9 people on trial in the murder case of a chicken delivery girl
This morning, the trial will open at Dien Bien city stadium, 6 out of 9 people are prosecuted with a penalty of up to the death penalty.
The trial is expected to last three days, with Judge Pham Van Nam (Chief Justice of Dien Bien Provincial People's Court) presiding. The stadium has about 10,000 seats, so there is no restriction on people entering to watch the trial.
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The mobile trial area is arranged like a normal courtroom. Photo:Pham Du. |
The eight defendants, Vi Van Toan (38 years old, mastermind), Bui Van Cong (44 years old), Vuong Van Hung (35 years old), Pham Van Nhiem (47 years old), Luong Van La (26 years old), Luong Van Hung (39 years old), Pham Van Dung (47 years old), and Cam Van Chuong (45 years old, all residing in Dien Bien district) were tried for the crimes of:Murder, Robbery, Rape, Illegal possession of drugsandKidnapping for the purpose of appropriating propertyOf these, six people were prosecuted with penalties up to the death penalty.
Bui Thi Kim Thu (44 years old, Cong's wife) was tried for the crime.Failure to report crime.
The indictment of the People's Procuracy of Dien Bien province determined that in 2009, Toan sold two heroin cakes to Ms. Tran Thi Hien for 300 million VND, but before he could collect the money, he was arrested in another drug case. After nearly 10 years of serving his prison sentence, Toan met Ms. Hien to collect the debt but was unsuccessful, so he asked Vuong Van Hung (who was also imprisoned at Yen Ha prison) and Bui Van Cong to collect the debt for him for 50 million VND. When the group discussed the plan to arrest Ms. Hien to collect the debt, Cong "suggested" changing the target to Ms. Hien's daughter.
On the morning of February 4 (Lunar New Year's Eve 2019), Cong and Vuong Van Hung went to Muong Thanh market to wait for an opportunity. At around 6:40 p.m. the same day, Vuong Van Hung called Ms. Hien's daughter, a 22-year-old female student, to order 10 chickens and ask them to deliver them to area C13 (Thanh Hung commune). At this time, Toan secretly followed his accomplices on a motorbike.
At the meeting point, the girl was catching chickens from the cage to give to Hung when Cong grabbed her from behind. The group carried the victim onto Cong's truck and took her to his house in Team 11, Thanh Nua Commune, Dien Bien District.
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The mastermind Vi Van Toan. Photo:Pham Du. |
According to the indictment, Toan confessed that on the same evening, he used the female student’s phone to talk to Ms. Hien, informing her that he was kidnapping her child and asking her to quickly pay the money. However, Ms. Hien refused to pay and threatened to call the police.
Thu witnessed the entire crime committed by her husband and his accomplices at her house, but only grumbled and did not intervene. After the victim was murdered and her body was dumped, on the morning of the third day of Tet, Thu pretended to be the first person to discover it and shouted.
The indictment stated that Ms. Hien affirmed that she did not know the defendants in the case and did not owe Toan or Cong money. When her daughter was kidnapped, she did not receive a call from Toan demanding payment. From this, the authorities determined that there was not enough evidence to conclude that Ms. Hien knew about Toan's group kidnapping her daughter, so they did not prosecute her for failing to report the crime.
At the end of November, in the drug trafficking case with Cong, Hung, and Toan, Ms. Hien was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the Dien Bien Provincial People's Court.