Group of young men slashed a man for 'not drinking beer'

On June 27, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a criminal appeal hearing on the appeal for a reduced sentence of Nguyen Van Tien (born in 1986, residing in Tam Hop commune, Quy Hop district) for the crimes of Intentionally causing injury and Illegal possession of explosives.

Defendant Nguyen Van Tien at the appeal hearing. Photo: Tran Vu

According to the investigation agency's documents, on the evening of April 26, 2018, Tien and a group of friends went to sing karaoke in Nghia Xuan commune. There, Tien's group met another group of young men, including Ho Ba Hoang and Lam. A friend in Hoang's group invited Tien to sing and drink beer, but Tien refused, "I won't drink beer with you."

After that, the two groups argued and fought. After being stopped by everyone, both sides stopped and left the restaurant. At this time, Tien's group went to another restaurant to drink water, not long after that, they received news that Lam's group was coming down to fight.

Hearing that, Tien's group prepared weapons including knives, iron pipes and wooden sticks to attack the other group. At 11pm the same day, when they saw Lam passing by, Tien immediately called on his accomplices to rush out and attack. Being beaten, Lam's group ran away in two groups. Ho Ba Hoang did not follow any group, but jumped into the back of a slow-moving truck heading from Quy Hop to Nghia Dan on Highway 48 to escape.

After chasing and beating two groups of young men who had fled, Tien's group turned back and saw Ho Ba Hoang jumping off a truck. Seeing this, Tien and his accomplices ran over with knives and iron pipes to attack and slash Hoang in many parts of his body, causing the victim to fall unconscious on the road.

Hoang was taken to the hospital by everyone. Afterwards, Hoang's biological father filed a petition to prosecute and requested an assessment of the disability rate on Ho Ba Hoang's body. According to the investigation agency's assessment, Hoang's disability rate was 42%.

During the investigation and search of Nguyen Van Tien's residence, the police discovered and seized 6 bars of compressed powder suspected to be industrial explosives and 6 metal tubes with electric wires suspected to be detonators.

At the first instance trial held by the People's Court of Quy Hop district in March 2019, Nguyen Van Tien was sentenced to 7 years in prison for Intentional Infliction of Injury and 2 years in prison for Illegal Possession of Explosives. The other 4 defendants received different sentences for Intentional Infliction of Injury.

Nguyen Van Tien appealed for a lighter sentence, believing that the sentence was too high. In court, Tien gave the reason for his request for a lighter sentence, saying that at the first instance trial, he was confused and did not admit his guilt. Now, he sees that what he did was wrong and violated the law, so he asked the court to reduce his sentence.

Considering that the content of the appeal is well-founded, the panel of judges decided to partially accept Tien's appeal. The decision to amend the first instance judgment sentenced Nguyen Van Tien to 6 years in prison for the crime of Intentional Infliction of Injury and 1 year in prison for the crime of Illegal Possession of Explosives.

The total sentence imposed on the defendant was 7 years in prison.