From the beginning, the father-in-law was emotionally agitated and “led by the nose” to commit a crime that shocked society. Then many people expressed sympathy for this action and even blamed the victim. Legal experts said that, from the perspective of law and media, such thoughts are harmful to society.

To have a view from the legal perspective, and from the social impact of this incident, Infonet reporter had an interview with former judge, lawyer Pham Cong Ut, Pham Nghiem Law Office (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association) about this issue.

Former judge, Lawyer Pham Cong Ut, Pham Nghiem Law Office (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association)

Dear lawyer, these past few days, the community has not yet recovered from the shock of the image of "a father-in-law slashing his son-in-law and then taking his body to the police to confess". From a lawyer's perspective, what should we pay attention to in this story?

The first thing is that everyone needs to have basic legal knowledge, that is, drunk people who commit any illegal acts are not considered by the law as mitigating circumstances as "committing a crime due to drunkenness".

Therefore, if the victim commits wrongful acts such as threatening to kill, disturbing public order, insulting the honor and dignity of others... as in this story, the law will not be sympathetic to the victim's drunken state.

However, the reaction of the "perpetrator" who used a knife to slash another person to death many times to prevent such illegal acts cannot be considered compatible with the victim's criminal behavior, but must be subject to legal punishment for general deterrence and prevention.

There are comments and sentiments that seem to defend the perpetrator. According to the lawyer, what harm does this sentiment do to society and the dignity of the law?

When a serious event occurs, public opinion has the right to express opposing opinions, depending on each person's perception or knowledge of the event's content.

Therefore, I believe that if there are opinions that condemn the father-in-law, there may also be opinions that exonerate the people who participate in commenting and judging before the court pronounces the sentence. After all, those are personal comments but they can also influence the verdict of the Trial Council, especially when those comments appear in the newspapers.

Therefore, some countries in the world have regulations that the Trial Panel is not allowed to read information about the case they are in charge of in newspapers or forums.

Does the lawyer mean: no citizen has the right to take another person's life, and cannot use circumstances to justify criminal actions?

Yes! Human life is an inviolable right, protected by law except in cases where a person is sentenced to death by a legally effective judgment.

Therefore, violence cannot respond to violence to unlawfully take the life of another.

In this story, the father-in-law hacked his son-in-law to death out of anger over his son-in-law's wrongdoing.

But if in the situation of a father seeing his daughter being continuously abused, what should a lawyer do?

This is a social issue, not a legal one. In my opinion, if a father witnesses unhappiness in marriage and family life, he should use his life experience to resolve conflicts between his biological children and his son-in-law or daughter-in-law.

Is this story a wake-up call for government agencies to do better in preventing domestic violence - the root cause of many misfortunes?

This story is shocking but not the first to talk about the consequences of domestic violence leading to tragic endings.

In the past, there have been many cases of violence that were fought back, causing the abuser to die, such as the story of the person being beaten repeatedly. During her husband's drunken state, during a fight, Ms. NTMN could not control herself, took a knife and stabbed her husband, resulting in the husband's death, the wife went to jail, leaving behind 4 young children in Ho Chi Minh City.

Also in the story of domestic violence in Quang Ngai, after a drinking party at home, Mr. TVT (39 years old, police officer in charge of Nam Son village) and his wife had a conflict. During the argument, Mr. T cursed his wife, smashed the phone, and threatened to kill her. Because he was drunk, that night Mr. T took a knife (the kind used to chop bones) and brought it into the living room, placing it next to his bed. Waiting for her husband to fall asleep, the wife turned off the lights, took an iron anvil with a handle, and hit her husband hard on the head. Discovering that her husband had left the knife next to him, the wife took it and slashed her husband two more times, killing him on the spot. After committing the crime, the perpetrator put the weapon back in its original place...

There are also cases of violence leading to murder not only by people who do not understand the law but also by intellectuals who are very knowledgeable about the law.

Therefore, not only the state has the responsibility to propagate and disseminate the law to the people, but each person also needs to respect the law and behave based on the ethical foundation and family education to be able to stop the violence that leads to such tragic deaths.

Thank you lawyer!

According to Infonet