Family 'reunited' in court

One day in late December 2019, Va Thi T. (born in 1982) took her children to the People's Court of Nghe An province to attend the trial of her husband, defendant Vu Dua Va (born in 1981, residing in Tri Le commune, Que Phong district). In addition to the large luggage containing supplies for her husband, she was also busy taking care of her children. Arriving at the court early, the mother and children waited outside the gate. When they saw the covered truck carrying the prisoner arriving at the court yard, Ms. T. and her children quickly ran after it.

In the courtroom, Vu Dua Va kept looking down at his wife and children. Sometimes, Va's face showed confusion as he watched his children wipe away tears. Regret appeared on the face of the defendant who committed a drug-related crime.

Vu Dua Va is the 11th child in a family of 12 siblings. Because the family is large and poor, Va did not have the opportunity to go to school and did not know a single word. Therefore, at the trial, there had to be an interpreter for the defendant.

Defendant Vu Dua Va kept looking down at his wife and children. Photo: Tran Vu

Due to poverty and lack of education, Va could not overcome the concept of “many children, much wealth” of the people when the couple had 6 children. To provide for the education of their small group of children, the couple had to make many times more effort than other families. Especially the fact that the couple was illiterate and had little knowledge made life even more difficult.

That was also the reason why Vu Dua Va fell into the path of trafficking "white goods". According to the defendant's testimony at the trial, at about 12 noon on October 3, 2019, a Mong man (Laos) came to Vu Dua Va's house and asked if he wanted to buy drugs. The man said he had about 400 pink pills (45.7 grams of Methamphetamine), selling for 3.5 million VND. Vu Dua Va agreed to buy, so he gave the money to the Lao man and received the "goods" in return.

At 4:00 p.m. the same day, two unknown men came to Va's house to buy drugs. At this time, Vu Dua Va offered to sell more than 400 pink pills for 8 million VND. These two people agreed to buy, so Va went into the house to get the drugs to prepare to deliver to the customer when he discovered that the police had entered the house. Seeing the police arrive, at the same time his wife came home from work, Va gave the package of drugs to his wife and told her to "throw it away". Before the wife could throw it away, the Que Phong District Police checked and arrested her along with the evidence. As for the two drug buyers, they took advantage of the moment of carelessness and fled.

At the trial, the defendant stated that due to difficult circumstances, he agreed when the Laotian invited him to buy drugs. Regarding his wife's behavior of throwing away drugs, the defendant insisted that his wife was not involved because she did not know it was drugs. When asked about this detail by the court, the defendant's wife stood up and answered: "That day, I had just come back from picking bamboo shoots when I heard my husband say 'throw away the plastic bag'. Hearing my husband say that, I also grabbed the black bag and threw it away by inertia, not knowing it was drugs."

Then this woman recalled, being arrested with my husband made me panic. At that time, the thing that worried me the most was the children at home. Luckily, I was released after the police determined that I had no connection to the case. Seeing my children again, I cried tears of joy.

Because of the distance, she has not had the opportunity to visit her husband since his arrest. This time, she brought a few things to the court, including an old warm coat, to give to her husband. She also decided to let her children take a day off from school to see their father.

She said that since her husband was arrested, her children, especially the youngest child, who was 4 years old, kept asking for their father. Not wanting them to be sad, she lied and said, “Dad went to work.” But then, she knew she could not lie to her children like that forever, so this time she decided to take the children to court.

The whole family was reunited in court, Vu Dua Va quickly told his wife and children in the Mong language. It was unclear what they were talking about, but everyone was sobbing and crying. For the act of illegal drug trafficking, Vu Dua Va was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Being escorted back to the detention center, the defendant raised his handcuffed hands to greet his wife and children. Ms. T., carrying a bag under her arm, also shed tears as she left her husband. The farewell became even more somber when the children's cries of "Daddy" echoed throughout the large courtroom.

Tran Vu