People often say that extramarital affairs are like poisonous smoke. According to the people involved in the two stories below, their actions were “fire near straw”, immature, and foolish…

Misplaced love

The woman's name is Nguyen Thi Chien - 52 years old, living in Ung Hoa district, Hanoi, has a husband and two children.

When her husband and children went to Ho Chi Minh City to work, the defendant had an affair with Mr. D.HT - 63 years old, from the same commune. Later, the two had a conflict because Chien suspected Mr. T. of being unfaithful.

On the morning of July 24, 2015, Chien called Mr. T. to invite him to go out, but he refused. Chien continued to call many times, but Mr. T. did not answer. Chien thought that because Mr. T. went out with someone else, he had abandoned her, and from then on, he intended to harm Mr. T.

Chien took two packets of rat poison and one packet of snail poison that were available in the house, put them in his pocket, and cycled to Mr. T's house. Knowing that he was away, Chien poured the rat poison into the chicken feed bin, and the other packet into the water tank.

As a result, all 16 chickens in Mr. T's house died. Mr. T's son drank water from the tank to make tea and was poisoned and had to go to the emergency room.

After the incident, Chien asked his friend to call Mr. T. to meet him, confess his actions and ask for his forgiveness. In response, Mr. T. secretly recorded the conversation and reported it to the authorities.

Illustration: Nguyen Ngoc Thuan.

Throughout the trial, the defendant cried continuously, causing his testimony to be interrupted: "The defendant has a husband but still has feelings for Mr. T., the defendant is wrong, the defendant only intended to scare each other...".

Mr. T. refuted the defendant's statement: "She said she had a relationship with me since 2006, which is not true. I only met her in 2009. In 2012, we intended to end it because my wife and children found out and tried to stop us, but she did not agree. She also said that if I ended the relationship, she would tell my family..."

Mr. T. demanded full compensation for the dead chickens and the medical expenses for his son's hospitalization. After finishing his presentation, Mr. T. suddenly asked the defendant to compensate for the water tank as well.

The prosecutor asked: “Look at the defendant’s current situation and think carefully about whether or not to request compensation for the water tank. The defendant is in prison, and her husband and children are working far away...”. After thinking for a while, Mr. T. said, “It’s up to the court to decide.”

At the investigation agency, defendant Chien stated that when he put snail poison into the water tank, he thought that if Mr. T. died, he would die too. His love for a man who did not belong to him made him blind and forget all reason.

Perhaps it was not until he went to court and heard his lover's cold testimony that the defendant understood how his love was reciprocated.

The forensic conclusion showed that there was no document confirming that the snail poison caused the death. That detail was presented by the lawyer to exonerate the defendant but was not accepted by the court. 12 years in prison was the sentence that the defendant Chien received for two crimes of murder and destruction of property.

When being led past Mr. T. and his wife, the defendant clasped his hands, bowed his head and said: "I beg you to forgive me". Mr. T.'s wife said nothing, and Mr. T. coldly turned his face away...

"Moments of madness"

Also an extramarital relationship, the woman in the story below was not as lucky to live as Ms. Chien and Mr. T. and had to pay with her own life.

Ms. Pham Thi Hai - 36 years old, has a husband and two children. Since 2013, an illicit relationship has developed between her and Doan Quoc Hoang - 51 years old, although the two are sisters-in-law (Ms. Hai's husband is Hoang's wife's younger brother).

They lived next to each other in a building on Tran Quy Kien Street, Dich Vong Ward, Cau Giay District. Their relationship was discovered and opposed by Ms. Hai's husband. The two families invited Hoang and Ms. Hai to talk, but neither admitted to having an affair.

Meanwhile, Hoang still regularly contacted and met Ms. Hai by phone. In mid-2015, because she wanted to cut off her relationship with Hoang, Ms. Hai proactively changed her phone number and moved with her family to a house in Ba Dinh district.

One time Hoang met Hai and asked her why she was avoiding him. Then Hoang invited her to go to a motel but she refused.

On the afternoon of August 29, 2015, Hoang went to look for Hai many times but could not find her. That same evening, when Hai returned home in Cau Giay district, Hai followed her into the house, locked the door, and stabbed her 14 times with two knives, causing her to die on the spot.

The defendant calmly and clearly stated the illicit relationship and the crime in front of the court. The defendant said his wife had been suffering from physical weakness for more than 10 years.

“If Ms. Hai refused, why did you still come looking for her? Was it to invite her to have sex?” The defendant replied: “At our age, that is no longer important.”

Then the defendant explained further: “Love is not love, she and I are just like fire near straw. She still responds to my feelings normally, but there was a time when I texted her and her husband found out, so her husband got jealous, she denied it and showed it by cursing me in front of her husband, making me even more upset.”

For the above actions, the defendant was sentenced to death. A relationship that was not love, not physical, but just “fire near straw” as the defendant explained in his final words had to be exchanged for the lives of two people.

According to TTO