The pain of a son when his father lost his way following the 'brown fairy'
(Baonghean.vn) - After seeing their father go to jail twice for drugs, the children tried to advise him but to no avail. Too sad, the children could only throw themselves into work to help their mother make ends meet. Although no longer surprised, when the son heard the court sentence his father to death, he was stunned and speechless.
Xong Va Menh (born in 1977), residing in Na Ngoi commune, Ky Son district (Nghe An)is a long-time drug addict. Because of his addiction, all the money he earned was spent on “brown fairy”. Also because of his dependence on drugs, the man often neglected his farming work. In 2012 and 2016, Xong and Menh were sentenced to 24 months and 42 months respectively for the crime of “Illegal possession of drugs”.
Having been in and out of prison twice and being a drug addict himself, his wife and children could hardly rely on him for anything. They could only encourage each other to work to make ends meet. Every day, his wife, who was one year younger than him, wandered around the fields and raised livestock on a small scale. Thankfully, his four children were all well-behaved and diligent in their work; one went to the city to work for hire, and another went to learn to drive an excavator to find a stable job.
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| Defendant Xong Va Menh was sentenced to death. Photo: Tran Vu |
One day at the end of January 2021, when the whole family went to work, Menh stayed at home. Menh quietly drove his motorbike to the market area of Nam Can commune, Ky Son district to meet Mua Ba Cua (from Nam Can commune, immigrated to Laos since 2005). After talking, Cua proposed to hire Menh to transport 2.2 kg of drugs to sell to a customer and would be paid 15 million VND. Faced with the large sum of money, Menh nodded in agreement.
On January 31, Cua delivered drugs to Menh and told him to take back 250 million VND. Menh received the goods and hid them in the forest, waiting for the order to deliver the drugs. On February 2, following Cua's instructions, Menh contacted the buyer and arranged to make a transaction at the Tuong Duong District Medical Center. At noon that day, while Menh was holding drugs and waiting for customers at the meeting point, the police arrested him and the evidence.
“The day we received the news that my father was arrested, my mother and I were extremely surprised. However, at that time we thought he was only holding a few packets of drugs, and would probably only serve a few years in prison, but we didn’t expect that the amount of drugs he delivered to people would be so large. Since the day my father was arrested, no one in the family has been sad, and my mother has fallen ill. Today, because of the complicated epidemic, I was the only one riding a motorbike with my cousin to go to the court to see my father,” the son shared about his father in sadness.
She added: Dad was addicted to drugs, so his siblings were very sad. They encouraged him to quit many times, but after a while, he relapsed. "Knowing that dad was addicted and suffering financially, his siblings were determined not to touch that substance."
Father and son met in the courtroom, but Menh did not tell his son anything. The son wanted to talk to his father many times, but could not because he did not turn his head. This son showed concern for his father's health, as Menh was thin and weak.
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| The child sat stunned when he heard his father was sentenced to death. Photo: Tran Vu |
In court, defendant Menh admitted to buying and selling drugs for 15 million VND. The defendant said he had only been promised money and had not benefited from the deal. Facing the death penalty, the defendant asked for leniency from the law so he could start a new life and make amends with his wife and children.
However, considering that in this case the amount of drugs the defendant bought and sold was large, and the defendant also had the aggravating circumstance of being a repeat offender, the panel sentenced Xong and Menh to death for the crime of Illegal drug trafficking. As for the man named Mua Ba Cua, because Menh did not know his background or address, the investigation agency had no basis to prosecute him.
Sentenced to death, defendant Menh calmly left the court, leaving his son standing in a daze in the middle of the large courtroom. After a few minutes of sitting silently, the son stood up and ran after his father, but he was too late. The car carrying his father left the court yard, and the son and his cousin drove home on a motorbike. The journey back to the mountainous district of Ky Son today seemed endlessly long for the son, knowing that his life would no longer include his father...