Hiring a hitman to intimidate the brother of her "unofficial" husband.

Believing that all the conflicts in her life were caused by her "unofficial" husband's brother, Lan decided to hire a hitman to teach him a lesson.

Over two days (July 24-25), the Bac Giang Court tried Nguyen Thi Lan (born in 1970, residing in Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi) and Vi Thi Hien (born in 1969, from Lang Son province) for the crime of murder.

The initial verdict stated that Lan had a husband but had divorced him. In 2009, Lan moved in with Hoang Van Duc (born in 1965, from Lang Son province) without being legally married. Duc's situation was similar; he had divorced his wife and had two children from his previous marriage.

Lan (seated in the front) and Hien at the first-instance trial.

During their time living together, Lan and Hoang Van Phuc (born in 1962, Duc's older brother) had many conflicts.

According to her testimony, besides being verbally abused by Phuc and incited by her "common-law" husband to beat her, Lan was also not allowed to have her name on the land deed for the land she was living on (the land was registered under the name of Duc's illegitimate child).

Because of these conflicts, Lan planned to teach her husband a lesson. Lan asked Vi Thi Hien, the housekeeper in the family, to find someone to beat up Phuc.

After being introduced by a relative, on January 25, 2015, Hien called Duong Van Tiep (born in 1991, from Lang Son province) to hire him to beat up Phuc as a warning. Tiep agreed and quoted a price of 10 million VND.

At around 5 PM that same day, Hien arrived in Met town (Huu Lung district, Lang Son province) and gave Tiep 5 million VND in advance, along with a photo of Phuc for identification.

According to the plan, on the morning of January 26, 2015, Tiep and Trieu Van Quan (born in 1990, from Lang Son province) hired Mr. Phuc's car to take them to Lang Giang district, Bac Giang province for 500,000 VND.

Phuc was driving a Suzuki car carrying two suspects to an area in Tan Thinh commune, Lang Giang district, when Tiep and Quan stabbed him multiple times with a sharp object, resulting in his death.

At 12 PM that same day, Tiep called Hien to inform her that he had beaten Phuc, but perhaps a little too hard. He demanded that, in addition to the remaining 5 million VND, Hien pay another 3 million VND to cover her escape expenses.

Later that same day, residents discovered Phuc's body and notified the authorities. On January 31, 2015, Lan and Hien surrendered to the police. As for Tiep and Quan, the investigating agency issued arrest warrants for them.

The court ruled that Lan and Hien's actions caused Phuc's death, and therefore they must be held responsible for the crime of murder with the aggravating circumstance of "hiring someone to kill."

Therefore, the panel of judges decided to sentence Lan to 15 years in prison and Hien to 12 years in prison. This is the sixth time the Bac Giang Court has held a trial for this case.

According to VOV