked, and no one was in the house.

Faced with the above situation, the enforcement force had to divide into two working groups. One group went to the roof of the house next door, next to the second floor balcony, behind Ms. Thuy's house to persuade her to comply.

Ms. Thuy did not comply but took two 12 kg gas cylinders (empty of gas) and a 14 kg gas cylinder (with gas, in use) from inside the house, dragged them out to the balcony, holding a lighter in her hand.

When the task force was about to cut the balcony bars to enforce the eviction, Ms. Thuy lit a lighter, turned the valve of two gas cylinders to release gas and cursed, threatening the task force that if they forced the eviction, they would blow it up.

Seeing this, a member of the working group used a fire extinguisher to spray at the gas tank to prevent an explosion. At this time, Ms. Thuy carried the remaining gas tank and ran into the house.

The second working group stood in front of the door, trying to enter the house to control Ms. Thuy and her family members, and take them outside to avoid a gas tank explosion and fire.

When the Hoang Mai district police team entered the house, they discovered Ms. Thuy standing next to the gas tank, on the stairs of the second floor, holding a wooden stick in her hand with an aggressive attitude, waving it around, not allowing the working team to approach and take her out.

After tense minutes of resistance and fighting back against the police, Ms. Thuy was subdued and taken to the ward police station to make a report.

At the investigation agency, Ms. Thuy confessed: Due to difficult family circumstances and need for housing, in 2011, she bought a house from Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoa at number 60, alley 143/190, group 42, Thinh Liet.

Even though she knew that Mrs. Hoa's house was located on agricultural land and was subject to clearance, Mrs. Thuy still bought it.

During her stay, the government informed her about the compensation for land clearance - only receiving money, not resettlement housing because this is agricultural land, Ms. Thuy expressed her indignation. She said that such compensation was not satisfactory and that resettlement housing should be arranged for her family.

Because her demands were not met, Ms. Thuy threatened to self-immolate in protest. After consideration, the panel sentenced Ms. Thuy to 5 months in prison.

According to Vietnamnet