The unending pain of 3 families in Nghe An

The pain of a case

More than 7 months have passed since his son died, but Mr. Nguyen Van Quang (born in 1971, residing in Yen Xuan village, Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong district) still cannot get over the pain. Every day, he still quietly lights incense on his son's altar to somehow ease the pain of missing his son whom he loved so much.

Every day, Mr. Quang lights incense on the altar to ease his longing for his son. Photo: PB

“That day, I was at home when some of my neighbors came in to tell me that Linh had an accident. I just thought it was simple, he probably just had a minor collision. But when I got there, I saw him lying on the side of the road, his face covered in blood and he had died,” Mr. Quang began his story with us, sobbing.

Nguyen Van Linh (born in 1998) is the youngest of three children. After 12 years of studying, Linh applied to study at a vocational college for auto repair. When he received the notice, Linh did not go to school but asked his parents to let him go to Da Nang to work as a road worker with the aim of earning money to pay for his future studies. After working for more than three months, Linh asked for a few days off to return to his hometown to celebrate his grandmother's death anniversary and visit his parents. And that was also the last time Mr. Quang and his wife were able to be close to their child.

“That day, my child asked permission to go out to Thanh Thuy commune with his friends because he had to continue working in Da Nang the next day. When he left, he said he would come home to have dinner with his parents, but I didn’t expect him to stay away forever,” said Mr. Quang.

Mr. Quang's family's house has been covered with a tarp all day long since his son died. Photo: PB

According to the case file, at about 12:30 p.m. on November 5, 2018, Nguyen Van Linh, Nguyen Van Truong (born 2005, residing in Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong district) and 3 other people went to the house of Le Thi Quyen Anh (born 2005, residing in Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Chuong district) to play.

An hour later, Nguyen Huu Chien (born in 2002, residing in Thanh Thuy commune, Thanh Chuong district) drove a motorbike carrying Nguyen Van Chien (born in 2003, residing in Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong district, Truong's biological brother) and Dinh Ba Dung (born in 2003, residing in Vo Liet commune, Thanh Chuong district) to Quyen Anh's house to find and take Truong home, because he thought Truong had run away from home.

Here, Dung used his hand to slap Truong twice in the face and Khanh twice in the face - one of the group. Seeing that, Linh said to Dung: "Why did you hit my brother, what did he do to you that you hit him", Dung said: "I'm sorry, I didn't know anything, please sympathize".

At about 5 p.m. the same day, Nguyen Huu Chien and Dung went home. When they reached the Nguoc Ru area in Ngoc Son commune, Thanh Chuong district, Dung discovered Linh driving a motorbike carrying Quyen Anh and Khanh. Dung told Nguyen Huu Chien: "Follow that guy and keep him here for me to plant."

When going to the other side of Cau Ro, seeing Linh driving a motorbike carrying Quyen Anh and Khanh about 5 meters away, Nguyen Huu Chien took his helmet and hit Linh's motorbike "mask", the helmet flew up and hit her face, causing Linh to fall onto the road.

Crime scene where Linh and Quyen Anh died. Photo: NH

As a result, Linh died on the spot. Quyen Anh was taken to Nghe An General Hospital for emergency treatment and died on November 14, 2018. Khanh was injured and Linh's motorbike was damaged.

Nguyen Huu Chien was later prosecuted by the People's Procuracy of Nghe An province for "Murder" and on April 26, was sentenced to 17 years in prison by the People's Court of the province.

The panel of judges determined that at the time of the crime, Nguyen Huu Chien was under 18 years old, had limited legal awareness, and had not yet fully developed his psychology. However, the defendant committed a particularly serious crime with three criteria, so it was necessary to impose a sentence that was commensurate with the deterrence and general prevention.

Lessons from small conflicts...

When recalling this tragic case, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hang (victim Quyen Anh's mother) said that no one wanted to rekindle the pain because not only her family but also Mr. Quang's family and Mr. Nguyen Huu Hao's family (Nguyen Huu Chien's father) were in pain.

“Because of the rashness of youth, two families lost their children forever, and one family had a child in trouble with the law. But in today’s society, there are many petty conflicts between young people. If we don’t take this as a profound lesson, there may be similar cases and families will have to suffer the same pain as ours,” Ms. Hang said sadly.

Mrs. Pham Thi Tuyen watched her son, Nguyen Huu Chien, as he was escorted into a covered vehicle after being sentenced to 17 years in prison. Photo: PB

Since losing her child, Mrs. Hang has cried every night, and the more she thinks about her child, the more she grieves. Even though she tries to find reasons, she cannot explain why her daughter died so unjustly.

“I don’t want Chien to be sentenced to many years in prison, because if so, his future will be very uncertain. But my family also wants a strict sentence, so that the young generation can look at it and learn lessons, so that before doing anything, they should think of others, think of themselves and their parents at home,” Ms. Hang said, crying.

Sharing the same thought, Mr. Nguyen Van Quang said that recalling this incident would not bring his son back to life, but he could not avoid the fact that Linh had passed away unjustly, at a very young age, with a future still ahead of him.

Nguyen Huu Chien, at the time of the murder, was just over 16 years old. Photo: PB

“It would be against our conscience as fathers to say we don’t blame or get angry at Chiến, but we also can’t hold grudges against Chiến’s family. We only blame them for not educating their son properly, allowing him to commit such a crime,” said Mr. Quang, adding that he has no opinion on the court’s decision to sentence Chiến to 17 years in prison, because the court’s decision was in accordance with the law, not because one family was in more pain than another.

At the time of the crime, Nguyen Huu Chien was only 16 years, 9 months, and 5 days old and was in 11th grade. When the jury allowed him to say his final words, Chien turned around, looked at the faces of the families of the two victims, looked at his parents, and cried.

“I apologize to Linh’s family and Quyen Anh’s family. Because of my foolish actions, both families lost their child. No matter what I do, I cannot bring my child back to you. I ask the jury to give me the lightest sentence possible so that I can return to my family soon and make up for the mistakes I have made.”

Defendant Nguyen Huu Chien

When we went to investigate this tragic case, Nguyen Huu Chien’s family had compensated Linh and Quyen Anh’s families with more than 125 million VND. This is a huge amount of money for a farming family, but at this time, they had to “bite the bullet” and borrow money to partly compensate for the losses their children caused to other families.

Because they also understand that money can be made but once lost, people cannot come back.