Wife gets 12 years in prison for buying drugs to 'cure' husband's cancer
(Baonghean.vn) - Her husband was addicted to drugs and had terminal cancer. Nguyen Thi Minh bought 20 million worth of drugs to relieve her husband's pain.
On the morning of August 12, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Nguyen Thi Minh (born 1958), residing in Do Luong town, Do Luong district, for the crime of illegal possession of narcotics.
Minh's husband, Vo Van Q., has been addicted to drugs for a long time, so in February 2019, Minh went to buy drugs for her husband to use. When she arrived at National Highway 7 (in Luu Son Commune, Do Luong District), Minh met a masked young man standing on the side of the road and asked: "Do you know anyone selling drugs?". The young man asked: "How much do you want to buy?". Minh replied: "I have 20 million VND here, buy it all."
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| Defendant Nguyen Thi Minh in court. Photo: Tran Vu |
The young man immediately gave Minh a white plastic bag containing 3 plastic packages of drugs. Minh took the drugs and hid them in an iron bowl on a dish rack, hanging in the kitchen area. Every time her husband had a pain attack or was addicted, Minh would take some for him to use.
At around 12:15 p.m. on May 10, 2019, Minh took a package of drugs and planned to divide it into small pieces for her husband to use, but was caught red-handed by the police, who seized 37.945 grams of heroin.
During an emergency search of Nguyen Thi Minh's house, the police discovered and seized two packages of drugs with a total weight of 76.495 grams of heroin in a metal bowl.
In court, Nguyen Thi Minh said she knew that drug possession was illegal. However, her husband was addicted to drugs, had asthma, and was in terminal cancer, so he was often in pain and in poor health. “I loved my husband so much that I bought drugs to relieve his pain,” the defendant said of her reason for committing the crime.
The panel of judges determined that the defendant’s actions were dangerous to society. The defendant had children and a husband who had been in trouble with the law for drugs but did not take that as a lesson. Furthermore, the defendant knew that drug possession was a violation of the law but still disregarded it, showing contempt for the law.
Considering the case as a whole, the People's Court sentenced Nguyen Thi Minh to 12 years in prison for illegal possession of drugs.