The pain of two women who became victims of adultery for no reason

Appearing quietly in court with a small figure, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thi made the audience inevitably think: is there any greater pain that she has not experienced?. The first anniversary of her husband's death has just passed, her green head once again weighs down with two white scarves of her father-in-law and eldest daughter...

The lives left behind

Not only Ms. Thi appeared in a precarious situation, at the age of 80, Ms. Dang Thanh Nga also made many people feel uneasy when she slowly groped and climbed the stairs to the 3rd floor of the trial area with her "grandchild using a cane".

Sitting in the dock, the defendants continued to chat without realizing their actions.

Sitting next to the old man in the midday sun, the old man quietly spread his hazy eyes across the yard, waiting for his nephew's figure. He remained silent from morning until after lunch, not even bothering to eat anything. When asked, Mrs. Nga did not want to eat, not only because she was no longer in the mood, but also because she did not have much money to "waste" a lunch outside.

He said that his grandson, Hoang Thanh Tung, was born in 1994 but had been interrupted in his studies for a long time because his family had broken down. The court ordered Tung to live with his father, but he had already started a new family and because of his circumstances of raising four children alone, he had to go far away to work, and the father and son only saw each other a couple of times a year. As for his mother, there was absolutely no trace of her.

Perhaps, now when mentioning his mother, in his mind it is difficult to imagine exactly. He grew up attached to her tea and candy at the hospital gate. Although he knew that the cause could not be blamed on that breakup, he could not deny that it was the seed that made Tung waver in his young days and then mistakenly join in the wrongdoing.

The image of the boy carrying water, holding a thermos, and helping his grandmother become a part of the street corner, gradually appearing, making Mrs. Nga's whispering voice become smaller and then distorted: "Everyone has to praise him for being good and hardworking..."

Wiping away her tears with an old handkerchief, Mrs. Nga took the half-cooled sticky rice package from another defendant's relative. Pausing for a moment, she hesitantly asked the lawyer appointed by the court to defend Tung to help her send the sticky rice package to her nephew, making everyone present at the trial feel sad.

At the same time, Ms. Thi also arrived. Still looking tired and full of thoughts, she avoided all eyes and walked alone. At first glance, she looked familiar, but after thinking carefully, I realized that she was a relative of the victim in the terrible traffic accident that happened at the end of February. She was smaller and thinner than the photos the media had shown.

Wanting to visit a little, she did not bother to answer or accept any sympathy because, just mentioning it made her shoulders hunched up as if trying to stay calm. Suddenly thinking, would there be any more "storms" to challenge her? The first anniversary of her husband's death had just passed, and her young head was once again burdened with the two mourning scarves of her father-in-law and eldest daughter at the same time. The losses kept piling up, not giving her a moment to rest.

One slap — one life?

According to the prosecution file, Nguyen Van Hung (born in 1980) during the time of conflict with his wife had an affair with Ha Thi Ngan (born in 1988). Knowing about this, Bui Thanh Huong (Hung's wife's sister - reporter) tried many times to stop Hung but failed.

At around 8:30 p.m. on August 6, 2014, Hung went to a beer house to attend Trinh Thi Gam's (Ngan's friend) birthday party and met Tran Viet Thang (born in 1982) and his wife Nguyen Thi Thi (Thang's wife) and their friends who were eating and drinking there. Because of their close relationship with Hung's wife, Thang called Hung outside the door of the shop to talk and then suddenly slapped Hung in the face, causing him to panic and run away.

The next afternoon, the aftershocks of the slap made Hung angry and he thought that his wife's sister had asked him to intervene. Hung immediately called and argued with Ms. Huong for about 15 minutes. As soon as the call ended, Hung received a phone call from Mr. Thang, who cursed and threatened to kill him (according to Hung's statement), so the two challenged each other to make an appointment to resolve the conflict.

Then, Hung called Kieu Van Tien (born in 1995) and invited Tran Ngoc Quy (born in 1995), Duong Van Quyet (born in 1996), Hoang Thanh Tung (born in 1994), Ngo Quoc Hai (born in 1966) and Nguyen Hong Quang (born in 1996) to join the "war". With everyone's agreement, they divided the work among themselves to get weapons and go to the meeting place as previously discussed.

When he saw Mr. Thang at the coffee shop on Nguyen Van Cu street, Hung jumped out of the car, pulled out a knife and stabbed Mr. Thang once in the left chest. Hai also quickly picked up a broom handle and hit the victim. The incident happened unexpectedly, his accomplices acted rashly without thinking, Tien, Quang and Quyet, one holding an iron pipe and the other using a weapon with a sharp knife, rushed in to help. Quy and Tung used their hands and feet to "follow suit" and punch and kick the victim.

Being attacked repeatedly, Mr. Thang tried to run away but Quyet hit him in the leg with an iron pipe, causing him to fall to the sidewalk. At the same time, Hung ran over with a wooden stick and his accomplices continued to use weapons to repeatedly beat the victim. Panicked and scared when seeing her husband being beaten, Ms. Thi ran to stop him but was hit in the head with a beer bottle by Tung.

The gang only stopped when they saw many people around the area running out to stop them. Afterwards, Mr. Thang was taken to the 108 Military Hospital for emergency treatment, and died at around 2:00 a.m. on August 8, 2014. Upon learning of the victim's death, Hung and his accomplices surrendered to the police.

The trial was stifling.

The courtroom was packed not only because of the complicated case with many defendants but also because of the community's concern about the case that had caused a stir at one time.

Sitting in the dock were 7 defendants who had an active role in the brawl, still chatting away without realizing the true extent of the consequences of the incident.

In court, Hung insisted that he initially intended to just come and “talk” to Thang and still argued that Thang had fought with him because of Huong’s request, but he could not explain the question of presiding judge Ngo Tu Hoc about “the way he talked while holding a knife and sword?” which made the courtroom feel even more suffocating. The hooliganism of the defendant and the defendants led to the death of Thang, yet after 2 years, the defendant is still hanging around.

As for the other defendants, they made the incident look like hooliganism because of their “dirty” behavior. The remaining 6 defendants in the dock had no conflicts and did not understand what was going on, but they were ready to attack strangers with knives.

“If it was really an appointment to fight, would my husband have taken me along like that?”, Ms. Thi argued loudly: “Don’t say it was just a moment of anger, the dead person is already dead, the defendants should plead guilty and live in peace for the rest of their lives…”.

According to her report, as soon as Hung entered the shop, he assaulted Thang. Even when Thang was in the hospital, Hung called her to ask where her husband was so he could come and “kill him completely”. Choking, panic, helplessness, begging the 7 men to stop beating her in the past were displayed before her eyes, making her unable to stand still…

Again, during the interrogation, it was learned that, in the face of the foolishness and rashness caused by their relatives, the relatives of the defendants all came to visit, but at that time, only the family of defendant Hung raised the issue of supporting 20 million VND.

The remaining families thought that it was a “representative” so from then on they did not come back or ask any more questions, which surprised the chairman: “You think it is a representative? 7 families and they compensated 20 million? Do you think that a human life is compensated with only 3 million?” — his series of questions, both surprised and frustrated, made the audience feel uneasy…

After deliberation, the jury decided to sentence defendant Nguyen Van Hung to life in prison, three defendants Tran Ngoc Quy, Kieu Van Tien, and Ngo Quoc Hai to 20 years in prison, and three defendants Duong Van Quyet, Nguyen Hong Quang, and Hoang Thanh Tung to 14 years in prison each, according to the charges brought against them.

According to Vietnamese Law