Received 15 months in prison for beating 14 wild boars to death

On August 16, the People's Court of Dong Trieu Town, Quang Ninh Province held a first-instance trial and sentenced defendant Nguyen Van Duc (residing in Linh Trang village, Trang Luong commune, Dong Trieu Town).

At the trial, the representative of the People's Procuracy of Dong Trieu Town read the indictment, according to which Mr. Duc's actions constituted the crime of "Property Destruction" as prescribed in Clause 1, Article 178 of the Penal Code. The representative of the Procuracy requested the Trial Panel to sentence the defendant to 18-24 months in prison, but with a suspended sentence, a probation period of 36-42 months from the date of execution of the sentence, and requested not to apply additional penalties to the defendant. Requested that the defendant be forced to compensate the victims for damages totaling 44,400,000 VND. Requested that Mr. Diep Van Trong return 60,000,000 VND to Ms. Hoang Thi Truc (Mr. Duc's wife).

Scene of the first instance trial. Photo: Thanh Hoa

Responding at the trial, defendant Nguyen Van Duc admitted to beating to death 14 wild boars belonging to Mr. Trong’s family and with Mr. Trong’s consent. However, the defendant also argued that those pigs did not belong to Mr. Trong’s family, so the prosecution of the defendant for property destruction was unjust.

Based on the content of the case, based on the documents in the case file that were debated at the trial, the Trial Panel determined that the criminal act of the defendant Nguyen Van Duc directly violated the property rights of others, causing social insecurity and disorder, causing anxiety among the masses. Therefore, the Trial Panel declared the defendant Nguyen Van Duc guilty of the crime of "Property Destruction", sentenced him to 15 months in prison, and forced the defendant to fulfill the obligation to compensate for property damage to the couple Diep Van Trong - Tran Thi Nhung in the total amount of 44,400,000 VND. In addition, the court ordered Mr. Diep Van Trong to return to Ms. Hoang Thi Truc (Mr. Duc's wife) the amount of 60,000,000 VND.

According to the indictment of the Dong Trieu Town People's Procuracy, Mr. Diep Van Trong's family grazed wild boars in the family's garden, which was built with a brick wall 1.2-1.3m high. At about 10:30 a.m. on January 3, 2018, 14 wild boars, weighing from 8-53kg, of Mr. Trong jumped over the wall and ran up the hill behind and then into Mr. Nguyen Van Duc's garden. Discovering the pigs were eating chicken feed, angry because many times before, Mr. Trong's pigs had come to eat chicken feed and damaged some crops, Mr. Duc took an iron pipe and beat the pigs to death, then called Mr. Trong to come and get the pigs. Seeing Mr. Duc kill his family's pigs, Mr. Trong called the police.

According to the valuation conclusion of the Property Valuation Council in criminal proceedings of Dong Trieu Town, the 14 wild boars above have a total weight of 370kg, worth 44,400,000 VND.

After the incident, while Mr. Duc was detained, Ms. Hoang Thi Truc (Mr. Duc's wife) compensated Mr. Trong a total of 60,000,000 VND, but only recorded 30,000,000 VND, the remaining 30,000,000 VND was transferred. On March 3, 2018, pigs continued to enter Mr. Duc's chicken coop to eat bran. Mr. Duc was able to contain them and invited the local authorities and Mr. Trong to come down to work. Here, Mr. Trong pledged not to let the pigs go and cause damage to neighboring households.

According to information received by reporters, in the coming time, Mr. Nguyen Van Duc will continue to prepare to appeal the decision of the People's Court of Dong Trieu Town at the first instance trial.