Village girl returns to China to accuse her cousin of "trafficking children"

Nghe An Provincial People's Court has just opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Oc Thi La (born in 1996, residing in Yen Na commune, Tuong Duong district) for the crime of "Buying and selling children". The victim of the case is Cut Thi May (born in 2000, the character's name has been changed).

Oc Thi La was once married to a man in China. Around May 2016, La returned to Vietnam to visit her family. Seeing her cousin (La calls May's parents "aunt" and "uncle" - PV) marry a foreigner and spend lavishly in her hometown, May immediately asked La to take her to China to do business. La replied: "Going to China is just to get married, not to do business." Although the young girl clearly knew the "work" in a foreign country, she still agreed to go to China.

Oc Thi La at trial. Photo: Tran Vu

Oc Thi La later told May's father about the incident, he agreed to let his daughter go to China to get married on the condition that La had to pay 90 million VND.

Ten days later, the two took a bus to Mong Cai border gate (Quang Ninh) and illegally crossed the border into China. Once in mainland China, they took a bus for two days and two nights before arriving at La's husband's house. La and her father-in-law then sold May to a Chinese man for 150 million VND.

After that, La asked someone to send 47 million VND to May's parents in Vietnam, keeping 17 million VND. The remaining 80 million VND was held by La's father-in-law in China.

During her stay in a foreign land, May gave birth to a son for her husband's family. Missing her family and her hometown, in early April 2018, Cut Thi May ran away from her husband's house.

On April 22, 2018, after a long journey on the run, the victim returned home and decided to file a complaint with the police about Oc Thi La's child trafficking.

In court, confessing to the crime, defendant Oc Thi La stated that she and May were close relatives so she thought it was helping someone.

The victim did not attend the trial but requested that the defendant pay back the full amount of 43 million VND. In response to that request, the defendant repeatedly complained about his difficult circumstances and asked the court to allow him not to pay the above amount.

Having the last word, Oc Thi La expressed remorse and asked for a lighter sentence so she could soon return to start a new life.

The panel of judges determined that Oc Thi La’s actions were particularly serious, violating the girl’s right to protection. However, in this case, the victim was also partly at fault for agreeing to marry a Chinese man for 90 million VND.

After a comprehensive review of the case, the panel sentenced defendant Oc Thi La to 10 years in prison for “Child trafficking” and ordered her to compensate May 30 million VND.

In addition to the above sentence, Oc Thi La was also sentenced to 7 years in prison for the crime of illegal drug trafficking by the People's Court of Tuong Duong district, so the defendant was forced to receive a total sentence of 17 years in prison.