The people bear the brunt of it!

(Baonghean) - "After suffering comes happiness" - when suffering reaches its peak, there will come a time when suffering ends and happiness arrives. This saying seems fitting for Mr. Nguyen Thanh Chan in Bac Giang, who was wrongfully imprisoned for 10 years on the heinous charge of murder.

It's fair to say this is acceptable because on June 5th, the Chief Justice of the Supreme People's Court personally reported to the National Assembly on the compensation for Mr. Chấn's wrongful conviction. Through negotiations, Mr. Chấn agreed to a compensation amount of 7.2 billion VND. Divided equally, this means that for each year he spent in prison, he received 720 million VND. This is a considerable sum compared to the annual income of a farmer. However, it cannot fully compensate for or alleviate the physical and mental losses he and his family suffered during those 10 years of wrongful imprisonment. Because "one day in prison is like a thousand years outside," let alone the 10 years he endured. Outsiders can never truly understand.

Being wrongly imprisoned is certainly unfortunate, but for him, it was still fortunate. Thanks to the perpetrator's surrender, he was exonerated and compensated. We're happy for him, but saddened for others. In recent times, there have been 78 suicides and 6 cases of death due to fights between suspects during detention. And as a female representative expressed in the National Assembly, "Who can guarantee that none of these 76 suicides involved wrongful convictions?" Well, who can be sure? People only take their own lives if something truly terrible happens. Either they can't bear it anymore, or they feel so wronged they don't know who to confide in, so they use death to prove their innocence. But death is the end of the story. Whether they were wronged or not becomes meaningless to them.

And it is from these errors in investigation and trial that a very ironic truth is revealed: whether wrongful convictions are rectified or not, the ultimate victims are still the people. If they are not exonerated and proven innocent, they suffer wrongful imprisonment. Even wrongful executions. And if they are exonerated and receive billions of dong in compensation, like Mr. Chấn, that money comes from the state budget. And the state budget is funded by taxpayers' money. Ultimately, it's the people's money. In the end: the people bear the brunt!

Confidant