Robber of 200,000 VND phone sentenced to 87 months in prison

On October 23, the Hanoi People's Court opened an appeal hearing to consider the appeal of Le Tuan Anh (45 years old) who was convicted of robbery by the Tay Ho District People's Court and sentenced to 8 years in prison.

After more than an hour of trial, the Hanoi People's Court determined that the conviction was correct, but the sentence for Tuan Anh was still severe. The appeal court therefore reduced the nine-month prison sentence to seven years and three months.

The verdict determined that on the morning of November 7, 2016, after drinking alcohol, Tuan Anh walked from his house on Thuy Khue Street to Hang Giay Street to buy fishing hooks. Passing the flower garden on Thuy Khue Street, he saw Nguyen Van Dong and his friend sitting and talking on a stone bench, so he approached them but was rejected.

Authorities allege that Tuan Anh picked up Dong’s phone on a bench and tried to take it away. When Dong begged for it back, explaining that it was a means of communication with his family, Tuan Anh ignored him and even strangled and threatened him with a knife.

Dong and his friend did not dare to react, they waited until Tuan Anh left before reporting to the police. The phone was valued at 200,000 VND but has not been recovered to this day.

At the investigation agency as well as at the first and second instance trials, Tuan Anh did not admit to robbing the phone or threatening with a knife, only stating that he had strangled Mr. Dong. The defendant did not know where the knife came from. The defendant wanted to confront Mr. Dong, but the victim refused for fear of retaliation.

Both verdicts determined that Tuan Anh’s criminal behavior was dangerous to society. The defendant has three previous convictions, including one for property destruction that has not yet been cleared, so he needs to be isolated from society for a period of time to have sufficient deterrence.

According to VNE